# UK Pensioners paying tax in Spain



## Wibs (Apr 1, 2015)

Hi guys, after my residence status is finally confirmed I guess I should then set about getting my tax affairs in order.

I am retired and have three sources of income:

a) UK State Pension

b) EU Civil Service Pension

c) a small company pension

All together, comes to £32K

Right now I pay my tax in the UK via self-assessment.

What can I look forward to once I am officially resident in Spain?

Any tips, or pitfalls I should be aware of?

Wibs


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Your UK state pension and company pension will be taxable in Spain, whilst your Civil Service Pension must be taxed in the UK (although it must also be declared on your Spanish Declaración de la Renta as exempt income - in the box for renta exenta - and will affect your marginal rate of Spanish tax).

The way I did it was to wait until I had submitted my first Spanish income tax return and then download the Spain (Individual) Double Taxation form from the HMRC website.


https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ain-si-1976-number-1919-form-spain-individual

It comes in two versions, one English and one Spanish. You need to complete them both and submit the Spanish version to the Agencia Tributaria. They would not accept mine at my local Hacienda office in my home town but said it had to be dealt with at the Provincial office in Málaga, so whilst on a shopping trip I called in with it and handed it at the Registro General desk where they issued me with a printed receipt for it. I suppose I could have posted it but that felt safer to me. A couple of weeks later I received my Certificado de Residencia Fiscal (Convenio) and that has to be sent back to HMRC together with the English version of the Spain (Individual) Double Taxation Form. You could get a gestor to deal with it for you, but I was quoted €250 and it was a very easy process to do myself.

Several weeks later HMRC issued me with a zero tax coding to be set against my company pension (I don't receive my UK state pension yet) and a revised notice of coding to be set against my Civil Service pension, and refunded the tax I had previously paid in the UK since moving to Spain.

Spanish income tax (unless you're working and having tax withheld from your salary) as you probably know is paid a year in arrears, ie for the current 1 January-31 December 2020 tax year you don't submit your tax return until May/June 2021. If you don't want to pay a gestor or accountant to complete it for you you don't have to, it can be done either online via the Agencia Tributaria website or you can make an appointment (also online, or by telephone) at your nearest Hacienda office. They complete the return for you and if you are a couple show you whether it would be a better option for you to submit individual returns or a joint one, and ask if you want to pay in two instalments or all at once. The payment is taken out of your bank account as you need to provide details of the account. You don't need to provide any supporting documentation to prove your income, just write down the amount of each pension you received, clearly identifying your Civil Service pension as renta exenta, and convert it to euros using the Bank of Spain official rate which is published every year, or if your pensions are paid directly into your Spanish account, just add up all the payments you actually received during the year in euros. If you have other types of income such as rental income from the UK, it would be better to get a gestor or accountant to do it.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

And don't think that you can get away with not telling Hacienda. HMRC and Hacienda talk to each other these days but not quite in the same language especially as the UK tax year is April to April and the Spanish one is like most countries Jan- Dec and Hacienda still isn't sure how to deal with that.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I just list all our pensions etc in one spreadsheet, with OH's teacher's pension marked as "exenta" (exempt because it's hypothetically taxed in the UK, although it is below the threshold). I total up the rest and convert sterling to euros at the exchange rate on 31 December. Then I give it to the gestor and he does everything that needs doing, including arranging for any tax due to be deducted from our bank account, for the princely sum of €20.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

Wibs said:


> What can I look forward to once I am officially resident in Spain?


Paying more tax!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

MataMata said:


> Paying more tax!


Higher income tax posslbly, but council tax and other local charges are much lower, as is duty on alcohol. Swings and roundabouts really, unless you're a teetotal non-property owner!


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## Juan C (Sep 4, 2017)

Prior to my Crown Pension being euphemistically `taken into consideration´ my tax in Spain was around 1,100 € p.a. Since the Crown pension has had to declared I now get a tax bill of around 3,000€ p.a. on around the same income as before.


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## MataMata (Nov 30, 2008)

2000€ is an awful lot to claw back just from local taxes and cheap booze!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

MataMata said:


> 2000€ is an awful lot to claw back just from local taxes and cheap booze!


Not really. My council tax is €500 a year here, compared with about £1500 in the UK (and that was 12 years ago). Four bottles of wine a week @ €3 = €624 p.a. compared to goodness knows how much in the UK now. €2 for a cerveza grande in a bar ... you can do the maths!


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## Juan C (Sep 4, 2017)

I should like to make it clear that I was not complaining about paying more tax since Crown Pension income has been taken into consideration.

Prior to that crown pensioners enjoyed a privileged position in that they (we) had full tax relief allowance in U.K. and ALSO in Spain. 

That was unfair to non crown pensioners who of course have always had only one tax free allowance. 

I did not want to pay more tax but I am grateful for the 25 or so years I benefited


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

Juan C said:


> I should like to make it clear that I was not complaining about paying more tax since Crown Pension income has been taken into consideration.
> 
> Prior to that crown pensioners enjoyed a privileged position in that they (we) had full tax relief allowance in U.K. and ALSO in Spain.
> 
> ...


But the situation remains the same in some countries, eg. France (or at least the portion of the pension that relates to working in the public sector - in some cases that is not the whole of the pension).

Edit: This can depend on double taxation agreements, which are not particularly easy to change.


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