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Am I an illegal autonomo? HELP

Geplaatst in Spanje forum

Hi all, this is an incredibly silly situation I am in and unfortunately I know I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I am legal in Spain *as far as I have a NIE *which did expire 2 years ago, and a Spanish passport. HOWEVER, I started as autonomo in March 2011. Now it is nearly March 2012, and I think I have not paid my "taxes" or done the incorrect invoicing.

The whole process seemed complicated. I don't speak Spanish well, and I wasn't sure how to file taxes etc.

I went to whatever office it is to declare myself as an autonomo (got the modelo 36), but I didn't follow the correct steps. I was supposed to go to some sort of tax office afterwards but never did that. For the last year I have been invoicing my companies, and declaring a 7 % deduction off of each invoice, but handing nothing into the government.

The whole process seemed complicated. I don't speak Spanish well, and I wasn't sure how to file taxes etc.

I work for a total of 3 companies, earning about 2700 euros per month (provided it isn't a month with too many holidays). I want to do this properly.

I want to go to the autonomo office and just make up an excuse like "I stepped out of the country for the last 11 months and didn't know anything about Baja y alta of an autonomo. Now I want to work and go to the proper office to do my paperwork each month." I'm afraid they will tell me "you owe X amount of money per month for not going on baja for the months you were away."

I'm really screwed right now, but I need to get this in order. Any advice???

Ga naar Mary Madrid English's profiel

  • Brian McLean

    geplaatst door  in Spanje forum 

    Mary,

    You really do seem to have got yourself into a muddle. Images of sluggish creeks and no paddles spring to mind.

    I would thoroughly second the advice given to speak to a professional, though make sue you get one who can be "creative" about finding solutions. Anybody with the "Rules and Regulations" in their hand can do the easy stuff.

    You should be invoicing as follows:

    Your services........................... 100'00
    15% Retention on 100'00...... 15'00
    85'00
    18% VAT on 100'00 18'00
    Total Invoice........................... 103'00

    The 15% retention has to be paid to the local tax office by your employers/persons whom you invoice and will be discounted when making your yearly tax return. Any "gestor" worth his salt will make sure you get a substantial part of this back. You have to pay the 18% on your quarterly VAT Return. This is, of course, less the VAT you have paid for services and materials used in the line of work.

    I have a couple of doubts:
    NIE? This is a document identifying a foreign national resident in Spain.
    Spanish Passport? Which would obviate the need for the NIE and you would need to obtain a DNI, which
    is, basically, the same as the NIE, but identifies one as a Spanish citizen.

    I would just like to make a couple of personal points and comments that should be taken as no more than that, personal experience. To date, there is very little practical co-ordination between the Tax Authorities and the Social Security. It's all being tightened up, but one can still slip through the net. I feel sure that a "creative gestor" will be able to find a relatively painless way out of your difficulties. the "I've-been-out-of-the-country-and-forgot-to sign-off" defense might hunt, professional advice needed.

    Your not really earning enough to attract any unwanted attention from Hacienda, so you'll almost certainly be flying under the radar, so to speak. These may even be low enough to just get a "gestor" to sign you off as if you were still out of the country and for you to sign back on with a clean slate.

    Cheers,
    Brian

  • Oren Goldschmidt

    geplaatst door  in Spanje forum 

    The process is as follow, first you need to go to the tax office (Agencia tributaria) fill in the modelo 36, which includes the date that you fix to start your activity. Right after you need to go to the social security office, and again fill in another form and decided how much do you want to pay. The minimum amount is something like €250/month and it counts since the day you wrote on your modelo 36.

    If you haven't done this then you will probably have to pay the social security for all the months that you have been invoicing.

    The 7% that you have been deducing from your invoice is just part of the 20% income tax that you pay as an autónomo. That 20% is calculated on the yearly profit (income-expenses) which is why is always important to ask an invoice every time you pay something that can be considered as work expenses. (gas, office material, uniform, up to 600 euros from your flat rent, telephone bill, etc)

    I guess you are also charging VAT on your invoice, every quarter you need to declare VAT, if you pay more VAT than the one you charge then you get money back but if you charge more VAT than the one you pay then that difference is automatically deducted from your bank account.

    My suggestion Mary, find an English speaking "gestor" before going to any government office. As Elena said, a gestor will charge something around €40 per month to do your quarterly VAT declaration, yearly income declaration and to give you advice on what to do to pay less tax.

  • Elena T.

    geplaatst door  in Spanje forum 

    I indeed suggest you to immediately hire an specialist to help you put all your docs in order and show you about how to do things properly from now on. You will not be able to argue in front of the Tax Department that you do not speak Spanish neither were not aware of the law. For 40€ per month you can hire an accounting company to do everything in terms of invoices, 036, taxes, etc for you. I can recommend you one if you want, but your current situation is highly irregular and you should work on solve it asap.

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