Weekender Alicante South Issue 108

Facebook: @TheWeekenderSpain
FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2019 3
New ambassador
goes to court
Finance Feature
provided by...
Are you Brexit prepared?
by Simon Russell
KING Felipe last week officially received
Britain’s new ambassador
in the royal courts, a ceremony
deep in tradition including the ambassadors
traditional 19th century
state uniform that only a handful of
dignitaries are permitted to wear.
The new man in the job, Hugh Elliot,
is very familiar with Spain and
its culture, and has a Spanish wife
who he met while he was teaching
in Salamanca University back in the
1990s.
Both the King and Mr Elliot are
well aware of the looming Brexit and
the fact that the UK is the biggest
single investor in Spain, not to mention
the 300,000 Britons living here
and the 200,000 Spaniards in the UK.
Funerals are no laughing matter, says bishop
JULIAN Ruiz Martorell, the
bishop of Huesca, has written
a decree about the celebrations
at funerals in his
diocese.
This includes limiting music
played to that within the
Christian canon - so no My
Way or Always look on the
Bright Side of Life then (the
UK’s favourite, apparently).
by Simon Russell
The bishop also wants to
stop the practice of reading out
farewell letters or thank you
letters, biographical speeches
and various other modern day
practices.
He said “Christian funerals
should clearly reflect the Easter
meaning of the Christian’s
death (where eternal life follows)”
and should not be seen
as a final goodbye or heartbreaking
experience.
However the practice is not
as widespread as in the UK,
where the most common sendoff
songs played also include
“Angels” by Robbie Williams
and, bizarrely, the Match of
the Day theme tune.
It has certainly been the most talked
about subject in years, and as expats
we have lived through some worrying
times. The lack of clear guidance and
information has been a huge frustration,
but Chorus have ensured we’ve been
on the front line. Every month for the
last 2 years, Chorus have been on the
Brexpats in Spain advisory panel at the
British Consulate Brexit meetings, so
have had first-hand information from
the British Consulate and Ambassador
on how best to prepare.
Both the British and Spanish
governments have given clear advice
on the best way to ensure a smooth
transition for British expats in Spain,
and I wanted to use this article to pass
on as much of that information as
possible.
1. GET LEGAL
Make sure that if your intention is to
live in Spain more than 183 days, you
are resident (you might know this as the
green card or green paper, depending
upon when you took it out). This is the
No.1 piece of advice given by both the
UK and Spanish governments.
2. PAY YOUR TAXES
CORRECTLY
The rules on this are pretty simple, if
you live here, and are resident here
then you should pay your taxes on your
worldwide income in Spain. Many
people put this off simply because they
are not aware of the implications and
may believe they’ll be worse off. If you
have any doubts, get expert advice.
3. STAY CORRECTLY INFORMED
Don’t rely on information from friends
or neighbours. Go straight to the source
of information, my advice would be
to follow the governments website –
www.gov.uk/livinginspain here you
will find up to date information, and
also have the chance to register for
email alerts should anything change.
4. GET A SPANISH DRIVING
LICENCE
If you are a Spanish resident, then you
should have a Spanish driving licence.
Failure to do so could result in fines,
and in the result of a no deal Brexit
could even mean that your UK licence
would be invalid in Spain.
5. ENSURE THAT YOUR
FINANCES ARE IN ORDER
Pensions – most importantly, don’t
fall for scare-mongering! Sadly, many
firms in my industry are using Brexit
as a ruse to convince people to make
inappropriate pension transfers, often
to overseas jurisdictions. It’s incredibly
unlikely, under any scenario, that Brits
will lose access to their pensions. What
is a concern is that if you are living
in Spain, you should always have a
locally regulated adviser and hold
an appropriate pension product. We
also don’t know if pension freedoms,
which were introduced following EU
legislation, may exist in their same
form after Brexit. Now may be the time
to see what potential benefits could
be available from your existing UK
pensions.
Investments - If you are becoming a
legal resident in Spain, you should
also be aware that it is unlikely that
your UK financial adviser will have
the appropriate license to give ongoing
advice to you as a Spanish resident.
Equally as important, they may not
have the appropriate knowledge of
Spanish tax law, and Spanish compliant
products, to be able optimise your
finances and taxation moving forward.
It is so important to ensure you are
holding investment products designed
for Spanish resident, rather than those,
like ISAs, UK platforms etc, that are
designed for UK tax payers. Getting
this wrong can result in you overpaying
By Tracy Storer
Senior Partner
Chorus Financial
taxes and potentially breaking tax law
in Spain.
At Chorus we help clients every day to
prepare their finances for life in Spain.
If you wish to discuss anything in this
article, please contact me today for a
free, no obligation consultation. You can
email me t.storer@chorusfinancial.es or
call me on 693 107 044.
Chorus Financial are a trading style of Tourbillon Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services
Commission (Gibraltar), licence Number FSC1118B & registered with the UK FCA, ref. 539348.