Expats moving to Spain for work and retirement have been traumatized after Run-Ins with the tax authorities of the money, has claimed a legal expert in a grim warning of British in the hope of settling abroad.
Dozens of foreigners have emerged to share how they doubled their tax burden almost at night after auditors who worked on a commission base started 'ruthless' to investigate their accounts.
In stories that were heard by MailOnline, residents said they were threatened with criminal prosecution, even after prove their status, so that huge sums handed money into what a lawyer of a lawyer said that amounts 'clear extortion'.
At least one victim was 'admitted to the hospital by the stress' after her tax burden was increased from 24 percent to 45 percent after more than a year 'relentless pressure' and threats to be brought to court.
Robert Amsterdam, a British lawyer for helping expats aimed at audits, says that the stories are part of a broader pattern of 'corrupt' tax receivers who go behind foreign residents about lower tax rates by disrupting them to pay more.
File photo. Foreign expats have changed their tax exemptions after years in Spain
Those affected by the audits all have a common disputed suitability for a tax exemption based on an initiative known as Beckham's law.
Coincidental with the transfer from David Beckham to Real Madrid in 2003, the 2004 law would enable expats to benefit from a significant reduction in income tax.
The British lawyer of the British lawyer Robert Amsterdam, of Amsterdam & Partners LLP
Progressive tax rates in Spain go up to 45 percent. But those who are eligible for the scheme can only pay 24 percent on their income in Spanish, up to € 600,000.
But Mr. Amsterdam warns that Spain has steadily 'reduced' his tax benefits to foreigners.
He told MailOnline that many notice that they 'withdrawn their status without explanation', suddenly fighting with huge amounts that were owed in desks.
Residents such as Anna, not her real name, were initially approved for the scheme and received the official documentation before they suddenly withdrew their suitability.
The Spanish tax authorities 'Got a pinch of the money' and 'opened an audit at the last possible moment', Mr. Amsterdam told MailOnline.
The authorities touch Anna with requirements for documents and information 'for which they did not have any rights'.
Anna had her documents in order and was able to give what they asked, he said.
But then The company was told that she worked was a sham.
It is a 'trusted line of their playlist', Mr Amsterdam claimed. “It wasn't. She demonstrated that '.
Anna was then told that she never qualified under the law of Beckham, despite the certificate she had received.
At night, her tax burden on the income of Spanish earned income rose from 24 percent to 45 percent.
When she panicked, she was threatened with criminal proceedings and offered a deal that she accepted.
Amsterdam ruled that the tactic was 'clear extortion'.
Anna was eventually admitted to the hospital 'by the stress' of dealing with the authorities.
It was “done work with regard to the Spanish tax authorities,” Mr Amsterdam assessed.
The introduction of 'Beckham's Law' 2004 coincided with David Beckham's transfer from 2003 to Real Madrid. It is designed to attract top talent to the country with considerable tax exemptions
The core of the issue, he warns, is the perverse incentive system for tax recipients.
“There is a mix of things,” he said. 'First, there is a ruthless level of corruption … The tax inspectors work on a bonus system that is linked to their assessment, so they are in this to win.
“Their personal financial benefit is on your misery.”
Those who call their bluff and go to court, or try to appeal against a decision against them, can then be stuck in a long -term and expensive process, in some cases who last more than eight years to resolve.
“Actually coming to court to justify your rights can take eight to ten years, so most people admit to what is effective extortion because they know that it will be a damn decade before they get their righteousness,” he said.
Mike, not his real name either, moved to Spain for work in 2018.
His employer moved him to find out more about the Spanish market for their financial services offer. He already spoke some Spanish and was enthusiastic about the challenge.
The Global Outlook changed and Mike's company left its focus. He was recalled full -time to London and uprooted.
A year later, even though he no longer lived in Spain, he was contacted by the Spanish tax authorities and told him he would be investigated.
Mike was already aware of horror stories around Beckham's law, but could never have imagined what followed, MailOnline heard.
He was called for 'endless' meetings and was insisted on information. When his data did not offer anything unusual, they broadened the scope to an international probe, by weighing accounts in every country where he had a bank account, Mr Amsterdam shared.
The research is still going on a year later.
'The Spanish tax authorities still refuse to say what their inspectors are looking for. They refuse to give more than the boring answers to his questions.
'They refuse to say whether they suggest that he was not eligible for the impatrical regime. They have had eight years to decide. '
Still, “there is still a long way to go.”
A Spanish villa on Ocean between Maro and Nerja, Andalucia
Lars, not his real name, also arrived in Spain with the expectation to grow a company and to invest in the local economy.
He had already built up a successful company in Germany and saw the chance for his skills on the Spanish market.
A good friend offered Lars a directing role at his company in Spain and, when he saw the potential for movement, saw the jump.
It was the lawyer of the company that first told Lars about Beckham's law and perhaps suggested that was eligible.
Lars applied and received the certificate that confirms its status. He was now taking advantage of a favorable tax regime when the company tried to grow against the current of the pandemic.
Two years later he received an offer for his company in Germany. Dedicated to Spain, he sold the company in July 2020.
Lars stated all his income, submitted his declarations and paid the tax he was apparently because of paying in Spain.
But the authorities 'saw an opportunity' in the sale of his Germany company, Mr Amsterdam said.
“They raised his life, tore his personal things open with a flood of questions.
“He gave them everything they asked for. He had nothing to hide. They said his company was a sham. It wasn't. But it didn't seem to matter. '
Lars was threatened with prosecution and was told to pay extra taxes, as well as fines and interest.
“There is no end in sight,” Mr Amsterdam admitted. “The nightmare continues.”
'Traumatized', Lars Spain has now left with his family to build a new company elsewhere.
But he remains under pressure by tax auditors in Spain to pay or to make a criminal trial for a crime unclear.
File photo. People who move to Spain to work or retire are touched with shock changes in their tax burden after being aggressively examined by the authorities
What was originally intended as a means to shiver talent from abroad now has the opposite effect, warn lawyers.
Tax rounds and back -pedaling on agreed regimes have promoted a sense of uncertainty, so that entrepreneurs and rich pensioners are deterred by setting up and investing in Spain.
Although measures have been taken to clarify who and does not qualify for the scheme, foreign residents who have used the scheme that is now increasingly persecuted by the authorities feel.
Bureaucratic tangles can pose a threat to Spain's ability to maintain the skilled and rich and rich in the long term. But more immediately the system threatens to leave the residents in financial downfall and to make it desperate today.
