Apr
23

Spanish Tax Facts

Taxation in Spain occurs at a national level and at a regional (‘Autonomous Community’) or municipal level. The Spanish taxation system was subject to a significant review in 2007 that resulted in the introduction of a new Personal Income Tax Act. The tax regime in Spain is controlled by the Ministry of the Treasury.

Tax Year 1st January to 31st December.
Assessment Basis
Spanish residents are taxed on their worldwide income (earned and unearned), capital gains from all sources and on their worldwide assets. Spain operates a self-assessment regime.

For personal income tax purposes, married couples may choose to file tax returns jointly or separately.
Income Tax Spanish residents are subject to Spanish Personal Income Tax (‘IRPF’). Individuals and couples benefit from personal allowances which reduce their liability to tax and which increase in line with the number of dependent children.

A new structure has been created for the taxation of income, which now falls into two categories: the general base and the savings base of income.

The general base includes salary and other benefits from employment, income from economic activities, and property rental income (either actual or deemed). Such income is reduced by applicable deductions and allowances. It is subject to a progressive scale which is applied to successive portions of taxable income with rates ranging from 24% to 43%*. In the autumn of 2011 a new tax bracket was introduced for higher income earners as an austerity measure, with income over €175,000 now subject to a 45% rate.



The savings base is subject to a 19% tax rate on savings income up to €6000 and to 21% on the excess and includes interest, dividends, and capital gains/losses paid to residents in Spain, together with life and disability insurance proceeds paid to Spanish residents by a Spanish entity (or an EU insurer operating on a Freedom of Services passport into Spain) where any investment element is limited to Spanish tax compliant funds.

*Some Autonomous Communities have considered increasing the local personal income tax rates to help combat the economic crisis in Spain. The following maximum rates for personal income tax have been agreed for the 2011 tax year e.g. Andalucia: 48%; Asturias: 48.5%; Cataluna: 49%.


Taxation of Investment Income

Any investment income received will form part of the taxpayer’s income tax calculation and any withholding tax deducted will be held as a credit against the final calculation of income tax due. Spanish insurers and EU insurers with a Spanish branch or operating on a Freedom of Services passport in Spain are required to withhold 19% tax on gains on payments from tax compliant insurance policies held by Spanish residents. Foreign insurance policies will be subject to income tax, and can offset losses, on an annual basis.

Generally an annual exemption limited to €1,500 is granted to resident individuals in respect of all dividends.

Premium Taxes

Life insurance in Spain is exempt from premium taxes.

Tax on Property Rental Income

Property income (provided it is not used for economic activity) is taxed as general base income. The amounts received are the gross income and may be reduced by deducting all expenses necessary to service and repair the property. These can include interest on loans used to acquire the property, depreciation expenses of up to 3% of the purchase price or its cadastral value, excluding the value of the land. There are further reductions that can be made where the property is destined to become the individual’s personal residence.

Category: Investment  Comments off
Apr
04

Understanding Auto Dealer Fraud

Auto dealer fraud” is a term that describes deceptive and unlawful practices used by automobile dealers, at almost any stage of the vehicle purchase process — from advertising, to negotiation of vehicle pricing and financing terms. Examples of auto dealer fraud include “bait and switch” advertising practices, deceptive inflation of vehicle prices, and failure to disclose information about a vehicle.

“Bait and switch” sales tactics are a form of false or deceptive advertising, in which a car dealer lures potential buyers to the dealership by advertising one vehicle at a certain price, then tells the customer that the particular vehicle is no longer available before using aggressive tactics to sell a different, more expensive vehicle (or the advertised vehicle at a price higher than the advertised price).

In most states, car dealers must disclose whether a used vehicle has incurred significant damage in an accident, has been designated “salvaged”, or has been flood-damaged.



A form of auto dealer fraud, a “mileage rollback” or “odometer rollback” occurs when the odometer of a used vehicle (which indicates the total miles the vehicle has been driven) is altered (or “rolled back”) to display a number that is lower than the vehicle’s actual mileage.

Although both dealer fraud cases and lemon law cases involve motor vehicles, auto dealer fraud cases are very different from Lemon Law cases. In auto dealer fraud cases, improper tactics used by a car dealer during the vehicle sale process are the focus, while lemon law cases arise from problems or defects with the vehicle itself.

IF you feel that your car salesman committed fraud when you bought a car, BP Holdings Barcelona & Madrid Spain suggests to contact the dealer. In many states, you (or your attorney) must contact the auto dealer and give them an opportunity to correct the problem to your satisfaction, before taking any legal action for possible auto dealer fraud. This contact should be in writing, and should clearly illustrate both the problem (i.e. the dealer’s failure to disclose certain financing charges), and what steps you would like the dealer to take to resolve the problem (i.e. a partial refund of the vehicle purchase price).

In most cases, the best thing to do is to file a lawsuit for auto dealer fraud. If you recently purchased a vehicle and you suspect that the dealer may have committed fraud in the sales process, you may want to speak with an experienced Auto Dealer Fraud Attorney. An Auto Dealer Fraud attorney will evaluate all aspects of your case and explain all options available to you — including filing a lawsuit for your damages — and will work with you to ensure the best possible outcome for your case. Remember that in some states, you are required to contact the dealer and give them an opportunity to correct the problem before you take any legal action.

Category: Car Dealerships  Comments off
Feb
28

Spain: The home for foreign buyers

Because of Spain having the cheaper property prices, it is currently known as the home of foreign buyers.

The number of foreigners who bought properties in Spain rose for five consecutive quarters between 2011 and 2012 as they took advantage of falling prices. Last year, the greatest rise in home sales to foreigners was seen on the third quarter last year. Official housing figures shows 18% more than the equivalent quarter in 2011 and a total of 8,803 transactions. This followed a 15.3% rise in the second quarter of 2012 and a 16.2% increase in the first three months of the year.

Most demand was concentrated in coastal areas with Málaga on the Costa del Sol, posting the second highest number of Real Estate purchases by foreigners, beaten only by Alicante.

However, the sudden surge in interest could result in a shortage of the kind of properties that people actually want to buy. ‘With the domestic market in hibernation, some of the responsibility for recovery has fallen on to international shoulders but, certainly in the Marbella area, they tend to want the very best homes on the market and these are in short supply,’ said Nick Stuart, director of estate agent Spanish Hot Properties.



‘There are very few top quality modern villas or frontline beach apartments available and the old fashioned Andalucian style finca doesn’t have the same appeal any more. It really is slim pickings,’ he added.

Stuart explained that since 2010 there has only been one developer on the Costa del Sol actively building luxurious new apartments and penthouses and none have been in prime locations. ‘2010 was a key year as various guidelines on energy efficient building became law and this made construction much more expensive leaving new builds over priced in comparison to existing property, especially those with discounts attached. These so called bargains can be bought below replacement value but, although there are thousands of them for sale, your luxury property buyer simply isn’t interested in them,’ he said.

He has also found that buyers still expect to find rock bottom prices that really don’t exist in the better end of the market. ‘Prime property in a prime location is rarely discounted as constant demand puts pay to that,’ he explained.

Demand from international buyers for the best properties is set to rise if the plan outlined by the Spanish government to offer residency to non European Union buyers goes ahead, he pointed out.

The latest figures from the Spanish government on construction show that there were just 3,106 planning approvals for new residential homes in November, down 32% on the previous year and down 95% compared to 2006.

According to Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight there are several reasons for the collapse in planning approvals, including a glut of new homes already on the market, and weak demand due to the economic crisis. But the main reason is the lack of financing available to developers.

‘There are already signs of a shortage of the type of new homes that people actually want, which will get worse in the next few years, thanks to long lead times in the home building business. It typically takes 36 months or more from drawing board to delivery,’ he said.

Meanwhile the latest Fotocasa index shows that resale asking prices were stable in January after 36 consecutive months of declines. Asking prices averaged €1,890 per square meter in January, almost the same as in December and the first time there has been no monthly decline in prices since February 2010.

According to Fotocasa, asking prices actually rose in certain regions including Murcia which was up 1%, The Canaries up 0.7% and Andalucia also up 0.7%.

Category: Real Estate Barcelona  Comments off
Dec
02

Help! Be a whistleblower

A whistleblower is a person who informs the public or authorities about supposed misconduct taking place in a government department or private company or organization.  The alleged dishonest or illegal activity comes in many forms: e.g. a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption.

Whistleblowers may make their allegations to other people within the accused organization (internally) and to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues (externally).

The IRS created a way how to encourage people to become whistleblowers.  IRS Whistleblowers office established in 2007, pays rewards in terms of money, to people who will blow their whistles to persons who cheat on their owe to the government by not paying their taxes.  Since then thousands of people reported against corruption in taxes and tax frauds that led to thousands of investigations and audits.  Some of these investigations had yielded important results in tax compliance issues.  If proven right whistleblowers can be awarded up to 30%of the additional tax, penalty and other amounts it collects. The information that was given by the whistleblowers are then use to investigate against the suspected tax fraudster.

Getting an award is not as easy as accusing alleged tax fraudsters, IRS only gives award to people who can provide specific and credible evidences against the suspects.  They are looking for solid information and not just an accusation from educated guesses.  They are dealing with national Federal tax issue and they are not there to solve personal problems.

It is not easy to get award for the reason that there are rules that must be followed.  According to IRS, if the taxes, penalties, interest and other amounts in dispute exceed $2 million, and a few other qualifications are met, the IRS will pay 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount collected. If the case deals with an individual, his or her annual gross income must be more than $200,000. If the whistleblower disagrees with the outcome of the claim, he or she can appeal to the Tax Court.

There is also an award program for other whistleblowers, according to IRS, generally those who do not meet the dollar thresholds of $2 million in dispute or cases involving individual taxpayers with gross income of less that $200,000. The awards through this program are less, with a maximum award of 15 percent up to $10 million. In addition, the awards are discretionary and the informant cannot dispute the outcome of the claim in Tax Court.

An example of a whistleblower who gets reward from IRS is Bradley Birkenfeld, U.S. tax authorities have rewarded him $104 million dollars for being a whistleblower in a major tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG.

If you wish to be confidential and remain anonymous or you do not want to get the reward you may do so.  IRS can still provide you your privacy and security.

Category: Movie Review  Comments off
Nov
28

Difference between negligence and income tax fraud

If you are one of the people who are confuse of the difference between negligence and tax fraud you are not alone, many are baffle of these two.  Negligence is a failure to take reasonable care to avoid causing injury or loss to another person.  However negligence will take time to be proven.

  • there is a duty in the circumstances to take care duty of care
  • the behavior or inaction of the defendant in the circumstances did not meet the standard of care which a reasonable person would meet in the circumstances (breach of duty)
  • the plaintiff has suffered injury or loss which a reasonable person in the circumstances could have been expected to foresee (damage)
  • the damage was caused by the breach of duty (causation)

Now, what is income tax fraud, Tax fraud occurs when individual, business or company owners intentionally fabricates information regarding their tax returns in order to limit their tax amount liabilities.  Tax fraud is basically involves misrepresentation or omission of data on tax return to avoid paying the entire tax obligation.  Failure to comply on legal duties, falsifying or withholding information is against the law.  Claiming false deductions, claiming personal expenses as business expenses and not reporting income are examples of tax fraud.

Is it negligence or tax fraud?  Tax code is a very complex issue that many of us cannot easily grasp.  In layman’s term negligence is just an honest mistake.  The IRS can usually differentiate if an error was due to negligence or a willful evasion of tax law.  Tax evasion will occur if:

  • Overstatement of deductions and exemptions
  • Falsification of documents
  • Concealment of transfer of incomes
  • Keeping two books
  • Using a fake Social Security Number
  • Claiming an exemption for a nonexistent dependent
  • Willfully underreporting an income
  • Not paying taxes that are overdue
  • Intentionally not filing an income tax return
  • Not reporting all the income tax received

In most recent year only .0022% of all the taxpayers in America re convicted of tax crimes.  It is surprisingly small considering a fact that it is very easy to cheat on your tax obligations.  Why is this possible?  Auditors always give the suspected tax offenders the benefit of the doubt; they will assume that it was just an honest mistake.

People cheat on their tax by intentionally underreporting income.   A sloppy mistake can cost you 20% penalty on your tax bill while tax fraud will cost you 75% civil penalty.  Even though auditors are not investigators they are credible on detecting suspected offenders and can spot types of wrongdoings, called badges of fraud.  Surprisingly, the line between negligence and fraud is unclear even to IRS and the court.  But since the tax system relies on the obedience of the taxpayer, they usually discourage informing the public about taxpayer offender’s imprisonment or their inhumane penalties.  But although chances of being convicted are small it is best to be honest in everything you do most especially your tax obligations.

 

Category: Investment  Comments off
Nov
27

Combating tax fraud

Problems regarding tax frauds continue to dwell and even worsens.  Efforts are now fully focused on the issue of prioritizing VAT fraud.  The debate on VAT fraud has been divided into 2 main areas:

  1. Conventional measures to reinforce existing VAT system.
  2. More far reaching measures to modify the system, namely:
  • An option for Member States to introduce a general reverse charge system;
  • Taxation of Intra-Community transactions

 

The Commission created a new expert group with Member States, the “Anti Tax Fraud Strategy (ATFS)” expert group, with a view to conduct the technical discussions on the conventional measures.  The Vat system is not enough to combat a VAT fraud within a single market.  There is need to improve a greater system in order to have a harmony and increase in cooperation between the state and the people.  The commission proposes to improve measures to strengthen the existing system.

 

Insinuations of tax evasion and target incompetence for income measurement are significant.  Systematic misinterpretations of income source present misleading view of income distribution and redistribution profiles.

 

Proposals have been submitted to fight fraud.  More far reaching methods such as legislative proposals were released February 2008.  In this Communication the Commission analyses the taxation of Intra-Community transactions and the introduction of the option of a general reverse charge system.  November 2007, the commission presented a Communication with key elements concerned the conventional measures like the need of tax administrations for accurate information, the integration of an EU approach into the management of the VAT system and the importance of updated information on the VAT status of persons.

 


The programs work by providing global approach to give measures for some action plans:  to prevent potential fraudsters, an online confirmation was made available to traders for the validity of VAT identification number of their costumers.  The system give a simpler, modernize and more harmonious structure of the current rules.  Tools were enhanced for the detection of VAT frauds, Eurofisc, a European Network that works for closer operational cooperation between Member States.  Lastly, they strengthen the possibilities for tax authorities to recover VAT losses.  To prevent unintended non-taxation, tax evasion and fraud, Members States should ensure that both parties cooperate with other to gain sufficient resources to combat tax fraud.

 

Tax systems should progress and should become more reliable, it should be made more effective and efficient.  The Communication should be backed by better collection and more intensive efforts to combat tax fraud and evasion.  Everyone should be working together, the Communication, the Members of the State and more especially the people that govern and hands on with the current issues.  Tax administrations must have up-to-date, relevant and timely information in order to make solutions on the tax frauds dilemma.  Stronger community approach must be a priority, mutual assistance should be guaranteed to the Members of the State.  Potential losses should be guarded; fraudsters are always on the lookout for potential victims.   Criminal proceedings must be carried out for the scammers and fraudsters.

 

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Nov
20

UBS Germany questioned over alleged tax fraud

Swiss bank UBS’s German subsidiary is under investigation by local prosecutors for purportedly abetting tax fraud.

Bank employers allegedly helped investors to hide money pass revenue departments’ authorities by transferring it to Switzerland, says Peter Lintz.

Reported the investigation on November 8, 2012, Stuttgarter Nachrichten said illegal fund transfers reached well into 2012, money was being moved invisibly via an internal clearing account at UBS’s German branch into Switzerland.  Source not specified by the paper.

Electronic data and other hundreds of thousands materials that were confiscated in UBS’s Frankfurt offices that were raided in May are currently being analyzed by Mannheim prosecutors.

The legal inquiries were intended for unknown representatives of UBS’s German division.  Some of the bank’s customers are also among targets, added Lintz.

As a result Swiss banks have been subject to investigations into tax evasion in the United States and Europe, throwing Swiss banking secrecy, enshrined in the republic’s laws and traditions, into jeopardy.

Bank refuses to comment about the issue rather late Wednesday of the same year they emailed a statement trough a spokeswoman stating that the bank is already “cooperating with authorities” but denies  to comment on ongoing legal procedures.

A number of French offices of UBS were searched as part of a probe into alleged aiding of tax evasion earlier this year.  In some other issues involving UBS, they deny media reports telling wealthy Germans to move  funds to Singapore and other money centers ahead of a Swiss tax deal due to come into force in January.

Since 2009, UBS has closely examined “framework conditions” for business with over 60 countries including Germany and taken steps to adjust or improve the rules wherever necessary, the spokeswoman said.

Category: Investment  Comments off
Nov
09

Be a freelance writer and Make money at home

It is now easier to make money online than it is before.  You can be paid while you are in the comforts of your own home.  Interesting right?  But be very careful because there are many companies there offering money for blogs that will only scam you.  In order to start being paid while you are at home you will have to find reputable site.

It is not easy to write but if you love what you do and you do it for free won’t you love it more if you will get to be paid for it?  Here how it works, you only need to write at least two articles a day and submit it to the website, after a week you will get your payment.  $4.00 an article, not bad for something you do even for free, why not earn from it, right?  And you will get $1.50 per one thousand views, continue doing it and cycle of money will continue to flow.  And the best thing is, you can get to write whatever topic that you like.

The best thing here is you need not to be a great writer to accomplish this.  In order to get the most money for your articles, you just have to write them relatively, avoid errors and make sure you use correct grammars.  Choose topics that are unique, topics that are unusual and be specific. They do not want articles with broad topic and topic that could have more competition.  It is very important that your articles are original and can offer a very good quality for the internet goers.

Avoid stuffing keywords, make sure you establish a list of keywords to use for your article subject.  Keyword stuffing may lessen the traffic of your article.  You use the first 4 or 5 keywords on the list and work them into your article a descent amount of times. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the researcher, what keywords would you put in your search engine so you would get the juiciest article.  It is also advisable that you put your keywords in your title.  Do not make it too obvious or else your article will be marked as spam.  Google will give you a better rank if you will keep their quality guidelines in mind and a better rank means more view, more views means more money for you.

Who said making money online is hard, you just have to be patient along with your creativity.  Your hard work will pay off soon enough.

Category: Marketing and Advertising  Comments off
Nov
08

The come back of Ben Affleck rolls out in “Runner, Runner”

A story of six American Foreign Service workers trapped in Iran after the takeover of the American embassy in 1979, and how their escape was gotten by,  titled “Argo” is just one of the statements of Ben Affleck’s that his career is back. As BP Holdings Blog reviewed the comeback movie, Affleck who focused the film gives a quite shift of personality which never seen him as before, much like the film titled” Boiler Room,” in 2000. Though Affleck can only be viewed in a just small scene in the financial drama, a series of inspirational monologues he threw that could touch the heart even after the movie stood watched. BP Holdings Blog compared the character of Affleck with Alec Baldwin’s monologue in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

“Boiler Room is a lot like what you’ll see from me in this next film,” Affleck explained in an interview covered by BP Holdings Blog.  As BP Holdings Blog remembered, Affleck was compared to Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry Glen Ross” which is not mentioned as much today.

On his today’s film, Runner, Runner, Affleck will play a sort of Gordon Gekko of Internet gambling websites who lives in Costa Rica.

“It’s just nightmares from the Id kind of thing. And it reminded me that the speeches and stuff were fun — like “Boiler Room.” I thought, Oh, God, these are so great, to have these long speeches to do kind of gymnastics with. It was fun — it reminded me of “Boiler Room,” Affleck concluded.

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Oct
20

Spain Home Loans figures dropped 61.8%

In the month of July 2011, the total number of house sales fell by 5.3% compared with the same month on the same year, getting 30, 234 transactions. According to a recent data released by Bp Holdings Blog from the General Council of Public Notaries in Spain, 24,276 of these transactions were for apartments and 5,507 for houses, with annual declines of 5.6% and 3.9%, respectively.

The figures shown in the data released by Bp Holdings Blog which has accumulated a reduction of 61.8% explicates to start publishing monthly. In July, the price per square meter fell by 12.9% year-on-year, to 1,357 euros, with declines of 14.6% for apartments, to 1,507 euros per square meter, and 5.7% for houses, bringing the price per square meter to 1,031 euros. Since July 2007, the data of Bp Holdings Blog shows that house prices have fallen by 26.8%. The sales of new homes fell by 2.3% in July compared to the same month in 2011, and the price per square meter for this type of property decreased by 10.5% to 1,857 euros. Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes fell by 7%, while their price per square meter dropped by 19.5% to 1,827 euros.

The average loan amount was 202,917 euros, 9.5% less. For real estate purchases, the average loan in July amounted to 126,037 euros, which was 20.7% less than the same month of 2011.

Category: Real Estate Barcelona  Comments off
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