crimy
27-01-2015, 02:39
Well, how to make a long story even longer. My girlfriend and I along with our adorable little kitten made our way over from Ireland to the Canary Islands in October of last year. We drove all the way down here and our initial plan was it to stay here for the winter months until April. We own an Irish/American based business and can work from anywhere as long as we have internet, so no need to be tied to Ireland. We really enjoy our time over here and decided to not go back to Ireland in April and instead stay in the Canaries for the next two years. Now, many questions are coming up and it seems like we're a little bit lost since we don't speak Spanish other than the basics to get through the day shopping and ordering in restaurants. Hopefully some people here on the forum can help us.
1. Our car: We came with our car, a Toyota Prius. We are now facing two options. Say bye bye to our nice car, or register it with Spanish plates. As far as I know we're still good to drive it until April as we don't have to change the plates until we're here for more than six months. But, what do you guys think? Is it worth it to register a €6000 car to Spanish plates? How much will that cost us? And can we do that knowing that we only speak little Spanish? We don't really rely on a car here as much as we did in Ireland as we work from home and we live very central with everything around the corner. Additionally the bus system is by far better than in Ireland and renting a car every now and then is probably cheaper than owning a car anyways, but still putting it on Spanish plates is an option we're looking at as we've had the car for almost a year now and we kind of grew on it.
The second option would be to sell it. Now the question is if there is a market for cars on foreign plates with the wheel on the wrong side. I read about people going back to the UK buying cars on UK plates, but how many Irish people are down here going back to Ireland looking for an Irish reg. car? If there is a market for it, where should we look?
2. Residency & Tax: When we got here we obtained a NIE to open a bank account, but it was a temporary NIE for three months and has expired since then. We didn't bother following up on it as we thought about going back anyways. We probably need to go and ask for the temporary NIE again which will be good for three months before we can get the real one with the residency, right? How do we go about taxes? Our company is based in the US and Ireland and therefore pay US and Irish corp. taxes. We still have an address in Ireland and go there every now and then for business purposes. Are we fine filing for personal tax in Ireland rather than here and not taking the Spanish residency? As I wrote earlier, we're not planning on staying here very long term (max. two years). If we do have to get the Spanish residency and pay Spanish personal taxes, do we have to pay the social security charges? We are both on private health insurance and we don't need access to the public system of Spain.
I think this is all I got for now, but I'm sure after reading some of your responses I'll have probably two questions for each answer I'm reading, so get ready for a loooong threat on the forum (hopefully).
Thanks,
Chris
1. Our car: We came with our car, a Toyota Prius. We are now facing two options. Say bye bye to our nice car, or register it with Spanish plates. As far as I know we're still good to drive it until April as we don't have to change the plates until we're here for more than six months. But, what do you guys think? Is it worth it to register a €6000 car to Spanish plates? How much will that cost us? And can we do that knowing that we only speak little Spanish? We don't really rely on a car here as much as we did in Ireland as we work from home and we live very central with everything around the corner. Additionally the bus system is by far better than in Ireland and renting a car every now and then is probably cheaper than owning a car anyways, but still putting it on Spanish plates is an option we're looking at as we've had the car for almost a year now and we kind of grew on it.
The second option would be to sell it. Now the question is if there is a market for cars on foreign plates with the wheel on the wrong side. I read about people going back to the UK buying cars on UK plates, but how many Irish people are down here going back to Ireland looking for an Irish reg. car? If there is a market for it, where should we look?
2. Residency & Tax: When we got here we obtained a NIE to open a bank account, but it was a temporary NIE for three months and has expired since then. We didn't bother following up on it as we thought about going back anyways. We probably need to go and ask for the temporary NIE again which will be good for three months before we can get the real one with the residency, right? How do we go about taxes? Our company is based in the US and Ireland and therefore pay US and Irish corp. taxes. We still have an address in Ireland and go there every now and then for business purposes. Are we fine filing for personal tax in Ireland rather than here and not taking the Spanish residency? As I wrote earlier, we're not planning on staying here very long term (max. two years). If we do have to get the Spanish residency and pay Spanish personal taxes, do we have to pay the social security charges? We are both on private health insurance and we don't need access to the public system of Spain.
I think this is all I got for now, but I'm sure after reading some of your responses I'll have probably two questions for each answer I'm reading, so get ready for a loooong threat on the forum (hopefully).
Thanks,
Chris