Five things you should know about the Electronic Notifications Service

If you're self employed, maybe you have received in recent weeks a notice from the Social Security on the Order ESS/485/2013 that regulates notices and communications by electronic ways with the Social Security Authorities. We are going to answer five basic questions to clarify the main doubts about the new electronic notifications service.

The President announces that government will raise growth forecast to 0.7%

Mariano Rajoy announced, in the Upper House of Parliament, that the government will raise its economic growth forecast for the coming year from 0.5% to 0.7%. Furthermore, he stressed that pensions will neither fall nor be frozen and that public servants will receive their extraordinary payments in both 2013 and 2014.

Spain loses 15 billion euros a year in potential VAT revenue

Europe has been bent in the past few years on austerity, cutting pensions, wages and public sector jobs to rein in deficits. But there are signs that the problem also lies in the revenue side as a result of tax evasion.

For years, large companies have indulged in so-called financial engineering, using tax havens to pay the minimum amount possible. And, according to figures released Thursday by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat, Spain loses around 15 billion euros a year in potential value-added tax revenues because of evasion, as well as bankruptcies and statistical errors, among other factors. In the period 2008-2011, the loss in Spain was estimated at 65 billion euros.

Non Residents tax obligation

It is a common case that a person from outside Spain is acquiring a property in Spain maybe as an investment or just a holiday house for spending in Spain few months during the year. From the moment that the house is bought, several taxes obligations start within.

Five things you should know about European Health Insurance Card

1.      What is the European Health Insurance Card?

A free card that gives you access to medically necessary, state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in any of the 28 EU countries, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, under the same conditions and at the same cost (free in some countries) as people insured in that country.

Cards are issued by your national health insurance provider.

1,607,609 foreign citizens registered with Spanish Social Security system in August

The number of foreign citizens registered with the Spanish Social Security system stood at 1,607,609 in August. This figure represents a decrease of 25,294 or 1.55%. In year-on-year terms, the number of foreign citizens registered with the system continues to fall.

The year-on-year decrease in the number of foreign contributors stands at 8.05%, which compares with a rate of 3.36% for the Spanish Social Security system as a whole. These two indicators show a continuation of the trend already seen in previous months, insofar as that job losses continue to have more impact on foreign workers than those of Spanish nationality.

Historic year for spanish tourist sector

One area of the flagging Spanish economy that continues to motor along is tourism, with the country attracting both record overseas visitors in August as well as overnight stays in hotels.

According to the Industry, Energy and Tourism Ministry’s latest FRONTUR survey, the number of foreign arrivals last month climbed 7.1 percent to 8.3 million, buoyed by a surge in Russian and Nordic visitors. As a result, the number of overnight stays in hotels in the month hit a record 42 million, an increase of 3.5 percent from a year earlier.

As a tourist destination, Spain has benefitted from wariness about rival markets such as Turkey, where political tensions prevail, and Egypt, which is experiencing a spiral of street violence.

7% rising of new companies in 2013

 

In the first eight months of the current year there have been 65.423 new companies in Spain, according to the study published by Informa D & B. This represents an increase of 7% over the same period last year, when it reached 60.889 constitutions. In the month of August 6.234 businesses have been created, the lower amount in the year due to holiday period. But even that data, still grows 4% compared with the same month of 2012.

Use your remaining unemployment benefits to set up a new business.

At the time of crisis that we are living with a high unemployment rate, many people see self-employment as a way out. We encourage you to carry it out, for which we discuss a way to get cash through capitalization of unemployment to be used in a new business.

If you're unemployed collecting unemployment benefits. Then you can apply the capitalization of these benefits. That is, obtaining in one payment early part of the benefits that you have not yet perceived.

Social Security debts can be paid using a credit card.

The Goverment has enabled a new service for companies and self-employed people to pay Social Security debts using credit card through the Social Security website.To pay you must go into the Electronic Office Social Security ( SEDESS ) and select " debt card payment”, then a connection will be  established with the financial institution that issued the card , which will check if there is enough credit available to cover the charge .

Fátima Báñez says new part-time national insurance regulations will improve social benefits for over 2.5 million people

In her speech in the Lower House of Parliament on Thursday morning, the Minister for Employment and Social Security, Fátima Báñez, said, during the debate on the ratification of a Royal Decree for the protection of part-time workers, that the new national insurance regulations for part-time workers "will improve social benefits for over 2.5 million people".

This Royal Decree-Law enshrines the agreement reached to improve the conditions for access to social protection by part-time workers signed on 31 July 2013 by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, the CCOO and UGT trade union organisations, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations and the Spanish Confederation of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in a legal instrument with the status of a law.

2013 SUMA Property Tax Deadline

If you do not have your IBI Tax (SUMA property tax) managed to get charged by direct debit, you have until the 4th of October to pay it.

SUMA offers different ways to proceed with the payment: by cash at a bank with the payment letter, through a credit card, in cashier machines, by electronic bank service.

After the time expires, a recharge will be applied on the amount to pay so remind to proceed in time with the payment of this local tax.

And in addition, if you are a Non Resident owner of a property in Spain, VP ADVISERS offers you a 40€ fees (-25% discount if you follow us on twitter and facebook) for producing the NON RESIDENT TAX

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NON RESIDENT TAX SPECIAL OFFER.

If you do not live in Spain but you own a property in this country don't forget to submit the non resident tax before the end of the year.

Best service at best price

VP ADVISERS offers you a 40€ IVA included service fee for producing the Non Resident tax model. Check with us about this and any other service you may require.

 

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook and get a 25% discount.

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Spanish services sector enjoys return to growth for first time in 26 months.

 

Spain's services sector expanded for the first time in over two years, providing further anecdotal evidence that the economy is poised to emerge from nine quarters in recession, albeit with insufficient growth to significantly bring down rampant unemployment.

 

Consultant Markit said Wednesday that its Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the services sector rose from 48.5 points in July to 50.4 points in August, the first time it has moved above the 50-point mark that indicates no change in the level of business activity since June 2011.

Bringing it all home

 

The reputation of Spanish fashion brands is growing by the day, as is their market share, but the same does not go for the domestic clothing and textile manufacturing industry, where hundreds of factories have closed their doors. In the 1990s, some 300,000 people worked in the clothing manufacturing sector in Spain, but now scarcely more than 135,000 do as a result of companies relocating their output to Asian countries, above all China. However, just as the trend seemed inexorable, there have been signs of change of late. After two decades of a delocalization boom, there are now growing calls to bring part of the production that has moved overseas back home to Spain - and it is already taking place. According to Ángel Asensio, the president of the Spanish Federation of Clothing Companies (Fedecom), 15 percent of delocalized production has been returned to factories in Spain and Portugal.