accountant autonomo healthcare national insurance pension self-employed spain spanish tax a
Being self-employed in Spain can be an expensive affair.
Just recently we changed our tax status from UK self-employed to Spanish autonomo and it has not been easy!
What came as a big shock was the cost of national insurance contributions in Spain, these come to 240 euros a month and that is EACH. (This works out at £400 a month). In the UK national insurance is around ten quid a month! Continue reading »
In light of the recent and ongoing worldwide banking crisis, there is huge concern for many of us but the good news is that Spain is a much safer bet than many other European countries.
Today Zapatero met with the directors of the biggest Spanish banks and it was decided that the Spanish government would immediately increase the level of insurance for bank deposits covered under the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
At the moment, the government guarantees up to 20,000 euros per account but plans on increasing this (though so far no announcement has been made on how much by).
currency euros exchange rate mortgages pounds spanish property sterling value a
The volume of UK buyers of Spanish property has been shrinking over the last 6 months for a variety of reasons. One of the primary contributing factors to the decline is the strength of the euro against sterling.
From a 12 month high of 1.4811 euros to the pound in September 2007, today £1 is worth 1.2560 euros, a drop in real terms of 15%.
All of a sudden, Europe seems expensive to the Brits. So are there any ways of avoiding these currency fluctuations when buying a property in Spain?
Continue reading »
Polaris world is a golfer’s paradise. Replete with some of the nicest golf courses you would wish to see, it provides lovers of the game of golf the opportunity to tee off in Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses. I have tried my luck with them and, believe me, they can be quite a lot of fun. One day, I put on my best Ralph Lauren golf T-shirt and my Tiger Woods impersonation and there I was, hitting golf balls with reckless abandon and with unrestrained, child-like joy. Continue reading »
