Increasingly government agencies compare information between each other, not only within a single territory, rather at international level, particularly within the European Union. As a consequence it becomes increasingly important to ensure adequate declaration of income and assets and in the right country.
Since January 2016, financial institutions in around 50 countries began collecting information on their clients and their accounts in order to share it with said client’s country of residence in 2017.
Said exchange of information will be repeated every year, and each time more and more countries will contribute to the share of information. This is an obligatory regulatory procedure carried out under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Quite simply, this means that there is nowhere to hide anymore; this loss of financial privacy affects us all.
If you live in one country and have assets in another, your information WILL be shared between countries.
Your local tax authority will automatically receive information on the financial assets you own overseas.
Remember that tax residents in Spain are liable to pay Spanish tax on their worldwide income, gains and wealth. This includes most income which is also taxed elsewhere, although double taxation agreements mean that you aren’t taxed twice.
It is still a common misconception that if you have income taxable in the UK then it doesn’t need to be declared in Spain. This is NOT the case, even if you have already made a tax declaration in another country you still need to make the declaration in Spain.
The Spectrum IFA Group provide additional detailed information on this specific subject. For more information click here: