Bitcoin exchanges now exempt from VAT tax in Spain

TweetSpain’s General Directorate of Taxes (Dirección General de Tributos DGT) has announced it will treat all virtual currencies such as Bitcoin as financial payment methods and thus will be exempt from the VAT rate of 21%. Previously treated as a commodity, Bitcoin users were often taxed twice for purchases using the crypto-currency, however now the […]

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Spain passes new law to combat illegal fishing and rings in praise from NGOs

TweetNew Spanish law 33/2014 has marked tougher penalties for Spanish citizens involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing anywhere in the world. As Europe’s largest fishing member state (followed by UK, France and Italy) Spain represents 20% of Europe’s fishing capacity and employs the most number of people in the fishing industry. This an important […]

Small businesses in Spain closing doors at end of Ley Boyer

TweetSmaller businesses are being forced to close as landlords raise commercial property rents resulting from the 20 year ‘Ley Boyer’ ending on January 1st 2015. The law introduced in 1994 protected businesses whose lease had begun before 1985, exempting them from rent increases for 20 years (inflation-linked). This gave many family businesses the opportunity to […]

Uber forced to shut down operations today in Spain following Taxi Association opposition

Tweet Uber, the car ride sharing app, has been forced to shut down operations from today, Judges in Madrid have ordered. Following protests by Spanish taxi associations, and ‘cautionary measures’ supporting a future court case presented by the Madrid Tax Association against the Californian based startup, the judge passed the decision that Uber drivers “lack […]

Spain’s Google Tax aims to earn €80 million a year for the AEDE

TweetOnline aggregators beware, Spain has passed a new law obliging them to pay a tax to the original news source they are linking to in a bid to save the domestic newspaper industry. Named the ‘Google tax’ after the most prominent news aggregator, companies affected will be forced to pay a monthly fee or per […]

Crowdfunding in Spain officially under regulation

TweetSpain’s Minister of economy and competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, has introduced new legislation making Spain one of the first countries to regulate the crowdfunding sector, imposing restrictions on how much non-professional investors can invest. Crowdfunding in Spain Crowdfunding for new projects and startups has been incredibly popular in Spain as an alternative to bank credit, […]

EU rules Spanish Inheritance Tax discriminatory and illegal

TweetThe European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ordered Spain to change the law related to inheritance tax or Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones – judged illegal due to discriminatory rates charged to foreigners – and repay approximately €600 million to beneficiaries who have already paid the sometimes astronomical 40% inheritance tax during the past four […]

Why Catalonia and Madrid are imposing restrictions on Airbnb

TweetAirbnb received their first European fine at the beginning of July from Catalonian authorities, fining the property letting service €30,000 for breaching Catalonian tourist letting laws. Laws state that any property letted to tourists in the region should be registered with the Tourism Registry of Catalonia and approved (for security and hygiene reasons), and the […]

How to avoid returning home from Spain in 5 easy steps

TweetFollowing up on march blog post ‘Foreign Owned Property in Spain’, Brits are indeed still at the top of the foreign buyers list followed by France, Russia and Germany. Data from the Bank of Spain last week showed that foreign purchases in 2013 exceeded €6bn (£5bn) for the first time since 2004. However as house […]