Renewing Residency, Foot Miracle & Tax Season

Most of this post is filled with good news!  First, my visa renewal status:  FAVORABLE!  This allows me to reside in Spain for two more years.  With my type of visa, I had to renew within two months before the end of the first year of residency here, which ends on March 11.  My appointment to submit my renewal application and documents was on January 21.  I was told that I would receive something in the mail within 20 days of that appointment.  I waited and waited and waited.  By Feb 12 I checked online to see what I could do to find the status of my renewal.  It took a couple of days, but I finally found that I could actually get my status online.  I did and found it was approved. I was able to print it off, which is necessary at the time that I have to request a new residency card.  And for some strange reason I can only request my new residency card AFTER my current residency card expires.  But who cares!  Although I never had any doubt that would be denied continued residency here, it is still a relief to know that it was approved.

On the approval form it shows that it was approved on Jan 29.  But I still haven't received any notification in the mail.  Again, it doesn't matter now that I found it online.

Foot Miracle!

The issues of numbness in my left toe that started last May was a cause for concern because I was

These are NOT my feet :-)

feeling that numbness slowly expand, especially around the winter holidays.  But a podiatrist that I saw when I was in the U.S. suggested that I see a chiropractor or a physio-chiropractor.  I have now had about 10 sessions with a chiropractor in Barcelona and I am seeing a world of difference with my foot.  The range of numbness has been significantly reduced to a very small area.  I have confidence that this will continue to improve over the weeks ahead.  It certainly feels like a miracle to me!!

Death and Taxes

Ok, no one is dying, at least not that I know about at the moment.  But taxes are due every year.  And since this is my first year living in Spain, I needed to become acquainted with how this will work in my case.  An American friend here recommended a Spanish tax lawyer for me and I have met with him regarding my tax situation.  There is a treaty between Spain and the U.S. to avoid double taxation, which helps.  But Spain has its unique flavor to taxing.  So here is what I have learned so far, which may be helpful to others who are thinking about residing in this country:

• For a public pension earned coming from an outside country, taxes are only paid to the country of origin.  My tax lawyer is going to double-check this, but that would relieve me of paying higher taxes, as is described in the second point below..
• For other kinds of income that I receive outside of Spain, I would pay tax to the U.S. first and only pay the difference of what I would have owed Spain. For example, if I paid the U.S. 20% on my federal taxes and my Spanish taxes is at 30%, I would pay the U.S. its due and pay Spain the remaining 10%.  
• There is no such thing as filing a partial year return.  Although I moved here in March 2014, because I lived here more than 183 days, I am considered a Spanish resident for the whole year and all the income I earned in 2014 is subject to Spanish tax.  My issue is that I worked in the U.S. in January and received not only my regular income but also final year bonuses.  It is a sizable amount.  If I had known this, I might have chosen to have entered Spain in July to have avoided the tax on income that I earned prior to my residency here.

BTW - As you know, U.S. tax deadline is April 15 (although U.S. non-residents have until June 15)

and the Spanish tax deadline is June 30.

Ok.  If I didn't lose you here, I don't want to bore you with much else.  The only other interesting but potentially devastating tidbit, is that Spain requires all residents to declare all foreign assets worth greater than 50,000 euros by March 31 of the following year.  This is not a tax, but if you don't report in time the penalties are very, very steep.  In my case, my retirement savings would fit into this category.  So my tax attorney will be making this declaration next month.

Is An American Driver's License Valid In Spain? Yes and No

When I arrived to Barcelona, I was able to sign up for AvanCar (the same company as ZipCar in the U.S.) using my US driver's license.  Also when my friend Carol came in September, I rented a car for us to go to Figueres, a city north of Barcelona.

Technically, September was the last month that I could use my U.S. driver's license to legally drive a car here in Spain.  After six months of living in Spain, one can no longer use a foreign driver's license to drive.  For those countries who have a bilateral agreement with Spain regarding driving permits, those citizens can go to the DMV (here it is called the DGT) in their local Spanish jurisdiction and convert the foreign driver's license to a Spanish one before the end of the 6 month period.  Unfortunately, there is no agreement between the U.S. and Spain.

Since I would still like to be able to rent a car in Spain now and again, I need to take the driving test and obtain a Spanish driver's license, which consists of both a written test and a driving test.  The problem is that it's not as simple as it is in the U.S.  First, you must obtain your driver's license through a driving school (if any of my Spanish friends reads this and I am incorrect about this, please let me know).  The driving school has classes that you attend, practice exams to take, takes you out in a special drivers-ed car with two sets of pedals and steering wheels, registers for you at the DMV, and, when you're ready, accompanies you to take the driving part of the test.

I have found a couple of schools that will allow me to not take the driving class, but to just study the

driving book on my own.  Luckily, Spain offers the written test in English and has an English version of it.  However, it use British words and sometimes it is poorly translated from Spanish to English.

With removing the class from the list of things the driving school will do on my behalf, it will cost me about 250 euros to get my license.  Plus another 35 euros to get a medical test that confirms that I am fit to drive.  Also, you only have two chances to pass.  The written part consists of 30 questions and you cannot miss more than 3.  And the questions are very detailed and sometimes not very logical.

And if you fail the written part two times, then you have to pay another 90 euros to take the test again.

An Indian friend from my Spanish class had gone through this process and helped me a great deal in understanding what I need to do and loaned me his English driving manual.  I am now studying it and will soon sign up with a driving school to go forward with my written practice tests and driving practices with the school.

Residency Renewal

After one year, I have to renew my visa for another two years.  I got the documents for my pension, my retirement savings, and a letter from my health insurance company translated into Spanish.  I also provided my property registry of the flat that I purchased.  There shouldn't be any issues with the renewal, but the waiting game is a little nerve-racking.

Santa Eulalia Festival

This weekend Barcelona had a number of festivities for Saint Eulalia.  I went today to see the human towers (Castelles) that is so famous here in Catalunya.  It is quite impressive.  Below are some photos of the the physical feats that the men, women and children performed in making these human towers.

Quiet Week - Building Face Lift, Dental Work & Some Foot Relief

It's been a quiet week since coming back from London, being with Chris there and supporting him as he successfully found his first international teacher's position in Europe starting next Fall.

When I got back I discovered that the entire scaffolding for the front of my building was removed.  They had removed the upper part but left the lower part to do some cleaning of the facade at the ground level.  I am very happy with the results and even more happy that the scaffolding is removed and the street is open with no obstructions.  Below are a few before and after photos.  Besides, replacing all the stonework around the windows and restoring the ornamentation on the top of each window, they also lightened the color of the window shutters, which the city required them to do, for some reason.  The next thing they will do is replace the door, which will complete the work that the company was tasked to do.

Before photo

After photo

After photo close-up

I finally got my pre-approval to have a root canal done - my first!! (no, the exclamation points are not because I was looking forward to this).  I did that on Wednesday.  It was a little rough because one of the nerves was inflamed.  I got a provisional crown, I am now on antibiotics and will be going back on Monday.  I hope that will be the last visit, but I'm not sure.  Chris told me that his dentist gives his patients antibiotics a week prior to the visit to ensure that there are no complications such as this one, But I talked to an American friend here who had this done in the U.S. and he was not given any antibiotics beforehand.  It seems that dentists both in the U.S. and in Spain have different ways of preparing a patient for a root canal.  I just hope it all finishes up quickly.

In spite of my skepticism, I am now starting to see small improvements with my foot due to the work that I am doing with the chiropractor.  It seems that the area of numbness around my big toe has been reduced.  I still have a good little area of numbness, but I'm happy to see some progress. It looks like the nerves that seem to be pinching are finding relief.  I will continue to see the chiropractor and will hopefully see continued progress.