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.