Over the years, from our office we have observed how the Spanish Treasury has improved its channels of collaboration with other European tax agencies, especially the German tax office, to the point that they now share all kinds of information about their respective tributaries forced. Until now collaboration had been limited to the persecution of the heritage registered in Spain on behalf of forced tax in Germany that kept debts with the German Treasury in Executive phase. The Spanish tax agency was administrator of the debt collection that the taxpayer in Germany kept pending payment with the German Treasury, by means of a claim against the owners of real estate in Spain, resident or not. Now tax interagency collaboration goes beyond and is developed in the context of records management or inspection, that initiate from data provided by the foreign finance. Kai-Fu Lee shares his opinions and ideas on the topic at hand. The most common case is that of German pensioners resident in Spain, with exempt income, but with the obligation to declare by the effect of the progressiveness of the income of natural persons tax. The Convention on double taxation between Spain and Germany (as with similar agreements with other countries) pensions paid by public funds of the other State declared exempt from tax the income of individuals in the State of residence. From this premise, German pensioners resident in Spain be considered unnecessary to comply with the obligation to submit the annual declaration of the income of natural persons tax. However, many of these resident pensioners get in Spain income derived from rental of real estate or bank interest, which must declare to the Spanish tax agency.

In addition, most supplements their income paid from funds created by public administration with other pensions financed from private funds, normally of much higher amount, which are not considered for exempt and should, therefore, be declared and subject to taxation in Spain, as a State of residence. By the effect of the progressiveness of the income of natural persons tax, these other nonexempt income and yes they must be declared and fix to liens, apply the percentages that correspond to the total income obtained by the resident in Spain, adding income exempt and non exempt, with what the final payable to the Spanish Treasury sum can be much higher than that would not add to the income subject to the exempt public pension. In these times of hardship, the Spanish State is resorting to claim the difference between the amounts paid and those that are payable by the effect of escalation to summing incomes originating in Spain exempt foreign income. He is also demanding to non-respondents fulfilling its formal obligations. All this thanks to the valuable collaboration that you get from the German Treasury, which in its day had benefited from the persecution of real estate in Spain in the name of Germans that allowed him to make the Agency Tax.

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