I "pinched" this from the Portugal forum, but it seems it could be of interest to some of "us lot"????

BBC News - On the trail of the offshore tax dodgers

Jo xxx

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And about time too.
It's of interest to me only in that I have offshore accounts and I abhor all types of tax dodging/evasion whatever you like to call it.
As usual, it's the mega-rich who can find loopholes. The likes of myself have our tax on UK investments taxed either at source or via reciprocal afreements between HMRC and the UK offshore banks.
If everyone in the UK paid their taxes we would get in enough to double the current NHS budget.
And if all the tax-dodgers in Spain, whether Brits avoiding property taxes or Spaniards, Brits or whoever working or buying on the black paid up, Spain would be in a much better shape.
I had my LandRover fixed yesterday, quite a steep bill (new fuel injector) and was so pleased that I wasn't asked if I would like a 'special' bill minus IVA, as is so often the case.
I didn't have to refuse....

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.

That used to annoy me (well not annoy but....) in Spain. It was totally acceptable to not pay IVA on such things as service bills. In the UK, occasionally if you knew someone they'd do work "for cash", but only if they knew you werent going to report them. In Spain its the norm - even with rent on properties (they dont know you from a bar of soap), no one seems to care that their country need the money and they are part of the cause of the problem

Jo xxxx

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We didn't do 'for cash' in our business in the UK and we don't do it here.
OH is very strict about this...possibly West Coast of Scotland stern sense of public morality...

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.

Mary & Jo Jo, when we first bought our place in spain we had a kitchen installed by a local carpenter, and when we came to pay he showed us two different prices, we asked a friend why and we were told one is without tax , I was not happy and paid the larger bill which included tax and received some very strange looks from the carpenter, some others said I was daft to pay extra but my concience was clear. As you both say if people were to pay the proper taxes, spain and portugal and maybe greece would be a lot better off

We needed a plumber at our first house and he was a british chap. He was horrified to the point of almost walking away and not taking any payment at all when we told him we had to have a factura as the work was being done thru insurance!!!!!!

Another thing is the rental business in Spain, which could be in for a bit of a shake up too - lets face it. I doubt there are many landlords who pay tax on the rental payments they receive and its a big business!



Jo xxx

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Our first landlord who was very dodgy did, in fact, pay tax on the rental income. Probably the h¡only honest thing he ever did. As for income tax on offshore accounts, I only wish I had enough money that it would be something to think about.

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Before facebook nobody cared what you had for breakfast; they still don't.

uh huh....and here in the U.S. as well. Same issue, different country. I guess different people have a different opinion or definition of what is "proper" huh?