The Economic realities of working “autonomo” in Spain
In these recessionary days, Spain is a difficult place to work as an “autonomo” worker. Contract jobs are hard to find. The thing to remember is that whether you earn anything or not you have to pay €265 to €300 a month to Social Seguridad, just for the privelige of getting out of bed in a morning. If you fall behind because of loss of earnings the consequences can be drastic.
The authorities know virtually everything about you including that you have a car. They can, without taking you to court, issue a notice ordering you to give up such assets as payment for the outstanding payments. If you do not receive this due to the incorrect address being used, you will get a knock on the door from the Guardia Civil, who depending on the officers turning up at your front door, can be quite aggressive.
If you are in this situation, you should complete a modelo 37 and suspend your social security and autonomo. This stops the addition of further bills to what you owe already.
If they take your car it is likely it will be worth far more than the debt, but you won’t get any change when they sell it.
Don’t say you have not been warned
New Year Promise?
According to many pundits the Euro is due for a bad year, which should mean better news for ex-pats who receive pensions later on. It might mean interest rate rises too, which will be good for savers, less so for people with mortgages, although the seriously depressed housing market in Spain will lessen the affect , as no-one wants mortgages in Spain right now. The adverse UK winter MAY make people think about that home in the sun…..we shall see.
2009 Review
FTSE 100 gained 22% over the year ending at 5418. A staggering 56% increase from March to the year end. The record growth since 1997. Euro exhange rate up from 1.02 to 1.12, which represents some comfort to expats in Spain, but I am sure they would prefer to see it go higher. Despite Mr Zapatero’s comments, Spain will continue in the doldrums for quite some time.
Exchange Rates not much better
The exchange rate between UK Sterling and the Euro continue to hover around 1.10, which means that the agony is prolonged for those on pensions, in Spain, who were used to getting 1.40 . This factor, in addition to the credit crisis, is having a knock on effect to the Spanish economy, particularly in the Costa Blanca area. If people on pensions are unable to have as many “menu del dia” as they did before, restaurants will suffer, as will the entertainment industry per se.
Supermarkets carry on , as people always need to eat and clean their houses etc, but there are so many in such a small area around Torrevieja, that you wonder how they survive. A year ago Iceland were recruiting on a large scale, but I have heard that staffing levels were reduced due to drop off in business. This may have been because they opened San Javier and La Marina stores, which generated more overheads, whilst dispersing customers away from Torrevieja store, to go locally.
There seem to be many supermarkets, with many branches, such as Lidl, Consum, Carrefour, Mercadona. How do they make money? There are more supermarkets in that particular area per square kilometre than in the whole of the Scarborough and district area in the UK.
For people on pensions affected by the recession, then you should consider ways to raise more funds, by way of such vehicles as lifetime loans.
Lisbon Treaty
I cannot believe the hoohah in the UK , over the fact that the Tories cannot deliver on the referendum promised. Are the Tories about to self-destruct before the election next year , which they are expected to win??
FACT: Britain is a member of the EU
FACT: The elected government , albeit not the elected Prime Minister had the mandate of the people to negotiate this treaty
There is the question surrounding the Labour failure to let the UK have a referendum BEFORE this treaty was negotaited. That failure sums up the deceitful lies and mistruths callously spread by Labour just to hang on to power.
William Hague spoke a lot of sense last night on NEWSNIGHT and it is clear , once the media stop sensationalising everything, that the UK is not handing all its power to Brussels.
Most EU countries will not agree to that, Spain in particular. However, it makes perfect sense to me that for the EU, now a large geographical area, needs to have a co-ordinated strategy for trading with the other main blocs, China and the USA.
Anyone, who thinks the UK could survive outside the EU club, is totally misguided.
