The Curmudgeon, despite his nickname, is a pretty positive guy. Despite the many challenges of living as a foreigner in Spain, he wouldn’t live anywhere else. But three things, or bodies, really get on his wick. He explains why ….
What is the matter with these people? Tax inspectors, bankers and local bobbies manage to annoy most of us, Spaniards as well as foreigners.
The Tax Man
Take the Agencia Tributaria, aka Hacienda, equivalent to the British Inland Revenue, for example. Why are they so stupid? Is it because they are funcionarios (ie job for life, no matter how incompetent, inefficient or rude they are)?
For the last four years I have received a letter from them accusing me of not paying tax on my UK private pension. I have to prove that I have already paid tax on this pension, which is a public sector one, whereby tax is paid in the UK, wherever you live. Spain accepts this, but I have to prove it every year. Why was the first time not sufficient?
I know of British residents in Spain who end up paying tax twice on these hard-earned pensions, simply because they do not know how to sort it out. My answer is use a gestor. However good you might be at Spanish (and I am fluent) you need an expert. The Spanish use gestores all the time. Why not? They know what they’re doing and they are not expensive. Mine does my tax return every year for 50 euros.
But the fact that there is a solution out there, doesn’t negate the fact that the staff of the Agencia Tributaria must be stupid or incompetent.
Spanish Banks
Most holders of Spanish bank accounts have a grievance or several. These organisations, which are making vast profits, are closing branches left right and centre and trying to shift us all to digital or telephone banking.
One of the things I always used to like about Spanish banks (I’ve been an accountholder for nearly 25 years) was the number of branches and the accessibility of a physical person to speak to, often the manager him or herself.
Unicaja, when it was a regional caja de ahorros (savings bank), is a case in point. An amalgam of small provincial savings banks in Andalucía, there were branches everywhere and the staff were friendly and helpful.
Since they’ve become a bank, buying up Liberbank and becoming the fifth largest bank in all of Spain, they don’t seem to care any longer.
Their strategy seems to be to make as much profit as possible, close as many branches as possible, charge more for their services and cut back on those very services. For example, removing foreign language options for their many foreign customers. English is still available, but German has been cut back so that my German wife can no longer work comfortably in her mother tongue online.
Other banks are no better. Most have tightened their conditions for free banking. I had always enjoyed free banking with Unicaja and my other bank BancSabadell. Unicaja started to charge me, after I had been a loyal customer for 20 years, because I no longer met all of their (changed) pre-requisites. They refused to budge so I closed my account and moved to CaixaBank where I have free banking again.
I was delighted with BancSabadell for years, enjoying access to the manager, Carlos, whenever I needed it without the need to apply for a cita previa.
Then, overnight, they closed the only branch in the town where I live, without informing us, other than via a sheet of A4 stuck to the window of the branch. The nearest branch is now over an hour away by car.
Carlos assured me the service would continue to be available on the phone and they were going to maintain the cajero (cash machine) in my town. Within six months that too was closed and removed. And Carlos never answered nor returned my calls.
I have closed my account.
CaixaBank is good and banking is free. You also get a free RENFE railcard if you are over 65. One disappointment is that the branch I use, in a village with 980 residents and no other bank (Unicaja closed their office years ago), CaixaBank has reduced the opening hours to just three days a week. The cajero works though and there are two other branches in nearby Ronda.
Fellow EyeOnSpain blogger Pablo de Ronda carried out an analysis of the main Spanish banks last autumn. Click here to read his report.
Policía Local
Why are these jumped-up jobsworths so intransigent and inflexible? Everybody hates them. They’re like traffic wardens in the UK, dishing out parking fines left, right and centre. And the fine is not cheap. An eye-watering 200€ a time (100€ if you pay up sharpish).
I was carrying out a house renovation in a tiny narrow-streeted, Moorish mountain village and needed to park “illegally” for short periods to unload materials and to load rubbish. This is allowed. Despite this, the local fuzz fined me five times in 2021 alone!
Once while my workers were unloading sacks of cement, sand, bricks and other materials. They actually stood there writing out the ticket. When I appealed to the agentes to use a bit of common sense they refused. I was going to protest in writing, but I was advised by many, including my gestor, to just pay up. If I had protested, I would have forfeited my right to the 50% discount for paying quickly. And, as everybody said, you never win against the police.
On the last occasion I received a parking ticket, I adopted a new strategy – I just ignored it. That was nearly a year ago and nothing has happened.
I was also fined twice in Ronda and once in Estepona, although the Estepona one never arrived.
I have just been denunciado by the local police of another village for depositing small sacks of building rubble in several rubbish containers. That’s fair enough. I knew it was wrong, so it’s a fair cop.
Nevertheless, overall, I find the inflexibility of the Policía Local way over-the-top.
And don’t get me started on Guardia Civil Tráfico …..!!!
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OK, rant over for today. But you can be absolutely sure that none of these people will be getting a Christmas card from The Curmudgeon.