Spains retro asset grab on Pensioners

Having read the blog on EOS today, I have a few points to make as a new thread, as it is worthy of discussion in the forum.Please read it as it in full as it is a long article.

We, as ex pats have always had to declare pensions earned abroad, yet these pensioners have never had to declare theirs until now, and they are very aggrieved about it.

When the assets law came into being, there were hundreds of pages in various forums about whether pensions had to be submitted as an asset, and the eventual consensus was, that unless they were pensions from annuities, they didn't.One of the biggest financial advisors in Spain made this clear as well. The tax office here obviously do regard these pensions from abroad as assets to be declared on the 720, so where does it leave all the people who have been told not to declare them on the assets submission, though of course they have to be declared on the annual tax return?

As for the disability pensions, apparently they hope to make these exempt from income tax, yet I have heard from other sources that they already are.

Anyone care to comment?

I'm not sure how you have made the leap from the pensions being taxed, to having to declare pensions on the modelo 72, and everybody having done them incorrectly except for people who had annuities.

Is that not what is being said in the blog?

Well, it's sort of implied, but only because they mention the 720, which they link to money laundering, which as far as I am aware was not the reason for the introduction of the 720. Neither does it say the view of the Hacienda is that these pensions should have declared on the 720.

"The Spanish tax office has always told us that foreign pensions do not need to be declared in Spain, which is why none of us have done so". 

Oh, really? How convenient. Perhaps they didn't ask the right question, or the right people. As far as I understand it, ALL worldwide income  has always had to be declared in Spain, if you are a resident - which would include Spanish nationals as well as expats. Ignorance of the law etc. etc....