Tax rebate for British Erasmus student

Hi there,

I'm only 21 and have never sorted out my own taxes in the UK, let alone Spain so please go easy on me! 

I'm currently based in Madrid from January for 6 months as part of my year abroad, where I am working as an intern at a law firm. My income (not including Erasmus grants and student loan) is €1,000 pcm gross. I have just received my first paycheque from the company and was surprised to see that they had docked me 19% of my wages for the purposes of the IRPF.
 
This seemed like a lot of money, so I consulted online and found out the following: “Income Tax is a progressive tax and it ranges from 19% to 45%. The standard personal allowance is 5,550 EUR for individuals under 65 years old with no dependents.”

Thus, presumably, I will only pay income tax on anything I earn above €5,500 - likely not a lot given I'm only in Spain for half of the Year Abroad. I've spoken with friends working at other firms in Spain and they've relayed to me that their employers have told them they will be able to apply for a tax rebate once their time in Spain is up. There seems to be conflicting information as to whether we should seek a rebate from HMRC or from the Spanish taxman; I'm naturally leaning towards the Spanish taxman but a colleague has told me a previous British student definitely had to apply for something through HMRC.

My employer doesn't typically take on a lot of UK Erasmus students and as such doesn't hold a lot of experience in this matter. Nor is the information any clearer online; there appears to be a lot of conflicting information and, sadly, typical confusing Spanish red tape. As such, I was wondering if the anyone on the forum was aware of what the process is, if any, for recouping IRPF; when and where should it be done? Surely there have been other people in this position in the past - I'm certainly not the first person to work in Spain for my Year Abroad.

Many thanks in advance for all of your help.

Hello tmcintosh

These links may help. If not you can always contact the Spanish tax authorities or HMRC direct.

https://www.expatica.com/es/finance/taxes/tax-system-471614/

https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2011/12/spain-income-tax.html

https://www.spainaccountants.com/tax-rates

Good luck.