New Spanish Inquisition for Expats.

[MrPlum]

People should exercise personal responsibility but the term 'irrational exuberance' wasn't coined without reason. You cannot get yourself into debt without easy credit being available and that is under the control of the central bankers.

Cover your eyes o ye of faint heart...

'Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security but [also] at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become "profiteers," who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery. Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.'

You cannot protect your assets unless you understand that the tables are rigged and the house always wins. Some kind soul/nutter/[insert smear here]has put together a handy little memory-jogger...

'Jaw-Dropping Crimes of the Big Banks'

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/03/ ... -list.html

I won't argue individual charges but there is sufficient there, we know to be true, that you can conclude the bankers are operating a criminal enterprise. With the politicians in their pocket, what can anyone do?

[Bristolian]

Bristolian you say you are a "normal home buyer". Do you know what your property might have been valued at, say 3 or 4 years ago and what it is now valued at? I truly hope you resisted the temptation to buy that second car, that villa in Majorca, that whatever!

Clearly any home in the UK is worth much less than it was 3 or 4 years ago but I gave up on checking actual values quite some time ago and will only check again when I am ready to sell. Fortunately I finished paying for my home some 10 years ago and never thought about a second mortgage to release any of the capital for other purposes. I guess that I am “Old School” and simply considered buying a home as a means of providing a roof over the heads of my family. I was also fortunate that I was able to remain in full time employment and was never put into a position where remortgaging was financially necessary.

[Roel]

Apart from all the trivial details and the discussion who's fault it is let get back to the basics: the monetary system in its nature is doomed to fail. It cannot work. In the USA for instance the Federal Reserve (privately owned by a handful of billionaire bankers by the way) simply makes money out of thin air. To get money into circulation you have to hand it out to the public. You do that through loans via banks. That way by putting money into circulation you instantly create debt as the loans must be repaid. Not only repaid but repaid with interest (and there is not enough money for that in circulation, there cannot be). So you need more money, instantly creating more debt, more than there is money in circulation etc. You need perpetual debt and create more money out of thin air infinitely otherwise the system will collapse. This "system" is unsustainable and one day it WILL collapse.

Of course it is far more complicated with things like inflation and the expansion of money (the fact that when you have money in your savings account that means that someone else is spending YOUR money at this very moment as he received it from a bank through a loan, therefore the same money is spend more than once).

Here is a more detailed yet relatively simple explanation:
http://www.teslamap.com/public/money/index.html

[Bristolian]

http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for ... in/finance

BRITISH EMBASSY UPDATES WEBSITE GUIDANCE ON TAXATION IN SPAIN

Taxation

Britain has a double taxation agreement with Spain to ensure people do not pay tax on the same income in both countries. In accordance with Spanish and international law, all residents in Spain (nationals and non-nationals alike) are required to declare assets or groups of assets held outside Spain. Assets may include bank accounts, securities, rights, insurance, annuities, property, etc and the declaration is a separate exercise to the annual tax return.

To reinforce this obligation, and as part of the Spanish Government’s recent ant-fraud law, the Government on 15 November 2012 passed a Royal Decree that requires all residents in Spain to file an annual informative declaration of assets held overseas by 31 March each year. Exceptionally for 2012 declarations, the deadline is 30 April 2013.

Severe penalties for incorrect, incomplete or late reporting can be incurred and the legislation also means that criminal charges can be brought in the case of non-compliance. The requirement and potential penalties are in line with standard international tax practice.

Taxation is a complex issue and it is strongly recommended that professional advice is sought. The English language page of the Spanish Tax Authority website can be found on the Agencia Tributaria website.

[Hilux]

My question is, Would I be taxed for our property in Hua Hin that is in my Thai wifes name?., because as you may work out it was financed by my money.

Hi GN
Just to get back to your question.
I am quite sure that your wife has signed an official document saying:
1) That the money used to buy the land (and house) came from her alone
2) That the property is hers alone
When she went to the Land office to registred the chanote.

A legalilized copy of this document should make it quite easy to prove that you shopuld not be taxed for the property.

P.S.
If I was you I would not talk to loudly about where the money for the purchase came from. I am sure you statement was just a typo, and that the money really did come from your wife. Otherwise there have been a lot of talk about voiding chanotes where the money to finance the purchases did in fact come from farangs.

Hilux