Workshop in Spanish taxes for individuals living abroad

Last 12nd of April, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized, in collaboration with its member BLAW & TAX, a conference about the “Spanish Taxes for Individuals Living Abroad”. The event gathered representatives of different Spanish and Belgian companies, members of the Chamber, representatives of European Institutions and Spanish regional delegations.

The conference was run by Inmaculada Pineda, partner of BLAW & TAX, a firm specialized in international taxation and legal-tax consulting at national and international scope related to corporate aspects.

The conference focused on two main points: fiscal residency and its implications, regarding the taxation and fiscal benefits provided by the Spanish domestic legislation.

First, the speaker presented the alternative rules that determine that the tax residency is located in Spain. The right identification of the fiscal residency is fundamental when determining the tax obligations of the natural persons.

Thus, the Spanish regulation incorporates the criteria of residence, location of economic interests and the presumption of tax residency in case the spouse or the children are tax residents in Spain.

Inmaculada Pineda made a parenthesis to explain carefully the well-known model 720 which establishes the informative obligations on the assets located in the Spanish territory. This declaration must be about three blocks: the accounts in financial institutions, the accounts in financial assets in general and real right on real estate.

Then, Inmaculada Pineda referred to the situation of tax havens and the rule of “tax quarantine”, according to which the person continues to pay taxes in Spain during the transfer year and the following four years.

Afterwards, the conference focused on the OECD Conventions and, especially, on those established with the aim of avoiding double taxation. These conventions are of great importance because they have primacy over the Spanish domestic regulations.

In addition, particular cases were addressed on the maintenance and the change of residence and its related obligations.

Then, Pineda explained the tax benefits incorporated in the Spanish regulation. These are mainly developed in the articles 7.p) of the Spanish Income Tax (LIRPF) and 9 of the Spanish Income Tax Regulations (RIRPF). She emphasized the fact that they are incompatible with one another and that it is usually necessary to analyze each case to be able to choose correctly between the two options.

Among the attendees, this situation raised many questions about the various situations in which these exemptions might be eligible. Inmaculada Pineda answered all the raised questions and attended all those who wanted to obtain more information about the various situations previously exposed in the conference.

Definitely, the event organized with our member BLAW & TAX was a great success and helped to understand much better the tax situation in Spain for people who are displaced abroad.

Success of the 2nd Workshop on the VAT on Intra-Community and E-commerce Operations

On March 15th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, in collaboration with its member Spanish VAT Services, organized a conference about the “VAT on intra- community and e-commerce operations”. The event gathered representatives of different Spanish and Belgian companies, members of the Chamber, representatives of European Institutions and Spanish regional delegations.

The speaker of the conference was Fernando Matesanz, Managing Director of Spanish VAT Services and member of the International VAT Association.

For the second year in a row, Fernando took part in this conference, and once again the attendees showed a lot of interest. This was evidenced by the great number of questions that were raised during the conference.

The application of VAT is a key factor for companies acting at an intra-community level  when defining their profit margin. Nevertheless, not all the companies are aware of the exemptions and tax advantages available to them within the EU.

First, Fernando Matesanz began his speech by explaining the current situation of the intra-community trading operations, which cannot be considered as exportations. Additionally, he exposed how the intra supplies of goods are VAT exempted, provided that they meet some requirements, such as having a VAT number (included in the VIES database) and being able to prove the transport of the goods outside the supplier’s country.

Sometimes, the deadline for getting this number changes between countries. This have put some recent created companies in difficulty in terms of trading within Europe.

Moreover, it is not always easy to prove both requirements, which have led to some controversies that were solved by the European Court of Justice.

Nowadays, we find different harmonisation proposals that aim to clarify the criteria to has to be followed when many chain transactions are done.

On the other hand, the speaker highlighted the usefulness of the M.O.S.S (Mino One Stop Shops), that aims to avoid companies to pay a different VAT within each country they operate. According to this system, the Company pays taxes to its National Authority, which is in charge of satisfying the debts acquired with the other EU country’s authorities. However, there are some countries which have a bigger commercial network than others, which led some Member States to reject this proposal.

Subsequently, Matesanz referred to the supply of services. The taxation for these exchanges is set out in article 44 of the European VAT Directive. According to this article, “the place of supplies of services to a taxable person acting as such shall be the place where that person has established his business”. But still, a supplier of a service must always check if the recipient of the service is a taxable person, if it is acting like one and the place where it is established. 

This point gave rise to a discussion among the attendees, who were deeply involved in the debate. Sometimes, the companies have headquarters in one country, but they also have some fixed establishments in other countries, that  are, in fact, the beneficiaries of the service. Therefore, they should be the ones receiving the invoice of the taxations.

Then, Matesanz briefly mentioned the characteristics of non-EU trade, that is the direct and indirect exportations.

To conclude, the speaker underlined the importance of e-commerce nowadays, given the high number of transactions that are carried out through the Internet daily. For this reason, he spent some time to differentiate  B2B e-commerce goods transactions (which work in the same way as EU supply of goods) from B2C goods transactions, more typical of Internet sales, in which companies must take  into account the VAT of all the countries included in the transaction.

At the end of the conference, the participants were able to openly raise their questions.

Again, this conference held together with our partners of Spanish VAT Services was a success and met the expectations of those present. From the Chamber, we hope to count on their presence in future editions.

In collaboration with:

Gastronomic Dinner with the Chef Marcos Morán in Luxembourg

Last 28th of February, the prestigious Cercle Munster of Luxembourg organized a gastronomic dinner prepared by the chef Marcos Morán with the participation of Hispania and the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg. This is the first event organized in this prestigious Luxembourgish private club that promotes Spanish gastronomy for the last few years.

The chef from Asturias delighted the 70 and more participants with an exceptionally gastronomic Spanish tasting menu. Among the participants, the ambassador of Spain in Luxembourg, members of the Chamber, representatives of European institutions, head directors of global companies and Luxembourgish members of the Cercle Munster were present.

The event is part of a programme called “Hispania around the world”. It consists of a series of trips during the year which gives the opportunity to know better the Spanish gastronomy and products in famous places.

About Marcos Morán:

Marcos Morán is the gastronomic director of Hispania in Brussels and London. He is also the chef and the property owner of the restaurant Casa Gerardo in Asturias, Spain.

Mr Morán is the fifth generation of professional chef in charge of Casa Gerardo; the restaurant which celebrates its 125th birthday and which was awarded a Michelin star and “Tres Soles” by Repsol Guide.

In 2008, Mr Móran was awarded with the prize of “Chef of the Year 2008”. During the principal gastronomic congresses in the world, he is a very scrupulous representative of Spain. In 2010, he received the “Chef Millesimé” award for the most promising Spanish chef. In 2016, he was honoured with the award “Chef de l’Avenir” by the International Academy of Gastronomy which awards talented young chefs in Europe.

The restaurant Hispania received important prizes such as “Alimentos de España” in 2014 awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment and a prize awarded by the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy for the restaurant, with its chef Marcos Morán, which best promotes de Spanish gastronomy out of Spain.

 

 

 

 

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Young Professionals Network Night

The 28th of February, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg participated in the fifth edition of the Young Professionals Networking Night, an event supported by the Chamber and organized by different European chambers based in Belgium.

Jan Vermeiren, author of Let’s Connect! How to REALLY use LinkedIn and Life is a Game! explained how to improve our personal branding and the importance of having and updated and powerful LinkedIn profile for attracting potential customers and/or recruiters.

The keynote speaker Laurentine Van Landeghem presented her experience as an entrepreneur. With her company Clouds of Fashion, Laurentine has become an excellent example of how relevant has become social media in engaging costumers. She highlighted the importance of having a strong and well-defined personal brand. Clouds of Fashion is now a booming business with stores in Antwerp, Knokke and Gent.

The event was an opportunity to link up with other young professionals from no less than thirteen international and local Chambers of Commerce from across Belgium.

Conference “Data Protection: A New Challenge For Companies” With DBB Defenso

Last 27th February, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a conference, in collaboration with DBB Defenso about data protection as a new challenge for companies.

The next 25th May, the new regulation about data protection in the EU, also known as GDPR will come into effect. From that day on, all the organizations, companies, NGO’s or public companies will have to comply with this new regulation about data protection for EU citizens and residents.

This law is quite complex and introduces numerous changes that the companies must start to understand and implement. This is why Claude Englebert and Joris Roesems, respectively associate and partner at DBB Defenso, have explained, each, the latest developments that this law entails for companies and how to implement it correctly.

First, Nathalie Charpentier, partner at DBB Defenso and member of the Board of Directors at the Chamber, said a welcome word, introduced briefly the firm and thanked the attendees for their participation in the conference.

Afterwards, Claude Englebert presented the new regulation that will be put into effect on the 25th May. This law will affect all the companies that are established in the EU and those which work with data from the EU citizens. In order to explain this regulation, he highlighted the main principles of personal data processing: transparency, a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose, data minimization, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality and accountability.

Then, Englebert mentioned that, in order to comply with all the data when processing, companies have to meet at least one of the following requirements: consent of the personal data subject; the existence of a contract among both parts and a legal obligation; the protection of vital interests; the task must be one of a public authority or the existence of legitimate interests.

The speaker also mentioned the rights of the data subject, as well as the new obligations for undertaking companies, organizations and public bodies. He also detailed the consequences in case a company doesn’t comply with the law.

On the other hand, Joris Roesems, explained the Data Protection Officer’s role: its conception inside the companies, its position and the different tasks associated to the role. These points are explained in detail in the articles 37-39 of this new law.

Lastly, Englebert explained the methodology to follow for the practical implementation of this new regulation, including the auditing, implementation and maintenance. (You can check the full presentation here).

Finally, during the question time the attendees representing numerous European companies were very active and participative, and expressed their doubts and questions in order to be able to implement correctly this new regulation about data protection in their enterprises.

In collaboration with:

Conference: Employment opportunities and permanent training in Belgium

The past 20th February, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg took part in a conference about employment opportunities and permanent training in Belgium, organized by the UNED centre in Brussels. It was an information session for UNED students and young professionals living in Belgium who are interested about permanent training offered by UNED, as well as job portals and support national employment offices.

Firstly, María Casado, Director at the associated center of UNED in Brussels, welcomed all the young professionals attending to the conference. Afterwards, she presented the services offered by UNED in Brussels, as well as the different employment and internship opportunities that are accessible for young residents in Belgium.

On the other hand, Concepción Gutiérrez del Castillo and José Luis Estébanez, Employment Counselor and head of citizen information respectively, at the Employment and Healthcare Counseling of the Embassy of Spain in Belgium detailed some information related to accommodation and health coverage in Belgium. They also presented the employment portal that the Counseling offers the Spanish citizens through their webpage.

Lastly, María Catalán, Secretary General of the Chamber presented the services that the institution offers to Spanish citizens. In addition to the organization of training events and workshops, the Chamber has an employment portal, which by the way, has just been redesigned (www.empleobelux.com). Through a virtual visit tour, the Secretary General showed which are the services offered by this portal for both people searching for a job in Belgium and Luxembourg and companies that are searching for new talents.

As services for candidates, this portal does not only inform about job offers for Spanish speaking people, it also provides the necessary information for a quick adaptation and integration in BeLux, administrative procedures, accommodation, etc.

Finally, María Catalán presented the Chamber as a local contact point in BeLux of the EYE Programme (Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs) for all those entrepreneurs that want to take part in the project.

Breakfast-Conference: “Understand and promote the compliance”

Last 6th of February 2018, the Chamber organized a conference about the comprehension and the promotion of the compliance in collaboration with DS Avocats Law Firm. The event was attended by many representatives of Spanish and Belgian companies, as well as EU organization’s representatives, who were interested on the impact this topic could have on them, wanted to know which steps to follow in order to avoid the penalties their companies may suffer.  

First, Jean-Marie Salva, partner of DS Avocats, started by pronouncing some welcome words and by thanking the attendees for their participation before presenting the law office’s work around the world. Then, he presented Ángela López de Molina, partner of the law firm, who will set a headquarters office in Madrid on March 1st.

During her presentation, López Molina spoke about the current legislation in Spain, which since the change of the Penal Code in 2015 which allows to impute criminal responsibility to the legal persons, requires the companies to design a crime prevention plan.

The compliance was created in 1970, in response to the corruption experienced by the United States through the legal persons.

The crime prevention plan is set as a series of measures of surveillance and control implemented to prevent the commission of crimes or, at least, to try to reduce significantly the possibility of being committed. To do this, it is necessary to count on the “Compliance Officer”, that is a person in charge of preventing all the possible crime situations and trying to solve them.

Furthermore, it is necessary for all the employees to have access to that plan and to expressly accept it. As a conclusion, Ángela mentioned the prevention, detection, answer and supervision activities necessary to credit that the company acts according to the law.

Later, Michel Debroux, partner of DS Avocats, exposed the evolution of the compliance through the years in Europe, which changed from something voluntary to something mandatory.

Debroux pointed out the existence of cultural differences to show the difficulty in unifying the action criteria, even inside a same company with offices established in different places of the world. Thus, he underlined the necessity of taking into account the local specificities to suit in law.

In the case of a company with offices in different places of the world, it is necessary for all of them to apply to the rules of the headquarter office and to its owns, as they have to fit in the local customs.

Thus, the compliance is a process which requires the organization, integration and verification of the regulatory compliance.

As López Molina explained, the speaker described the main tasks that the “Compliance Officer” needs to accomplish. He needs to establish a list with the potential risks. Therefore, he will need to be totally integrated in the company and has to be able to deal with crisis.

Finally, to conclude, the partner of DS Avocats presented what they call “the 10 rules of the perfect compliance project” in which the main characteristics to respect in order to manage perfectly this project are summarized.

The conference took part in a participatory environment during which every attendee had the opportunity to express their doubts and talk with the speakers.

In collaboration with:

    

Conference about the new measures on labour law and tax law in 2018

The past 18th January 2018, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized in their headquarters a breakfast-conference about the new measures on labour law and tax law in 2018. The event was organized in collaboration with  Group S Business portal & accredited payroll provider and the law firm van Cutsem Wittamer Marnef & Partners. 

The first speaker was  Hugues Thibault, head of Group S’ International Department, who spoke about the new measures related to the Belgian labour law for 2018. During his presentation, he explained different topics related to it such as:

  • Reduction of labour cost : reduced social security contributions
  • Posting of employees : obligation to appoint a liaison officer
  • Profit sharing bonus : possibility to grant bonus not heavily taxed
  • Mobility allowance : returning his company car against cash
  • New notice periods in case of dismissals
  • IT tools used for personnel purposes: new social and fiscal treatment

Afterwards, Alain Vanderstraeten, lawyer and tax partner at van Cutsem Wittamer Marnef & Partners, explained the agreement reached by the Belgian federal government about the 2018-2020 tax reform package. Various of those tax measures are related to corporate tax. He highlighted the following ideas:

  • Decrease of corporate income tax rate
  • Minimum corporate income tax
  • Capital gain on shares
  • Withholding tax on capital decrease
  • Notional interest deduction
  • Tax consolidation
  • La Cámara agradece la alta participación de asistentes y la colaboración de Group S y el bufete de abogados van Cutsem Wittamer Marnef & Partners, que contribuyeron a que el evento fuese todo un éxito.

The Chamber would like to thank the big participation of the attendees and the collaboration of Group S and an Cutsem Wittamer Marnef & Partners, who contributed to the great success of this event.

In collaboration with:

   

Students from Erasmus Hogeschool Brussels visit the Chamber

The past 7th of December, more than thirty students from the last year of the hospitality management degree at Erasmus Hogeschool Brussels visited the headquarters of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg. During the visit, the students could learn more detailed information about how the Chamber work, the existing membership types, which tasks are developed on each department, as well as the different activities and projects developed at the Chamber in both Belgium and Luxembourg. Two good examples of this are the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program, of which the Chamber is local contact point, and the Spanish for business courses that are organized in collaboration with Instituto Cervantes.

The diaspora of Spanish professionals and their contribution to the internationalization of the Spanish economy

The past 28th of November, Leading Brands of Spain Forum, in collaboration with the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, Marca España and the Embassy of Spain in Belgium, organized in Brussels a meeting called “The diaspora of Spanish professionals and their contribution to the internationalization of the Spanish economy”. A diverse group of Spanish professionals established in the Belgian capital participated in this initiative, which aimed to debate about the asset that the Spanish professionals who are living abroad represented for the internationalization of the economy and the Spanish companies.

After the welcome words by Cecilia Yuste Rojas, Ambassador of Spain in Belgium, and José Luis Bonet, President of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum, the General Manager of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum and moderator of the event, Miguel Otero, introduced the subject and the speakers.

Right after, Enrique Fanjul, member of the Scientific Council of Elcano Royal Institute, took the floor. During his intervention, Fanjul explained that over the past few years, the number of Spanish professional established abroad had increased considerably. These professionals work in Spanish companies, in multinationals, in public organizations of the countries where they are, and in international organizations. He argued that it is necessary to make an effort and establish mechanisms to take advantage of this asset of great value.

Afterwards, some success stories about professional networks abroad were presented.

The first success story was done by Wim den Tuinder, Director of IESE Alumni Association & Institutional Development. During his intervention, Wim explained the expansion process of its alumni network and the different programs of development and expansion that are carried out from IESE.

The next success story was presented by Nicolás García, Director of the “Liga Global Network”. During his intervention, Nicolás talked about the strategy and the goals that are pursued through this initiative, which seeks to consolidate the positioning of LaLiga worldwide.

Then, Juan Rodríguez-Villa, president of the Federation of Spanish Chambers of Commerce in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania (FEDECOM), described the importance of FEDECOM to create relations between Spain and other the countries around the world

Finally, a debate took place about the subject matter in which all the attendees could participate. Among the most important subjects, they discussed about the role of women in the business world, the emigration of the young Spanish talent and the role of the Spanish companies in the process of the internationalization of ‘Marca España’.