Spain Forum

WT
Joined 2006
Posts: 3

18 years ago

Help! American needs visa & tax info for early retiree

18 years ago

Hi
I am in San Francisco area,planning on moving/traveling to Spain in Sept.06 and not clear yet on which visa to get and the advantages and disadvantages of each.What I would like to do is spend about 6m a year in Spain and travel the rest of the year.I want to spend time in long term rentals until I am ready to buy and we are not in a hurry as we want to explore Spain and Europe deeply.My husband and 5 yo child are bilingual so we prefer to probably stay in a castilian speaking rural area for the schools and life( tho my dh loves Barcelona so have not totally given up that area yet).

We would prefer to stay several years in Europe based in Spain and hopefully by then decide to buy ( probably finca) and use it as our second home for half of the year.So the retirement visa seems good for us,but I am wondering how that will affect our taxes (as we are living on a modest income from interest) and travel within the EU/schengen areas?

If I live there less than half a year( 183 days),do I still need to pay Spain's taxes on top of my US taxes?

If I travel in EU/schengen countries will that still count as days in Spain?

Can I use the retirement visa if I only live there less than half a year?

The other option is the student visa ( which friends of ours from here used last year while the dad took classes in Spanish and kids went to school there,mom worked online),but we really would prefer not to come back to the US for years ( tho might be interested in a trip to Argentina or Thailand during this time).

I feel like I can not really plan the trip til I fully understand the advantages adn disadvantages of the visas and have been having trouble finding this info.Does anyone know any sources to answer these kinds of quesitons from an American expat viewpoint ?

Thanks so much in advance!

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