Tax Question

I’m currently living in the canary islands but am a British citizen. If I declare I’m living in the UK am I right in thinking I can use spread betting to avoid paying taxes on my gains so long as I am in the UK for a certain amount of time in the year?

The issues these days are bank reporting, if you tell your bank you live in Spain all bank deposits will be reported to the tax office in Spain, if the tax authorities check your account they may ask source of funds and they might be liable for Spanish tax. Also they are looking at automatic witholding and now do not forget about FATCA. I moved to Phillippines for this reason and i was bored in spain.

I dont have a bank account anywhere at the moment but will be moving back to the UK once I need to open one so I can take advantage of the tax benefits from spread betting. I’ll be using a british bank account at all times and will need to remain in the country at least 91 days of the year. I did some more research lol

If im not in the UK I will be travelling somewhere or other. I fancy doing the swiss alps by motorbike someday.

Where I live is 20 miles wide and 80 miles long and im VERY bored of it now. The weather is awesome but theres not a great deal to do. Theres no way im handing over 27% of any profits to anyone if I can help it (Spanish CGT) I quite like north wales and have family there so may settle there eventually.

Thanks for your reply.

I lived near Marbella and let me tell you its pretty boring there also. I live in Philippines now much more exciting. Enjoy the mushrooms!

You won’t have anything to worry about regards tax on your spread bets providing the profits aren’t your sole source of income. If however you’re one of the very few successful participants whose income is solely derived from betting on financial markets, then the spread bet portion of any income will form part of the overall calculation for tax purposes.

In order to avoid potential issues & problems further down the line it’s always highly advisable to thoroughly explore the implications with a qualified & [B]competent[/B] tax lawyer/accountant.

I’m not sure you will be able to have a spread betting account if you live outside the UK, please check that with the broker.

I’d also recommend hiring an accountant to make sure you do it all right.

Im doing forex tax free , what do you guys pay for tax

id suggest you to not look for answares on taxes in forums. go find a pro tax advisor who has knowledge in inter-national taxings (like double taxing agreenment between countries of the EU, tax financial gains, speculant taxes in spain [canary island is as far as i know a low tax area declared by the EU and Spain]) and ask him for advice.

If the amount of money you have to pay for that pro tax advisor is more then you can safe by taking his survices then please consider if it pays off at all to try to (maybe, i am not saying you are or will) scam your tax authority in your home country and maybe get punishment for that.

in other words: if you didnt make some money in the fields of 100k and more from trading it isnt worth messing with that.


i can give you one hint thou, in UK you have to pay taxes on financial gains only when they are beeing created through a financial institution in UK and you have made the constuct in UK.

Lets say your broker and the bank-account you are trading with is located in switzerland or the canary islands then you have to pay absolutely no taxes on financial gains. <-does that help you at least for the future?

for the double taxation agreenment between the EU countries it goes as follows: yolu have to prove that the center of your “life” is not within the UK, this is done very easily, you have to be more then 180 days a year outside of the UK and they can not tax you.

But anyways, as far as i know on the canary islands you do not pay any taxes on financial gains (speculating, trading etc.) and since you aswell dont pay any taxes on financial gains in the UK as long as simply your broker is outside of UK i think your problem should be solved, am i right? at least for the next years, the past year probably this information doesnt help you.