Hey guys,

So here's my deal. I have been in Madrid for about 7 months and have been focusing on my online endeavors. It's been paying off handsomely and the revenue is reaching new highs each month.

I am affiliated with a bunch of companies and I have direct deposits going to one of the big USA banks. Unfortunely, it's expensive and a hassle to withdraw money every month because of fees and cash limits each day. In order to pay rent, food, and bills each month, I have to make at least 5 withdraws which is about $50 in monthly fees.

The affiliate networks are all US based (like Google, etc...) and all have my Soc Sec number and banking info.

Now that I live in Madrid, I was wondering what should I do? Should I change my banking info ONLY, and keep my US home address and Soc Sec number for taxes?

OR, should I change everything? Bank accounts, home address (from USA to Spain address), and from US Soc Sec number to my Madrid Soc Sec number.

If I changed my Google (adsense) bank account to Caja Madrid and left my US address and Soc Sec, will that look suspicious to Google? My main web traffic is US based and will remain that way.

Where should I pay personal or business taxes? In the US there are all kinds of write offs to take advantage of, but I am not sure of the write offs in Spain, so should I keep my commissions payout under my US soc sec or switch it over?

Any insight would be great.

Thanks!

What about finding a bank that does free internation transfers? I use ING Direct to send money to the UK all the time and then don't charge anything.

Out of curiosity, what is the web address of your "online endeavors"...?

I hadn't thought about international transfers because the last time I wired over $1,000 US dollars from Wells Fargo to Caja Madrid it costs $50.

Thought that was a universal thing that all banks do.

Yesterday, I opened up an account at Caja Madrid and I need to change all my banking info soon to avoid these withdraw fees.

Doe ING direct have banks in Madrid? I hadn't noticed.

As far as web addresses, I have many. I am in many different niches (including travel) and I do a heck of a lot of search engine optimization and online marketing for traffic.
Sorry, I can't give out my web address for many reasons including competition (been in the game too long to see the downfalls of that).

Thanks for the tip on ING. I'll see what they offer.

colenot, glad to hear you're doing well online. You may be in a similar situation as me with regards to Internet business income.

So you have Spanish residency and a NIE (Número de Identidad Extranjero).

Is all your income coming from USA sources? You MIGHT be able to avoid paying Spanish taxes on this income. And although you have Spanish residency you'd still have to claim this as US income filing an income tax return - which you'd have to pay U.S. taxes on the amount over (something like) $90,000 USDollars.

The USA is the only country in the world which taxes its citizens living abroad - on the amount in excess of (something like) $90,000.

Now, after so many years, I don't recall how it worked for me when I changed over my Google (adsense) bank account information and Spanish residency address. But my direction was clear as I was/am a registered S.L. company and wanted all income to be "official" as Spanish income. Plus, I didn't want to frequently transfer money from the US bank to my Spanish bank and pay that transfer fee as you're doing so I had all my income directed to my Spanish bank account.

And if your business is doing really well it may behoove you to claim yourself as "Autónomo" (self employed) at the very least. You could even start your own S.L.. S.L.'s gives you certain protections but you'd have to pay corporate tax and other hoops.

Best of luck! If you have more questions I may be able to help.

Saludos, MadridMan

Thanks.

All of my income is from US affiliate programs.

Most of the affiliate income has been made the second half of this year.

With the move and working a normal job earlier this year, I had no time to focus on my internet projects. But once I got here 7 months ago, I focused all my extra time on the net while teaching english on the side for 15 hrs a week for the first 2 months. Those fruits have been paying off monthly as my income is almost doubling each month.

If all goes well and momentum continues, I will easily pass $90,000 next year with affiliate income.

I have a corp set up in the US, but I believe most of these programs were set up with my SS# as the net income wasn't big enough at the time.

If the US is going to tax me for making over $90k because I am overseas, I may as well keep the tax info in the US and just change over bank info. Does this make sense?

Other than building a few websites on the side here, none of my net business comes from Spain or any other country.

Not sure why I would have to pay anything in Spain since nothing will be declared here except for that initial income from the 2 months of english classes I taught.

Also, I don't know how long I will be living in Madrid. It may just be for a couple/few years then half the time here and half the time in LA.

My main concern is avoiding the fees and hassles of withdrawing money a lot.

BofA has blocked our cards twice for fraud protection and I had to explain both times that we are overseas and we have to keep taking out money to pay for rent, bills, and food. Recently, our mileage debit cards were canceled and reissued because of a breach in the airlines system. So, we're without cards until the send them to our friend in LA who will then fedex them to us.

I need an easier system.

If I can just change all the bank info without changing home addresses and without any hassles from the Affiliate programs, that would be just dandy. I don't want to have to reapply for any programs with new partial info.


What to do...


Thanks!

Last time I looked at this subject I found it too complicated so I went the same way as MadridMan and set up an SL and pay autonomo. Incidentally, every SL needs someone paying autonomo. I find this charge very high compared to its UK equivalent, where I also still pay it.

The problem was that if you earn all your income in the UK, and live in Spain, you may elect to pay your taxes in the UK but...
If under the Spanish taxation system you would have been paying more in tax, you have to pay them the excess.

I don't know if this is an inter Europe thing and would apply or not to the US, but it just seemed too complicated to me so I went completely Spanish as far as residency, taxation and self employment were concerned.

In the short term I would do what Daniel-Madrid suggests and set up an ING account here.

Thanks for your suggestion. I'll look into ING tonight.

Does anyone know what the routing number/sort code for banks in Spain (Caja Madrid) would be?

Is that inserted in the middle of the IBAN number? Or is it the BIC number?


When changing banking info with these companies I work with (Google adsense for example), they want the account and routing number of the new bank, but out here they don't have routing numbers.

Thanks for the replies!

A typical Spanish bank account number is **** **** ** **********, where the first four digits are the bank, the next four the particular branch or office, the next two are check digits, and then the remaining ten are the bank accounts number.

The IBAN number should include all the details needed for an international transfer and would normally be about 22 digits long. Many online bank accounts will help you look up IBAN numbers if you're not sure. The BIC number is usually 8 digits long and does not include details of the bank accounts, just the bank. You don't always need it but it is useful to have.

Thanks for explaining that, Jamongris. So, which one should be used specifically for the routing number/sort code?


MadridMan, since we belong to the some of the same affiliates companies (Adsense, cj, etc...) what are you using for routing numbers(BIC or what specific part of the IBAN)?

colenot, as jamongris mentions above, you'd do well to ask your local bank about these things as mine would vary from yours. If you access your account online you can likely find this information there too.

My IBAN starts with ES61 then the routing & account numbers whose order jamongris details above.

Saludos, MadridMan