I have searched multimadrid and official websites but cannot find any answers, so anyone out there please help if you can!!

As a resident of the Canaries can I legally work here for a UK based company without any Spanish representation? The UK company is willing to pay everything necessary to allow me to work, and I would just need to rent a desk and a phone line. However, no-one seems to be able to answer that relatively simple question!!! The field of employment is tourism, which is a pretty emotive subject here on Lanzarote at the moment!!!

Hola madsue,

First of all, let me say, I am not an attorney, so don't hold me for any wrongful advice I may give you.

I believe you would have no issues doing exactly what you say. You could work for a foreign EU company with out having to stablish a "razon social" localy. You can also stablish yourself as an independent contractor "autonomo" and sign a "contracto de prestacion de servicios" which is a fairly standard contract. This would also allow you to deduct personal expenses incurred in doing business directly from your income received from this company. The drawback on this second option is that you get no cumulative unemployment as well as you would have to pay for your own social security so make sure you account for that when you do your numbers.

As far as the foreign inc. dealie, where you might run into problems is if whatever activity you conduct requires licensing, then most likely to do this from a foreign company is bound to at least slow down the process if not outright block your chance of getting it. Also if you are dealing with other companies rather than end consumers, they might be hesitant to work with a company with no local presence, where if there is a breach of contract, they may have to go prosecute them on a foreign court.

Hope this helps...

Hola madsue.

Try contacting these guys either by phone, or e-mail, and ask them for advice about your problem.

[URL= Eures Advisers ]Eures Adviser search for Canarias[/URL]


EURES Advisers Found : 2

Results: 1 - 2

Call him, or mail your question.

Daniel Bellon Serrano
Organisation: INEM - Instituto Nacional de Empleo
Address: C/ Suarez Naranjo 78 - E - 35004 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Country: Spain
Telephone: +34 928 445057
Fax: +34 928 445012
E-mail address: eures-palmas.bellon@inem.es
Language Spoken: English , Castellano

Or call or mail her.

Marisa Carmona Urda
Organisation: INEM - Instituto Nacional de Empleo
Address: C/ Tom� Cano 12 - E - 38005 Sta. Cruz de Tenerife
Country: Spain
Telephone: +34 922 208153
Fax: +34 922 208135
E-mail address: eures-tenerife.carmona@inem.es
Language Spoken: English , Castellano , Deutsch

This link might be of use as well-

Inem.es


Hope this will help you.


Un abrazo....

Hi madsue. I read your post a few times and I am a little unclear on something. I'm putting my two cents in here only because I used to be the guy at a U.S. company that would arrange commercial agreements with people in different countries (including Spain), to provide one service or another.

1) If it is a U.K. company, why do you care about spanish legal (working) status? I guess I ask becuase your compensation will make its way into your bank account via check or wire transfer with no corresponding report to the Spanish revenue service (the U.S. IRS). I have had several commercial agreements with foreigners and we just sent them checks or wire xfers without any reporting requirements from the local gov't. We treated them as consultants or reps. I had no interest in telling the local goverments what money I was paying to whom.

2) Asking a silly question, but as a resident of the Canaries, aren't you permitted to work in Spain?. If so and you were concerned about an unlikely audit, couldn't you report the income as misc. income on your year end taxes?

I know I have asked questions, sorry. But it seems to me that you could easily fly under the radar on this one.

Thanks for the posts guys, and the phone numbers!!!

TJ - no worries with the questions!! As it happens the UK company has been working under the umbrella of a travel agent here for the past 15 years!! I have been employed by the travel agent, have a contract, AENA badge, nominas, the lot - and at the end of each month the travel agent bills the UK for reps services. No problem until about 8 weeks ago when the turismo police here on the island did a sweep!! The travel agent has now decided to withdraw his support, leaving me with no office etc etc and a business to run!! It will be fairly impossible now for me to continue to do the same job if I really do need representation here. Hence the question!!

In the context of the European employment strategy, the mobility of workers is not only a fundamental right, but also a tool to help the labour market adapt to developments.
.........from Eures web site.

So what are the TURISMO POLICE actually looking for? Are they looking for naughty seasonal/casual workers who do not declare any income as it's all under the table and who contribute nothing to the local community in the way of taxes. And these people take away work that could be done by law abiding citizens who want to work and for law abiding employers who have a business and who need to find qualified staff?
And what reason did your local travel agent actually give you after his little discussion with the dreaded TURISMO POLICE and is this reason actually a valid reason or not! It is quite possible that a local official in Lanzarote may not be fully aware of the European directives on employment conditions in the EEC. (and for good reason)
What would be the position IN REVERSE. In other words, if a local resident in Lanzarote wanted to do your kind of job in UK, what would happen in the UK ? Would the police or other official say that you must have some kind of representation? And if so what is the representation required !

It's all very confusing.

Tell me about it!!! The problem mainly stems from the rules for letting property here on the island. All villas have to have a tourist licence before they can be let. The Tourist Authority stopped issuing licences in 1998 and since then will not allow any more licences to be issued!!!! Therefore, our UK company, along with another 113 companies , are in effect, breaking the law by having clients in "illegal" villas. Out of the literally thousands of villas on this island, only 18 of them have tourist licences!!! Our travel agent does not want to be seen to be trading in this "illegal villa trade" obviously.

I think that turismo thought that by hitting the companies, it would be a quicker way of finding the owners of all the villas on the island, so that they can fine them!! Funnily enough, the Hacienda is quite happy to take the tax from the owners under the "holiday rental tax" scheme!!!

So......anyone able to answer my original question yet

Sorry, just had to make this live again as I have just spent the past 12 hours at the airport ducking and diving, trying to meet clients showing no clipboard, badges to say who I am etc etc! Soooo unprofessional, and the poor clients think I am mad!!!! (oh yes, forgot I am )

Any concrete info gratefully received! Iberian, did you ever come across cases like this in your work with DHSS?

No not really sue, my field of expertise was in other directions, although I am not entirely un-familiar with those kind of problems, but have never really looked into all the nitty gritty finer points of it all, as they had & have "specialists" like the people at EURES who are very much in tune with all the bureaucracy, legislation, rules, regulations, protocols and general bull shit involved in working in another european country.

Unfortunately I cannot advise you as to how to sort out your problem, but I still think that the people at EURES can, and have done so for many, and I feel that whatever you do, you should just follow the advise of a professionally qualified expert in all the legal requirements, and make sure that you are in compliance with whatever it is you should be in compliance with.

Just call them and ask, what have you got to lose? you could call anonymously even, give a false name, if it worries you that much, just call them and get an opinion on how you could proceed at least, and you never know, they could even offer to get things sorted out for you, free of charge.

By the way, I sent you a (PM) earlier today.

Cheers for now..... :cheers: