Lawrie L wrote:
When you think it's an ageing slice of our demographic who mostly do go over they must have a big impact on the small funds Spain have
Its been fifteen years since my dad came back to England to die but prior to that he'd lived in Benidorm for eight (or was it ten) years an he was the archetypal Englishman abroad although he did socialise with Spanish friends and he lived in an apartment at the back of town where all of the Spanish service staff lived - his use of the Spanish language after all those years was limited to a few words that couldn't be understood away from the coast when I'd visit and drive him back to the UK from time to time.
Probably more pertinent to your question he rented his apartment from a landlord who asked no questions for cash every month and so never registered as a resident (he'd have to pay local taxes if he did), his UK car that he took out there wasn't taxed in the UK anymore and because he wasn't technically in Spain at all he didn't have to register or tax it there either, he insured it in England on a tourist green card basis.
For health care he could use his UK NHS number to receive treatment at the Spanish equivalent of an NHS hospital which gives its citizens a basic level of care but most working Spaniards took out medical insurance to be treated at the private Benidorm hospital that you see in all the TV documentaries, when he found that he had prostate cancer he paid for private care there and had his prostate removed at a cost of £2000, later when he found he had the Benidorm desease (liver cancer, or kidney cancer, highest killer of retired folk in that town) he returned to the UK to die.
Thats how he rolled
any opportunity to stick two fingers up at authority, Tony Soprano had nothing on my old man
