Look for Different Opinions.

Without ethics, there can be no justice, and in these times, it is very difficult to trust anyone's word. Facts must be proven again and again because around every corner, there is always someone interested in lying to you if they gain something from it. In the tax advisory market, the lack of professional ethics is also common.

Unfortunately for many foreign investors, who are accustomed to a more realistic professional ethic in their countries of origin, they cannot believe how easy it is to be deceived by certain individuals who, knowing how chaotic our Spanish judicial system is, abuse it to gain clients.

When a businessman is willing to deceive his clients and tell them what they want to hear, without caring about the legality of his advice, we must stop and think about the ethics of this character. When commercial or monetary needs outweigh professional ethics, we encounter actions against the Tax Agency.

What many clients and accounting professionals in labor and tax consultancies do not know is that there are 2 decrees that require reporting illicit or fraudulent tax activities of any treasury in Europe. We are obligated to be ethical and keep our advice within the law. Art. 305 of the Penal Code states:

"1. Anyone who, through action or omission, defrauds the state, regional, local, or provincial Public Treasury, by evading the payment of taxes, amounts withheld or that should have been withheld, or income on account of payments in kind, unduly obtaining refunds or enjoying tax benefits in the same way, provided that the amount of the defrauded quota, the amount not paid of the withholdings or income on account, or of the refunds or tax benefits unduly obtained or enjoyed exceeds 120,000 euros, will be punished with a prison sentence of one to four years and a fine of one to six times the aforementioned amount."

"3. The same penalties will be imposed when the conduct described in paragraph 1 of this article is committed against the Treasury of the European Community, provided that the amount defrauded exceeds 50,000 euros."

Another paradigm that many foreigners do not understand is that the laws in Spain are complicated. A semicolon or a period can change the substantial meaning of a law, which ends up forcing many entrepreneurs to make binding consultations to clarify their tax doubts. This can make the law seem cumbersome, and therefore many tax advisors simplify or reinterpret it to their convenience.

That is why if you are a foreigner interested in investing in Spain, we recommend that you talk to different tax advisors, do not be convinced easily, and make sure that not everything cheap is good and not everything expensive is the best. Take the time to understand that the one who tells you everything you want to hear is not necessarily thinking about you.

© Susan Cabot. Website by Hazhistoria