Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin April 14

FEATURE ARTICLES: "American-style tipping reaches restaurants in Spain" and "It’s time to do your IRPF Spanish income tax declaration"

Every year, April marks the start of the tax declaration season in Spain. It’s also normally quite wet and drizzly, but while the climate is fickle and various parts of Spain suffer through an early drought, taxes are forever inescapable. No need to sweat through your tax returns though, as we’ve got all the info you need to make it as painless as possible.

What has been paining some people this week, however, is the fact that American-style tips of 10% or more are being added to the end of some restaurant bills in Spain. An outrageous cultural imposition or a necessary survival technique for restaurants and their staff alike? You be the judge…

Tax time!

This week, from Tuesday April 11, the window has opened for residents and anyone who has any income in Spain to file their Spanish income tax returns. The IRPF, also known as the Declaración de la Renta, ends on June 30. Between now and then, taxpayers must declare their earnings for 2022 providing they have earned more than 5,500 euros.

The threshold is higher for over-65s and over-75s, who have to have earned at least 6,700 euros and 8,100 euros respectively before paying tax in Spain and declaring their tax returns, the truth remains that the vast majority of foreign nationals who either live or have some form of income in Spain must do their IRPF tax returns.

The tax rate for residents depends on the earnings, while non-residents who only live in Spain for up to half the year are taxed a 24% flat rate on income earned within Spain.

Some people never even think they have to present their tax returns in Spain, or else try to get away with not doing it since they’re not residents or not Spanish and maybe the taxman won’t notice or bother chasing them.

However, it’s really just not worth it, especially as the Hacienda has introduced a much stricter Tax Control Plan this year to deal with foreign residents who either don’t declare their income or declare as non-residents when they should declare as residents.

In fact, there are some fairly juicy tax deductions you can benefit from, if you know how. Each Autonomous Community in Spain will have its own tax breaks, so it’s worth checking out what you could be eligible for.

For instance, in the Region of Murcia taxpayers can get tax reductions for investment in renewable energy facilities and water saving devices; 50% back if they donate to bio-sanitary research or to causes aimed at protecting the local cultural heritage; or financial support up to the value of 600 euros if they care for people over the age of 65 or individuals with disabilities, among many other options.

As these benefits change from place to place and may be different from one tax year to the next, it makes sense to seek professional help and advice when doing your tax returns.

Technically, it’s possible to do your own tax declaration yourself online, but the process is so complex and not at all user friendly, especially if your first language is not Spanish legalese (which it’s not for many Spaniards!), that it just makes sense to pay a nominal fee to have a solicitor or accountant do it for you.

However you do it, just be sure you get it done within the next two months or risk landing in hot water with the taxman!

Voting with your sheet

The local municipal elections are scheduled for May 28, 2023 in Spain, and anyone who already registered their intent to vote on the electoral roll will be eligible to vote.

While that process has already closed, you can now apply to request to vote by mail. You will have to go to your local Correos post office and get an application form, which should then be sent off (by freepost) along with all the necessary documentation.

This also holds true for applying to vote by proxy, which may be a popular option for expats and second-homeowners who may not be in Spain in person on May 28.

Applications to vote by mail must be received by the Spanish Electoral Census Office before May 18, so if this is something that interests you it would be a good idea to get started now.

Tough to swallow

Spain’s Masterchef television series has been dealt a major blow to the stomach after one guest at filming in Valencia city revealed on social media she and dozens of others fell ill afterwards.

The episode was shot in January outside Oceanogràfic de València where contestants cooked a menu prepared by chef Rakel Cernicharo. In celebration of the marine world, 120 workers at the aquarium were invited to sample the creation of Masterchef hopefuls.

The programme aired on Spanish channel RTVE on Monday April 10, and a woman, one of the diners, has claimed on Twitter that “out of 70 people, more than half” ended up with gastroenteritis.

“The following night I had to go to A&E to get a shot of Primperan to stop vomiting. I lost 5 kilos in three days,” she said. “My company informed MasterChef of what had happened. We couldn’t go to work... (MasterChef) haven’t even had the decency to apologise to us.”

The Health Department has confirmed that 44 people were ‘intoxicated’ during the recording of the episode, and the producer of the show, Shine Iberia, has since issued an apology.

Weather you like it or not…

There can be little doubt that summer has arrived early in Spain this year and the official data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition has confirmed that last March was not only the second warmest of 21st century, but also one of the driest on record.

Ironically, last month actually began with two record low-temperature days, the thermometers plummeting to a frigid -11.5ºC in Guadalajara. However, the weather rebounded spectacularly after the 7th and had ramped up to 37.7ºC in Tenerife before too long.

The country registered an average temperature of 11.6ºC during the third month of the year, 1.8ºC higher than in previous years, but that’s nothing compared to the Canary Islands, where the mercury soared to 3ºC hotter than normal.

But while these temperatures are certainly good news for the tourism industry they are a stark reminder of the damages of climate change, and the experts predict that in the coming years our weather will become even more extreme, with more frequent bouts of heatwaves and devastating storms.

Given the high temperatures and low rainfall, it’s all too possible that Spain could swelter through another summer like that of 2022, according to the experts. One of the main factors in the El Niño phenomenon, a warming of the waters of the tropical Pacific that affects global temperatures and a climatic event that is becoming increasingly common.

According to Viñas, “this possible El Niño could be strong, which would fit a fairly hot summer with fairly high temperatures and heat waves during the summer.”

This factor added to climate change could lead to a “quite hot” high season, and the droughts have already begun, dramatically changing the landscape of some parts of the country.

This has some thinking about how to deal with the possible situation of a water shortage or lack of supplies in their home in Spain. A common summer scenario is a house full of visitors and no water to even flush a toilet.

Aside from doing our part to help preserve water, including such actions as turning off taps when cleaning your teeth and not over-watering the garden, it can be a good idea to install a backup water tank to guarantee your water supply if the taps dry up this summer. And if not this summer, then next or the one after that, as such episodes are only expected to become more common and severe as we go on.

Tipping the scales

On a lighter note, as the weather hots up and the spring-summer season gets into high gear, most of us will enjoy a few pleasant meals out at our favourite restaurants. Here in Spain, the tipping culture is quite different to other countries, with locals preferring to leave a smattering of change or a couple of euros rather than pulling out the calculator to work out a percentage of the bill.

But as the tourist trade booms, many customers are noticing a sway towards a more American-style of tipping in Spain, particularly in the bigger cities.

In places like Madrid and Barcelona, hospitality insiders have noticed a new type of bill emerging, one that details the basic cost of the meal, as well as what the charge would be if the customer were to leave a tip of 5%, 8% or 10%. It’s entirely voluntary of course, and the staff can’t force you to pay the additional charge tacked onto the end of the bill, but many consumers feel that restaurants are pushing for larger tips in order to keep the basic wage of waiting staff low.

To add insult to industry, one Madrid restaurant chain has caused quite a stir by launching a campaign encouraging its customers to leave a tip so that waiting staff can “fulfil” their “little dreams and ambitions”.

This tactic, unsurprisingly, had the opposite effect, with many patrons refusing to leave anything at all in protest.

Murcia

Property owners on La Manga Club golf resort are excited about the release next week of the second annual La Manga Life magazine, the glossy lifestyle publication created by local resident Peter Morrow.

This latest edition of the magazine, which will be available to pick up from locations around the resort – including in guest rooms at the 5-star Grand Hyatt La Manga Club Golf, Resort & Spa hotel – will feature an exclusive interview with José Antonio Castro, the Chairman of Grupo Inversor Hesperia, the company which owns the new hotel.

It’s significant because the normally private Castro opens up about the much-anticipated refurbishment of the hotel and the company’s ambitious plans for the future at La Manga Club, leaving those homeowners on the resort excited to discover what impact the new changes will have at a time when the development seems to be on the up and up.

The magazine also contains a 4-page article on the La Solana restaurant at La Quinta Club, the residential and leisure club at the heart of La Manga Club, as well as sections on sport, hospitality, Spanish brandy, lifestyle stories and more.

A suspected killer was caught in Murcia this week, having fled to the Region after reportedly murdering the gunsmith of a shooting club located in the municipality of Canovelles in Barcelona. Former military man Roger LS, who was a member of the club, is said to have shot the manager five times in the back before running away.

Roger then took two women hostage and forced them at gunpoint to drive him south down to Murcia, despite roadblocks and checkpoints that the Barcelona police – the Mossos d’Esquadra – had set up around the city. He was located in Murcia the next day, carrying two firearms and a knife.

🚩Detenido en #Murcia🚩

El presunto autor del homicidio ocurrido en el día de ayer en un club de tiro de la provincia de #Barcelona

Portaba dos armas de fuego y un arma blanca cuando fue arrestado por agentes de @policia pic.twitter.com/E3PhslMJFu
— Policía Nacional (@policia) April 9, 2023

In another potentially life-threatening situation, piles of possibly lethal children’s toys were seized at Cartagena Easter markets last week, in what was a major swoop by the Local Police force. The coppers confiscated dozens of toy swords, revolvers with laser pointers and cuddly soft toys that posed a “threat of choking, poisoning and injury” and which were being flogged by the side of the street by apparently unscrupulous traders.

Cartagena is in for a busy weekend, by all accounts, as no fewer than five cruise ships dock between Thursday and Sunday, making April one of the Port’s busiest months of the year. On Thursday, a double stopover by the ships Aurora, belonging to P&O Cruises and coming from Southampton, and the Seven Seas Splendor, of the Regent Seven Seas shipping company brought nearly 2,500 tourists to the city in just one day.

On Friday and over the weekend, the Star Pride and the Star Flyer, both belonging to the Star Clipper shipping company, also call in Cartagena, along with the Clio, of the Grand Circle Cruise Line.

However, the growing popularity of Cartagena as a port of call for cruises has raised questions over how much is on offer for tourists, with some lamenting that the city lacks anything to see or do in the immediate vicinity of the port, and how much money the cruise tourists actually contribute to the local economy. There is plenty going on in the city, of course, with museums, sights and events galore, but some tour operators prefer to take cruise passengers by bus to La Manga or Mazarrón during their time in Murcia.

Check out our EVENTS DIARY for events coming up in the Region of Murcia:

Spain

If you’re planning to escape to the beach this year you might run into some trouble since the Balearic Islands, always a popular destination for tourists, has announced that 28 of its beaches are now smoke-free.

The new regulations, which affect the shorelines of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, are aimed at promoting good health while also cleaning up the beaches of cigarette butts, millions of which are swept into the sea every year and pose a serious threat to marine wildlife.

Tourists need not be worried about being fined if they light up in the prohibited spots on the islands, as the authorities are instead appealing to the ‘social responsibility’ of the public. Huge signs have been erected along the shorelines informing smokers of where they can legally have a puff, and all contain QR codes that bathers can use to get more information on the regulations.

In the party resort of Ibiza, iconic beaches such as Playa de Santa Eulalia del Río and Playa de Talamanca have implemented the smoking ban, as have Binissafúller or Platja Gran in Menorca.

Over in Mallorca, the smoke free zones include the beaches of Sant Joan, Sa Platgeta, Santa Ponsa, Cala Estància, Cala Sant Vicenç and Caló des Moro.

And that might not be your only concern on Spanish beaches this year as the authorities have warned of the early arrival of Portuguese man o’war jellyfish, whose sting might not be deadly in most cases but certainly packs a big punch.

Several beaches on the Canary Islands were closed off to bathers over the Easter weekend as these long-tentacled sea creatures were washed up by the rough waters, and no fewer than 20 beach-goers had to be treated for stings over the space of a couple of days.

This jellyfish is especially difficult to avoid when swimming, since its tendrils can measure up to 165 feet in length and drift lazily behind it under the surface of the water. The tendrils of the Portuguese man o’war are designed to paralyse and kill its prey and are covered with venomous nematocysts.

Another slippery character has avoided court in Spain this week, thanks to a spectacular disappearing act by his son. Notorious Irish gangland boss John Gilligan has had his trial for unlawful weapons possession and drug trafficking suspended in Torrevieja as the Spanish authorities have been forced to issue an international arrest warrant for his son, Darren.

Darren Gilligan was supposed to stand trial in Alicante last October alongside his dad and eight other accomplices but the hearing was put on hold when he failed to show up. At the time, pals claimed Darren was in Ireland and too broke to catch a flight to Spain.

John Gilligan is facing eight years behind bars in Spain after he and his cronies were caught red handed preparing a shipment of drugs destined for Ireland at his Alicante home in October 2020. According to official reports, the convicted trafficker was planning to smuggle huge amounts of cannabis and prescription sleeping pills in boxes of toys and flip flops.

When his property was raided, a gun was found in the back garden that was initially believed to have been the weapon used to murder journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996. This later proved not to be the case, but state prosecutors have nevertheless demanded an 18-month prison sentence for unlawful weapons possession.

Gilligan senior was released from prison in Ireland in October 2013 after serving 17 years for trafficking cannabis resin.

Alicante

A British couple’s holiday on the Costa Blanca came to a horrific end this week when the woman “plunged from the sixth-floor” balcony of a Benidorm hotel, leading to the arrest of her 40-year-old husband on suspicion of attempted murder.

The 36-year-old-wife is reportedly in a critical condition at the Marina Baixa hospital in Villajoyosa.

Several witnesses told police the victim was standing on the balcony four-star Rio Park hotel shortly after midnight, while her husband was in the room, when she suddenly plunged over the edge and fell to the ground, suffering multiple serious injuries.

A spokesperson for Spain’s National Police confirmed: “Officers have arrested a British man on suspicion of attempted homicide after his wife, who is also British, plunged from the sixth-floor balcony of their hotel in Benidorm.

“The couple were sharing the same room and we are talking about a foreigner who has no ties to Spain so we are under an obligation to make the arrest as we try to determine what happened.”

The husband was expected to appear in court this week.

In other news this week, it was revealed a number of mystical-looking blue sea dragons, (Glaucus atlanticus), also known as sea slugs, have been sighted along the coast of Alicante for the first time in 300 years.

They may look stunning, but these vividly-coloured water creatures pack a punch and can inflict a painful sting, feeding on species like the poisonous Portuguese man o’ war and employing their prey’s deadly cells to defend themselves against ‘attackers’.

Six of the mystical-looking molluscs, about 3 cm long, were discovered at La Mata beach in Torrevieja, La Roqueta beach in Guardamar del Segura and in the cove of Las Estacas, Orihuela. The last recorded sighting in Spanish waters was in 1705 and recorded by botanist Johann Philipp Breyne.

“It is an extraordinary finding that increases the mystery surrounding the presence of this small marine invertebrate on our coasts,” said researchers from Murcia University.

Their presence is linked to warmer waters, and although the specimens were found alive, they ended up dying a few hours later.

The most bizarre items left behind by TRAM d'Alacant passengers have been shared this week, with dogs and surfboards among 2,297 ‘lost and found’ items in 2022.

The objects that appear most frequently on trains and trams in Alicante and its metropolitan area are, in order, wallets and purses, rucksacks, documentation (ID cards, passports, driving licences, health cards...), mobile phones, keys, glasses, handbags, folders and umbrellas.

Andalucía

Andalucía had a bumper Easter week, with hotels and tourist accommodation almost full to bursting. And Seville has one of the most emblematic Semana Santa celebrations in the whole of the Autonomous Community, even in the whole country.

In fact, the city has just had a real ego boost as well, since its main square, the Plaza de España, with its iconic semi-circular architectural structure complete with Roman-style columns and mini-Venetian canals, was found to be the fourth best tourist attraction in the world, behind only the Hungarian Parliament building, Disneyland Paris and the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

This is according to luggage storage network Stasher, who drew up their list by trawling through Google reviews, mentions on TikTok and local info such as distance from the airport, safety and the quality of local accommodation.

The accolade comes at the same time as Seville airport opens up its summer flight schedule, in which this year it has more destinations than ever before and 10% more seats available than in 2019 before the Covid pandemic struck.

From now until October, there are flights connecting Seville with three different airports in London, as well as Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin. Seville also has connections with 7 cities in Germany, two in the Netherlands and 21 within Spain.

Nonetheless, Seville airport has had some issues this week after flight traffic was disrupted and delayed for nearly three hours on Tuesday when a light aircraft blocked the runway. The small plane had just landed in Seville from Cape Verde and was unable to move off the tarmac.

Crews on the ground took over two and a half hours to move it, during which time several passenger plans had to be diverted to alternative airports. Then, on Wednesday, a Vueling flight leaving from Seville for London Gatwick was forced to turn around and land again just minutes after takeoff due to security concerns.

These issues come just days after a terror scare at Malaga airport when a woman threatened to shoot down planes.

The Level 4, high-risk anti-terror alert was activated at Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport after the 46-year-old phoned airport management claiming she was going to start taking down aircraft unless all air traffic was halted.

She was quickly identified by police, who arrested her and charged her with the crime of public disorder.

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