Counting days: Shakira’s Spanish tax nomad case. Key points In the context of residency, the UK and Spain define the unit of one day differently. Shakira thought she had a nomadic lifestyle but she was not warned of the specific rules applying in Spain.
Spain is not a country for tax nomads and the investigation into Shakira’s tax affairs illustrates the point. The Spanish tax agency interprets the residency rules broadly – beware of ‘sporadic absences’.
Where a person is classed as a dual tax resident in Spain and another double tax treaty country, a tie-breaker test will be applied. In the UK, a day for tax residency purposes is counted if the individual is in the UK at the end of the day (that is, midnight). Spain is different. A day in Spain can be any length.
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Counting days: Shakira’s Spanish tax nomad case. Del Canto Chambers is a leading London Barristers Chambers specialising in Law, Tax & Legal Advice. Our dual-qualified, multilingual lawyers specialise in international law and tax and have worked on over 500 cases globally.
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