TRAPPED IN A BAIT-AND-SWITCH SCHEME : Many foreign executives relocated with their families to live in Spain based on the promise of the Beckham Law, which applied a flat rate to earnings in the country. However after they had settled, the rules changed and many were singled out. Unprompted and unexplained audits; Attempted asset seizures of foreign property; Onerous, expensive, and confusing compliance requirements.
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS VIOLATED: The Spanish revenue authority (AEAT) has shown a pattern of discrimination and persecution against high-income foreign residents which may involve violations of their legal rights under numerous international treaties. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which guarantees the right to an effective remedy and fair treatment by public authorities. Proportionality principles enshrined in EU law, requiring enforcement measures to be reasonable and equitable. Protections under the European Convention on Human Rights against unfair discrimination and abuse of state power. We are collecting a group of victims who have been subjected to unfair and discriminatory taxation in order to approach the European Commission. We encourage you to get in touch with us and begin the process. Have you been subjected to unfair tax claims, audits, or seizures by AEAT?Have you been subjected to unfair taxation by the Spanish government?: Join our international advocacy effort to defend the rights of foreign residents from predatory and discriminatory taxation >> Join with other victims and contact COCOO.UK
HOW SPANISH TAX AUTHORITIES DISCRIMINATE AGAINST FOREIGN RESIDENTS (and nationals too!)
1/Profit-Motivated Investigations: Tax investigators in Spain receive a cut of the sums recovered, even in settlements. This incentivizes them to aggressively pursue cases and pressure victims into disproportionate settlements, regardless of fairness or legality. There is no disincentive for failed investigations. Tellingly, the administration will not reveal the formula, which is a high-guarded State Secret.
3/Overreaching Taxation Aimed at Foreign Earners: The present language of the Beckham Law is dangerously broad and arbitrary, which can enable discrimination. This moving of the goalposts, especially after a family has settled in Spain, damages confidence in the stability and trust of the host country
4/ cocoo: ppio irretroactividad pro.reo >> mis clientes (nacionales y extranjeros) nunca pueden ser condenados ni civil, ni criminalmente (por hacienda, al no pagar sus impuestos), si las normas fiscales se cambiaron despues de que mis clientes ”settled” en espana
-COCOO TO IDENTIFY VICTIMS (LEGAL OR HUMAN) PERSONS, FROM ANY NATION, HARMED BY THE SPAINS HACIENDA >> offer free Membership to persons, legal or nat, pot harmed >> cocoo gains eligibility to place related ads (on behalf of our affected Members) >> cocoo to pay for full-page ads in FT and cityam >> cocoo MIL (MEDIA.INITIATIVE.LAUNCH) >> be contacted by even more pot clients and pot litig allies: csos, etc
-COCOO: find out the earning system of every co’s auditors/taxcollectors >> ex: are on a bonus/commis basis, per audit? are targeting legit.taxpayers just becos they are high.value ?
-cocoo to set up a website specific for each of my cases. ex: spanish.pickpockets (where amsterdam &co law firm offers assistance to people who believe they have been mistreated by the Spanish tax authorities)
Spanish tax authorities are “engaging in state sanctioned predation” of foreigners, according to a new initiative launched this week in a major business newspaper. Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer, has placed a full-page advertisement in both the Financial Times and City AM that exposes how Spanish authorities are targeting wealthy ex-pats that is “inconsistent with fundamental European law and human rights”. The firm, on behalf of its clients, is engaging in these advertisements as a denunciation of the improper conduct of the Spanish tax authorities and their political masters.
The initiative warns that Spain’s ‘Beckham Law’, meant to incentivize foreign talent to relocate to Spain, has been warped into a tax trap designed to swell the coffers of the Spanish government and pay perverse commission/bonuses to tax collectors/auditors, irrespective of the welfare of its victims….These inspectors can earn tens of thousands of euros in bonuses on each audit, even if the case later is exposed as illegitimate >> a further perverse incentive, to also audit legitimate taxpayers >> This tax system undermines the most basic principles of justice, violating rights enshrined in both the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Fairness, proportionality, and access to legal remedies are discarded in favour of a system designed to maximise government revenue at all costs
Spain’s tax process is now an “international outlier” with an “underlying denial of justice”, highlighting how victims of the trap cannot appeal or challenge any “fishing” audits without first making a full payment to the authorities >> impedes access to justice and can leave individuals and families financially devastated and unable to defend themselves from blatantly unfair cases while sustaining reputational harm. a “troubling incentive system” where auditors are rewarded with a cut of the money they have extracted. This has led to “aggressive audits and inflated assessments” of high-profile individuals under the Beckham Law>> law firm Amsterdam and Partners: those targeted have two choices: “Liquidate assets, or bear crippling financial burdens simply to access the appeals process; or they can decide not to pay, but then risk being pursued aggressively by searching every corner of the globe looking for assets to seize