My first thread, please don't be harsh 
Long story short - I'm originally from Russia, moved to the UK 9 years ago, enjoyed a non-dom status very much. Eventually got naturalised, so now I'm UK/RU citizen.
Married, have one kid attending a boarding primary school.
Never worked in the UK, however made several SEIS investments and last year I started a software development company in Bristol (mostly to have some UK income source).
The last 5 years we enjoyed travelling to Barcelona every Easter break and spent most of the summer there. We liked it so much, I ended up buying a villa on the seaside (on my wife's name). The value of this property allows us to apply for Spain Golden Visa.
We were thinking about spending more time in Barcelona and much less in the UK. However I'm getting very mixed advice from my UK and Spanish tax advisors. My goal is to maintain a UK tax residence to avoid paying any tax on my global income while spending most of the time in Spain. So far I've got to setting up some basic rules how to do that, but maybe someone have been in a similar situation, so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Option 1: Me and my wife spend less than 183 days in Spain (1st Jan to 31st of Dec), my kid stays in the UK school, we claim our UK residence and Spanish authorities have nothing. We only pay "wealth" tax on property and do not need to declare our UK income or global income. Here both my tax advisers agree, it's a simple setup with close to zero risks.
Option 2: Me and my wife spend less than 183 days in Spain (1st Jan to 31st of Dec), but my kid moves to Spanish! school. I know, it sounds tricky, but we have grandparent who are happy to spend some time in Spain and the school is very close to our villa, so technically it's manageable. Here starts the tricky part - while we still have a UK property, UK income and spend less than 183 days on the UK - Spanish tax authorities might claim that we moved our "live interests" in Spain and demand us to be taxed locally.
Option 3: Me and my wife spend more than 183 days in Spain, but my kid stays in UK school (boarding). So while we technically spend more than half a year in Spain, our "life interests" are not so easy to determine and we might claim our UK residence instead of Spanish.
Option 4: I spend less than 183 days in Spain, my wife and my kid spend more than 183 and my kid goes to Spanish school. Again, not clear at all - my wife will definitely get Spanish tax residence, however my UK job and main residence (I only have UK property, not Spanish) my play in my favour when determining tax residence.
Unfortunately, there is no clear table or rules on how Spain makes decision on residence test, did anyone had a first-hand experience with situation like this?
P.S. I know about an option to structure all my assets under some kind of holding company and basically getting all my global income there, it might solve the problem in its root, however it's also an expensive and more risky option than just legally not declaring personal income in the UK.
Long story short - I'm originally from Russia, moved to the UK 9 years ago, enjoyed a non-dom status very much. Eventually got naturalised, so now I'm UK/RU citizen.
Married, have one kid attending a boarding primary school.
Never worked in the UK, however made several SEIS investments and last year I started a software development company in Bristol (mostly to have some UK income source).
The last 5 years we enjoyed travelling to Barcelona every Easter break and spent most of the summer there. We liked it so much, I ended up buying a villa on the seaside (on my wife's name). The value of this property allows us to apply for Spain Golden Visa.
We were thinking about spending more time in Barcelona and much less in the UK. However I'm getting very mixed advice from my UK and Spanish tax advisors. My goal is to maintain a UK tax residence to avoid paying any tax on my global income while spending most of the time in Spain. So far I've got to setting up some basic rules how to do that, but maybe someone have been in a similar situation, so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Option 1: Me and my wife spend less than 183 days in Spain (1st Jan to 31st of Dec), my kid stays in the UK school, we claim our UK residence and Spanish authorities have nothing. We only pay "wealth" tax on property and do not need to declare our UK income or global income. Here both my tax advisers agree, it's a simple setup with close to zero risks.
Option 2: Me and my wife spend less than 183 days in Spain (1st Jan to 31st of Dec), but my kid moves to Spanish! school. I know, it sounds tricky, but we have grandparent who are happy to spend some time in Spain and the school is very close to our villa, so technically it's manageable. Here starts the tricky part - while we still have a UK property, UK income and spend less than 183 days on the UK - Spanish tax authorities might claim that we moved our "live interests" in Spain and demand us to be taxed locally.
Option 3: Me and my wife spend more than 183 days in Spain, but my kid stays in UK school (boarding). So while we technically spend more than half a year in Spain, our "life interests" are not so easy to determine and we might claim our UK residence instead of Spanish.
Option 4: I spend less than 183 days in Spain, my wife and my kid spend more than 183 and my kid goes to Spanish school. Again, not clear at all - my wife will definitely get Spanish tax residence, however my UK job and main residence (I only have UK property, not Spanish) my play in my favour when determining tax residence.
Unfortunately, there is no clear table or rules on how Spain makes decision on residence test, did anyone had a first-hand experience with situation like this?
P.S. I know about an option to structure all my assets under some kind of holding company and basically getting all my global income there, it might solve the problem in its root, however it's also an expensive and more risky option than just legally not declaring personal income in the UK.
