Wise and taxes - Page 2

Hi JohnAndBen - this may or may not be relevant to your issue.   I'm still in the UK (for another 3 months) and hold a wise account with the intention of using it in Spain.   I can see there is an IBAN and BIC reference number in the account details for my euro account and gbp account.

Best wishes with everything, Chris 

Thanks Chris. Appreciate that

Yep wise accounts get an Belgian iban, the Spaniards in some enterprises will only accept them if they start es but legally they have to. 

Thanks again.

JBT 

https://wise.com/gb/blog/iban-not-accepted-reporting

Many thanks for the link

Hi. We bought last year and all our direct debits have been set up from our Wise account. And it was our Spanish solicitors  that told us about and set up the direct debits for us. And it's all been working okay so far.

Hope that helps x

Thanks it has confirmed the now obvious 🙂 I think it must be a commission thing with Spanish banks as we told on top of it all that as well as needing a spanish bank account we had to have home insurance with them for 3 years. Needles to say we are not that easy and refused. Wise it is and shall be.  Anything else they can bill us and we will sort accordingly.. Our solicitors have been great tbh far better than any UK experience. I'm sure it's just a blip 🙂🙂🙂

I use Starling Accounts - A UK Current Account and a Euro Account.  (Note I also have a Starling Business account for my limited company but refuse to use it as the logon is the same as my personal and euro accounts)

The convenience is the speed at which I can transfer pounds to euros at a similar rate to WISE.

The EURO account has a IBAN (International Banking Account Number) as it falls within the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) rules which include no barriers to moving money aroound, however --

Direct Debits can be set up to pay money to Spanish Accounts - Liberty Segurios being an example.

Transfers can be made to Spanish Accounts - I pay most utility bills when I get them, some by Transfer but others by Debit Card.

However, my Bank, Sabbadell charges for money received from a Starling Account as it's UK but SEPA. I transfer money to it via my WISE account.

Some companies won't receive payments by Direct Debit or Debit card from a UK SEPA account.

Those banks and companies not playing ball are acting illegally, it's known as 'IBAN Discrimination'. 

https://www.starlingbank.com/blog/how-to-defend-yourself-against-iban-discrimination/ 

Whilst I haven't switched completely to Wise, there are alternatives and lots of discussions about them!

Thanks for the message 

I guess the more we all refuse to accept the illegal, the faster it will be changed.. I think... I know this isn't a new scenario but for others like us who are going through it now, it hopefully finds them some peace that they are not alone and to not accept what thy don't have to, as coming to Spain, especially now when it's so darn expensive to do so, is quite overwhelming and when legal bodies advise you something it feels wrong to argue against them. But we have and they have finally accepted we won't agree to it. 

Thanks again for all comments and suggestions 

JBTx

Whatever you do , don’t let them start you with Sabadell. They are completely useless and rip you off at every op

Hi J&B

I am a full-time resident in Spain and I have recently had to submit my tax payment for the year.

I have an N26 account which is classed as  a Spanish account, has an ES IBAN, but I was faced by the same problem, my account was not authorised to pay directly to the Spanish Tax Authority.

N26 themselves say "N26 isn’t an official partner of the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria)". I suspect that the same issue applies with Wise (which I also have a Euro account with). N26 is a German based bank and Wise is Belgian.

You can still pay your taxes from these accounts but the Tax Agency doesn't have the authority to deduct the money directly from your account - which means they can't just seize from your account for outstanding debts.

You can find out more information about which banks are authorised here.

Hope you find this useful.