ChiFRA

Written by Steve Harris

The current satellites that we get our free to air satellite TV from are out of date. TV satellites have a life span of 12 years which has now elapsed. The company that runs the satellites SES ASTRA (www.ses.com) are launching the new Astra 2E satellite in the 2nd quarter of 2013 ready for use in the summer of this year.

Once the satellite is in the correct position in space the BBC, ITV and CH4 group of channels will be moving over to the new satellite. See BBC blog for current news.  The new satellite has the technology built in to it to spot beam the signal directly over the targeted audience the UK and as a result we will be unable to pick up a signal even with a bigger dish. Testing has been done with 3 metre dishes on a community system in the Estepona area with no success trying to pick up Channel Five and 5 USA etc.

Press Release Issued by Cadizcasa

Not surprisingly, in these cash strapped days, the Spanish Hacienda are thinking up ways to squeeze every last drop of tax out of not only Spanish non residents who own property in Spain but Spanish residents who own property outside of Spain.

It has long been the rule that if you are a non resident and own property in Spain you should be paying non resident tax on that property and making an annual declaration to the Hacienda or Tax Authority. If you help to subsidise the running costs of your property in Spain by doing a bit of renting then you need to declare that income here in Spain also.

What has changed? Well instead of the usual return process, you are now required to make a return for every client who rents from you even if it is only for 2 or 3 days. If the house is joint owned for example between husband and wife each needs to make a return so 2 returns per rental client. In addition, the Hacienda wants to see the Passport number or national identification (NIE or DNI) of the clients or if you rent through an Agency the Agency CIF will do. Quite what our already under financed and under staffed Hacienda will do with all this paper is a mystery but those are the rules.

You may feel that if you have declared yourself as a Spanish resident and are paying your way in Spain what you have outside the country is not their business but sadly that is not the case. For many years, you have been required as a resident to declare all your worldwide assets but there is great confusion over this and many have either failed to do so or do not know what to do. However, a new piece of legislation commonly referred to as 7/2012 may be sufficient to change things.

Source: Lavozdigital.es   17th February 2013

When the mayor of Chiclana, Ernesto Marín, declared in December that he was ready to put the finishing touches to the provisional planning regulations, it seemed that an interim solution to the current planning situation – pending a new town plan – could at last be on the horizon. However, two months on, no news is forthcoming from the town hall about the interim regulations.
 
The document was ratified in a council meeting last December and it was agreed that it should be definitive. This ratification was a necessary step which had been requested by the regional ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment. Thereafter, all that remained to be done was to overcome the final obstacle – to gain approval from the Junta de Andalucia.

Source: Chiclana Town Hall Press 13th February 2013

Chiclana council has officially requested an update of property values as established by central government. The measure, which would come into force in 2014, is the result of an amendment made to article 32.2 of the law governing the property register which would allow local councils to take advantage of the recent changes made to budgetary laws.