MADRID – Robert Amsterdam is dressed in a dapper pin-striped suit but some believe he should be wearing a superhero outfit for fighting back against the Spanish tax authorities who he claims use intimidating tactics against British expatriates.
Amsterdam & Partners, representing an organisation calling itself spanishtaxpickpockets.com, paid for full-page advertisements in the Financial Times along with other newspapers, headed “Spanish Pickpockets Operating in This Area” with a mocked-up picture of the Spanish tax office.
The company, which is based in London and Washington, said: “If you are being exploited under the Beckham law, you are not alone and have rights.”
The advertisement claimed that high-value individuals who move to Spain are targeted by the tax authorities, who try to extract their wealth.
Spanish tax authorities refute the claims.
Britons who are tax residents in Spain are liable for income tax on worldwide income, including assets in the UK. A convention between Britain and Spain says this must prevent double taxation in both countries.
Some Britons say they have been repeatedly targeted with tax audits on their properties in the UK.
Many have faced fines and legal fees of tens of thousands of pounds if they contest Spanish tax orders.
Robert Amsterdam has accused Spain’s tax authority of being completely out of control
Often, these tax letters arrive just before summer holidays or Christmas, giving recipients only 10 days to respond.
Mr Amsterdam, one of the partners, said not all “victims” of tax authorities come under the so-called Beckham law, which was introduced by Spain in 2004 when David Beckham moved to play for Real Madrid. It was designed to attract high-value individuals by offering a lower rate of tax.
The issue made global headlines after the Colombian singer Shakira called for a reform of the system following her high-profile case.
In 2023, she paid €7.5 million (£6.3m) to settle a tax fraud case in Spain. The Colombian, who repeatedly denied wrongdoing, faced eight years in prison and a fine of €23.8m (£20.2m) if found guilty.
She told Elle magazine: “The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what.”
The singer said in a statement: “Tax authorities in Spain pursued a case against me as they have against many professional athletes and other high-profile individuals, draining those people’s energy, time, and tranquility for years at a time.”
Mr Amsterdam said many Spaniards had suffered health problems after the stress of dealing with the Spanish tax office.
The Canadian lawyer, who lives in London, said he hoped to make Spain’s tax authority more accountable.
“Basically, we want to influence Spain to adopt the rule of law… and [to] put constraints on a tax authority which is completely out of control,” he told The i Paper.
“I have never seen a democracy have its populace so fearful, literally expecting a knock on the door and you are talking to someone who has been arrested in Moscow. But I see it here with people, a knock on the door that the tax authority will come after them if they express the wrong political opinion, if they antagonise the government for a host of reasons.”
The pop star Shakira was pursued by the Spanish tax authorities (Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
Mr Amsterdam, who was arrested in 2015 while working in the Russian capital and deported, said no victims wanted to be named because all were fearful they would be targeted by the tax authorities.
He said tax inspectors received €1.2 billion (£1.01bn) in bonuses in the past 10 years for pursuing cases but were not accountable. This amounts to 1.4 per cent of their salaries which he estimates to be between €300,000-€600,000 (£254,265-£508,530) per year.
“I think it is absolutely shameful and despicable that a European government behaves in this fashion. Have you listened to what the head of the tax office says? How she says they’re checking everyone’s social media? I mean you would think you were in Albania under [the dictator] Enver Hoxha,” he said.
A report by Mr Amsterdam’s company, called Spanish Tax Office Against The People, includes the case of Mike, a British businessman whose name was changed to hide his identity.
Mike moved to Spain in 2018 to set up a business and took advantage of the Beckham law.
After moving back to the UK, the Spanish tax authorities started an investigation into Mike’s tax affairs but he could not have imagined what would follow.
“The endless series of meetings, delegated to his advisers at great expense, the insatiable demands for information, the attitude that he had something to hide. He didn’t,” the report says.
“Not satisfied with what they got locally, because there was nothing to find, they started an international trawl for information. Every country where he had a bank account or anything else. The investigation goes on. A year into it, the tax authorities still refuse to say what their inspectors are looking for.” Seven years later, the investigation continues.
Mr Amsterdam said the “pickpockets” campaign started after his firm, which normally deals in international rights cases, was hired by victims of the Spanish tax authorities.
Spain’s tax authority says the claims in the “pickpockets” advertisement were unfounded.
“It is with great concern that we have found that both the advertisement itself and the page to which it refers, spanishtaxpickpockets.com, contain several false assertions about the work carried out by the Spanish tax authorities in relation to the application of the so-called ‘Beckham Law’,” wrote Soledad Fernández Doctor, director-general of the Spanish tax authorities, in an open letter to Amsterdam & Partners
She rejected claims that tax inspectors received some of the cash recovered from investigations and said how investigations were carried out was clouded in secrecy.