As you are aware we have had several problems with the Spanish authorities over the last year or so. These were as follows:

• Non issuing of NIE numbers either temporary or permanent
• Disagreement between the Director of Social Security and Director of Taxes in Spain as to how contract pilots would be dealt with and the type of ‘autonomo’ registration allowed
• Anti-Money Laundering legislation enactment resulting in the closing of the Irish companies Spanish bank accounts
• Immigration Legislation enacted for non-Spanish nationals working/moving to Spain
• Further dispute on issuing of NIE numbers (mainly due to immigration rules)

We have worked very hard to resolve the above issues and the results were as follows:

• OCA requested Irish government to intervene regarding NIE numbers and it was resolved until recently
• OCA agreed to change the type of ‘autonomo’ to ‘Director autonomo’ or the result would have been that contract pilots were effectively treated as ‘employees’
• OCA opened a business bank account in Spain in our own name with the agreement to pay all social security from that account going forward
• OCA personally met with the Director of Social security to alleviate any concerns that contract pilots were illegal immigrants and continues to meet with him on a regular basis
• OCA working on resolving the reviving of the NIE issue again – working with embassies across Europe and in the process of creating a branch in Spain to enable ‘Job offer letters’ to be issued for the purpose of applying for NIE numbers

All of the issues above have resulted in delays to registrations and delays to payments of social security to Spain but it is very much now under control.

However, during the period where it was impossible to either register a company or pilot and not possible to pay the contributions, where back payments for these periods are required, the Spanish authorities are still issuing penalties and fines. This is beyond our control.

Where possible therefore we will arrange a refund of any contributions held in your company bank account, to be returned to you upon the signing of a waiver.

It may take some time to see how far the Spanish government will go to charge for these back dated payments, so please bear with us and we will keep you informed in due course.

If you have a specific query please email support@oconnorandassociates.ie as we will be unable to take specific telephone queries on the above matters which have now been clearly outlined to you in this bulletin.