Yesterday I received an email from BEDA Spain with my “Certificado de retneciones e ingress…” which is the certificate you need when you do your taxes.

WHAT! PAY!! TAXES!!!

Yes my friends…BEDA Spain and taxes coexist!

If you decide to become an auxiliary with the BEDA Spain program you have to file your spanish taxes with the Agencia Tributaria. And just like dealing with  the NIE, TIE, and Visa it is a pain in the bum! I haven’t really seen any blogs from other teachers mentioning this fact. But you guys know I like to keep things 100% honest.

I don’t even think I wrote about it last year because I was so traumatized. I ended up having to make an appointment to go to the agency because of some unknown problem. The annoying part was that there were no appointments in my entire region and I had to go all the way to MADRID (3 hours by bus from Puertollano)!

But the great thing about that was my host mother ( I was a graduate student in Spain in 2010) came with me and handled it like Olivia Pope. BEDA did not offer any assistance what so ever! And when I emailed about how to take  care of this beast of a process when I am no longer in Spain, that email garnered crickets.

If this fact of paying taxes was presented to me before joining the program…I probably wouldn’t have joined. My stories of teaching in Spain may well be that of an ESL teacher who taught in Galicia with the ministry program. 

Their auxiliaries do not go through this process as their “stipend” is considered an educational scholarship.

The moral of the story folks: Find a spanish friend that can help you or you will be screwed!

haha 🙂