Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Gestor

A gestor is someone who helps you work your way through bureaucracy.  A country that has an entire field of work dedicated to dealing with bureaucracy is a bad sign.  They also do more mundane thing, like your taxes, but frankly, it is so complicated here that this can be a not small thing too.

Debate has gone on in my life about working with a contract, becoming officially self-employed, or continuing to work for at least a portion of my pay *ahem* in an alternative market.

I went to talk to the gestor about what would be involved in being self-employed (which incidentally costs over 200€ a month and confers no benifits).  Here's what I found out.
  •  It'll cost me 40€ just to talk to the lady about the process
  •  I will have to pay the monthly 200€ plus fee
  •  I will have to pay taxes four times a year, and pay the gestor to do this for me
Maybe you can see why the *alternative* market continues to flourish in Spain!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And to think I was surprised to see so many ads for accountants and people who would do your taxes, in Canada. While I never saw any on French billboards. Strange world, eh? :D

Anonymous said...

Omgg spain is such a train wreck at times - eldest

oreneta said...

ElP, that's cause we actually have to DO our taxes. I don't know about France, but here in Spain, if you aren't self-employed (read pay endlessly for no benefits), the gov't does the taxes for you, sends you the amount you owe, with little to no explanation, and you sign and pay. Yes taxes in Canada are harder to do, yes, we almost always fill them in wrong, but we look at how they work, it is transparent, and therefore we are sure it is honest. How do they do it in France?


Eldest....you ain't got the half of it sister. OMG