London law firm launches initiative against ‘predatory’ Spanish tax assault on ex-pats

Spanish tax authorities are “engaging in state sanctioned predation” of foreigners, according to a new initiative launched this week in a major business newspaper.
 
Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer, has placed a full-page advertisement in both the Financial Times and City AM that exposes how Spanish authorities are targeting wealthy ex-pats that is “inconsistent with fundamental European law and human rights”.
 
The firm, on behalf of its clients, is engaging in these advertisements as a denunciation of the improper conduct of the Spanish tax authorities and their political masters.
 
The initiative warns that Spain’s ‘Beckham Law’, meant to incentivize foreign talent to relocate to Spain, has been warped into a tax trap designed to swell the coffers of the Spanish government and pay bonuses to tax collectors irrespective of the welfare of its victims.
 
It goes on to explain how Spain’s tax process is now an “international outlier” with an “underlying denial of justice”, highlighting how victims of the trap cannot appeal or challenge any “fishing” audits without first making a full payment to the authorities.
 
This effectively impedes access to justice and can leave individuals and families financially devastated and unable to defend themselves from blatantly unfair cases while sustaining reputational harm.
 
Amsterdam, who runs law firm Amsterdam and Partners, based in London and Washington, reveals how those targeted by the authorities have two choices: “Liquidate assets or bear crippling financial burdens simply to access the appeals process; or they can decide not to pay, but then risk being pursued aggressively by searching every corner of the globe looking for assets to seize.”
 
He warns that at the heart of the crisis is a “troubling incentive system” where auditors are rewarded with a cut of the money they have extracted. This has led to “aggressive audits and inflated assessments” of high-profile individuals under the Beckham Law.
 
These inspectors can earn tens of thousands of euros in bonuses on each audit even if the case later is exposed as illegitimate.
 
Mr Amsterdam’s law firm has set up a website Spanishtaxpickpockets.com offering assistance to people who believe they have been mistreated by the Spanish tax authorities.
 
Mr Amsterdam said: “What started as a clever initiative to attract high earning employees has turned into what can only be described as a bait-and-switch campaign of epic proportions.

 “This twisted system undermines the most basic principles of justice, violating rights enshrined in both the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Fairness, proportionality, and access to legal remedies are discarded in favour of a system designed to maximise government revenue at all costs.
 
“The response we have had to this initiative has been immense. There are so many people who have been impacted by the unjust Spanish tax regime.”

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