About us

A small firm of Spanish tax lawyers, built on one idea: that the recurring filings should stop being your problem, and that anything which is not routine should be looked at by a lawyer.

Book a slot in the calendar

Thirty minutes by video call with Jacob, at no cost and with nothing committed. If your case does not fit into a form, or you would simply rather explain it out loud, this is the place.

Why this is not a bookkeeping service

A bookkeeper fills in boxes. They take the figures you give them and put them where they belong, and that works perfectly well as long as nothing crosses a border and nothing unexpected happens. The difficulty appears when something does.

At that point the question stops being where does this number go and becomes what is the number: which country has the taxing right, under which article of which treaty, in which tax year, at what rate, and what will you have to be able to prove three years later if somebody asks. That is a legal question, not a data entry question, and it is why a lawyer deals with it.

How we work

We read what has to be read

We do not work from summaries. If there is a contract, it is read in full; if there is a letter from the tax office, it is read with its notification date and its stated scope; if there is a forty-page equity plan in English, it is read clause by clause. That is slow and cannot be automated, which is precisely why we automate the mechanical part: so that there is time for this.

We cite what binds, and only what binds

Binding rulings of the Spanish Directorate-General for Taxation bind the tax administration, under article 89 of the General Tax Act. Criteria of the Central Economic-Administrative Tribunal that qualify as doctrine bind it too, under article 239.8. Everything else is useful for orientation and is not presented as though it settled anything.

We warn, we do not promise

There are clear questions, defensible questions and genuinely arguable ones. All three are called by their name, and where a position is reasonable but the administration may dispute it, we explain what happens if it does. You will never read in an opinion of ours that a result is guaranteed.

You see the figures before anything is filed

This is the rule we do not break. No return leaves this office without your having seen the numbers first and having had time to say that something does not look right.

How the firm is set up

There are few of us and we work remotely from Melilla, with clients across Spain and in a good number of other countries. The machine does the heavy lifting — reading documents, classifying, calculating, watching deadlines — and the people do what cannot be delegated: decide, review and answer.

We write in Spanish, English and French, because a large part of the people who write to us do not live here: foreign owners with a flat on the coast, Spanish freelancers with clients in other countries, retired people who left and still have things here, and people who have just arrived with an international contract under their arm.

Fees are agreed in writing before anything starts. The recurring lines run on a monthly amount that covers the filings for that line, and one-off work — an estate, an opinion, a response to the tax office — is quoted as a fixed sum, never by the hour. What each line costs is set out on the pricing page, and how a case is taken on is on how it works.

What we do not do

• We do not act for companies. This is for individuals: no corporate income tax, no annual accounts, no commercial bookkeeping. If your case needs a company adviser, we say so at the first meeting.
• We do not advise on foreign law. We read a foreign contract to understand what rights it gives you, but the tax treatment in another country is handled by a professional there, appointed by you, and we coordinate with them. We would rather tell you that at the start than discover it halfway through.
• We do not sell software. You will not be uploading invoices one by one to any platform.
• We do not bill by the hour. A closed price, in writing, before the work begins.

Who writes to us

Four situations account for most of the people who find this site. Foreign owners of a flat or a house in Spain, who have discovered that a property here produces a tax return every year whether or not it is let. Spanish freelancers whose clients are abroad, where the question is never the invoice but where the service is taxed. People who have just moved here with an international contract, a share plan and a question about the regime under article 93. And retired people who left Spain, or came to it, and now draw a pension that two countries are looking at.

What those have in common is that the difficulty is never the arithmetic. It is knowing which country may tax what, under which provision, and what will have to be provable later. That is the work.

What happens when you get in touch

Nobody instructs a firm blind, so this is what happens, in order, and what each step costs.

1. You tell us the situation Through the form for your service, which asks what matters in your case and nothing else, or by email if you would rather write it yourself. We do not ask for your email address until the end of the form, and there are no sales calls afterwards.
2. We answer within 24 working hours With your map of obligations — which returns apply and on what deadlines — and a closed price. If something is already running against you, that goes first. And if we can see the case has nowhere to go, we say so and it ends there: we do not charge for finding that out.
3. Engagement letter In writing, with the scope set out and the price. Until it is signed there is no professional relationship, and filling in a form does not create one.
4. We open your folder In Drive, organised by year, quarter and tax, and shared with you from day one. You can upload things as they arrive instead of saving everything up to the end.
5. We do the work and show you the figures Before anything is filed. If something does not add up, it is asked about beforehand, not afterwards.

Nothing is committed by asking. If what you need is a second opinion on something another adviser has already done, that is a perfectly ordinary instruction and we quote it like any other.

Paperwork, as it arrives

We do not ask you to hold on to anything until the end of the quarter. When an invoice or a statement reaches you, you leave it in your folder and forget about it. Every day the system collects what is new, reads it and posts it, and at the end of the month we go through what has come in. More comfortable with email? That works too: forward the document to your Salama Tax address and it ends up in the same place.

If something turns up when the period had already been calculated, the file is redone with it before filing. What is quoted separately is whatever arrives once the quarter has been filed, because it may call for a supplementary return. And when we are the ones asking — an unreadable scan, a format we cannot open, an invoice with no tax number — that is our work and it is included.

What we automate, and what we do not

We automate what is mechanical and goes wrong through tiredness: reading invoices, classifying them, counting nights, apportioning costs by days, reconciling books against returns, watching deadlines and warning before they fall due. A machine does all of that, and it does it better than a person at seven in the evening on 18 October.

We do not automate what takes judgement. A contract in English, a letter from the tax office, an estate with assets in two countries or a forty-page share plan are read in full, and a lawyer reads them. That is slow and cannot be delegated to a template, and it is exactly what we want the saved time for.

When a call is worth it

Almost never, and we mean that: ninety per cent of what we do is better resolved in writing, because what was asked and what was answered stay on the record. But there are three situations where half an hour of conversation saves weeks.

• Before you sign anything. A purchase, a deed of gift, an international employment contract. After signing, the options narrow sharply.
• When you have to choose between two routes and neither is obviously better: sole trader or company, exercise now or wait, give in your lifetime or leave it in your estate.
• When a letter has just arrived and you do not know how serious it is. We read that the same day and tell you what it is, at no cost.

For those three the calendar is at the top of this page, and the first conversation costs nothing.

Firm details

Brand	Salama Tax
Operated by	Salama Legal SLP · tax number B25943473
Registered office	C/ General Marina 14, 2.º izq., 52001 Melilla, Spain
Lawyer in charge	Jacob Salama Chocrón · Málaga Bar Association, roll number 11,294
Languages	Spanish, English and French

Shall we talk about your case?

Thirty minutes by video call, at no cost and with nothing committed. If your case does not fit into a form, or you would simply rather explain it out loud, that is the place to do it. Otherwise, tell us what you have through the contact page and we will tell you which returns apply, on what deadlines, and what it would cost.