Self employed banking nightmare

[Jasper]

We continue to have issues with Caixa bank blocking our account. This time the bank has blocked the account due to my wife being self employed in the UK and them wanting a Mod. 036 or registration of Activity.  I’ve no idea what either of these are. We have previously provided copies of accounts and tax returns which seemed to work for a period of time. I am retired and the bank asks for literally nothing from me to have an account. We previously had issues for different reasons with Bankia and find Spanish banks a real headache.
Has anyone else had the same issue as a self employed person and perhaps know what a Mod 36 or registration of activity is?

Any help would be gratefully received.

[Ducks]

Are you Spanish resident now? If not, I would just suggest moving banks. We've never had this problem with Sabadell. 

If you are resident, she will have to register with the authorities here even if registered already back home, I think?

Check out these links for more: https://prospainconsulting.com/2022/01/1...repreneur/ and https://britishexpats.com/forum/spain-75...-a-934594/.

[Jasper]

Thank you. We’re not residents in Fuerte but because we own a house ( have done for 15 years)  we of course need a Spanish bank account. All of a sudden the bank are asking for this additional information in order to unblock the account. My wife does not work in Spain and all her taxes are therefore paid on the UK.
Confusing.

[IHX]

Hi Jasper, Caixa is an absolute total pain and to my idea, practically every Spanish bank, concerning the euro's they ask for even looking at their logo. The joke is, you don't need a Spanish bank account to pay your bills as a non-resident. We made the effort to leave all Spanish banks behind us. Because of the SEPA system you can pay your bills in Spain with all legal European banks. In our case we needed to change the payment of our insurance, local tax, water and electricity accounts. For Endesa, water and tax we needed to arrange it physically. The daily transfer of 20 euro (free of costs) from Caixa to our home bank, takes good planning to get the very needed 0 euro on the Caixa account, to be able to cancel it without loosing another 50 euro, than going to Caixa and finally cancel the whole b. account, well that, was and still is a sheer joy. Good luck!

[Jasper]

Thank you. We’re not residents in Fuerte but because we own a house ( have done for 15 years)  we of course need a Spanish bank account. All of a sudden the bank are asking for this additional information in order to unblock the account. My wife does not work in Spain and all her taxes are therefore paid on the UK.
Confusing.

[Johnrgby]

switch to Sabadel the best of a bad bunch!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

As Volcano said, you can manage everything without a Spanish bank account, I have a friend who does just that.

[IHX]

Jasper, you misread my answer; we are non-residents as well. We don't live in Fuerteventura, we own a house there. In earlier days you needed a Spanish bank to be a non-resident, this has changed.

[Ducks]

Jasper, you misread my answer; we are non-residents as well. We don't live in Fuerteventura, we own a house there. In earlier days you needed a Spanish bank to be a non-resident, this has changed.

While this is technically correct and absolutely is EU law, the reality is that a lot of businesses and providers will make life so ungodly difficult for you with a non-Spanish IBAN that you would be better off using a Spanish bank despite all the crap that comes with. This is an issue in a lot of countries. If you're prepared for the fight, you can push it though, but in many cases, it won't be simple or easy like it should be. 

Just to put that out there before people rush to close their unreasonably expensive Spanish accounts!

[IHX]

Ducks, since we closed our Caixa bank we've had no problem with whatever company, service or institute.

Eventual problems could be caused by (old) forms you need to fill in, not modified to European IBAN numbers. You have to look well at these forms, you'll see that you have to leave out a few numbers (bank location number they're asking in Spain, if I remember well). If you fill in the forms with a keen eye and some brains, you'll find out they'll accept your EU IBAN bank number without a problem (experienced this with CAAF).

As non-resident we don't need that many services. Like, we don't have an internet account or provider in Spain, some non-residents might need one to protect their house? No experiences with that. Problems with an English bank account though, since separated, could be very realistic, don't know about that.

Maybe you have experienced it yourselves last two years as non-resident (don't forget, lot's has changed digital/financial wise), would be nice if you could name a few situations or companies and services, caused problems with having no Spanish bank account?