Guides
Questions that come up over and over, answered with the arithmetic shown and a date on every figure. Where a guide relies on numbers that change — tax bands, subsidy amounts, charging tariffs — it says when they were last checked and against what.
Categories
Charging
Charging in Spain is not one network but roughly thirty, each with its own app, its own card and its own idea of what a kilowatt-hour is worth. The same charge can cost €12 or €31 depending on nothing more than which plastic you happen to be holding. These guides work through what a session actually costs, which subscriptions pay for themselves at what mileage, and what to do when the charger rejects your card at ten at night outside Albacete.
In preparation · reference section
Electric cars
The sticker price of an electric car in Spain is the least interesting number attached to it. MOVES pays up to €7,000 but arrives as a tax-deductible refund anywhere between eight and eighteen months later, and it is taxable income in the year it lands — a detail that surprises people at exactly the wrong moment. These guides cover what an EV really costs to buy, register, insure and run here, with the timing and the tax treatment spelled out.
In preparation · reference section
Paperwork
Spanish administration is not difficult so much as strictly ordered, and almost nobody explains the order. You cannot register with social security without a NIE; you struggle to get a bank account without a padrón; the padrón wants an address you may not have yet. These guides lay out the sequence, what each office actually asks for as opposed to what the website lists, and the workarounds when a step will not budge.
In preparation · reference section
Living here
The parts of moving that no checklist mentions: that a rental wants two months deposit plus an aval, that the electricity contract hinges on a potencia figure you must guess before you have lived there a day, that the bank charges you for the privilege of being a customer. This is the ordinary week-to-week machinery of living in Spain, written down before you have to learn it the expensive way.
In preparation · reference section
Money & tax
Gross salary in Spain tells you very little. Between IRPF, social security and the regional band you fall into, the same €40,000 lands differently in Madrid than in Barcelona. For autónomos the 2023 reform moved everyone onto real income and the cuota now moves with earnings. These guides work through the arithmetic with current figures and a date on every one, because these numbers change annually and a stale tax page is worse than none.
In preparation · reference section
Driving
Driving here has rules that catch out residents, not just visitors. A DGT environmental label decides which city centres you may enter, and the low-emission zones now reach well past Madrid and Barcelona. Licence exchange has a deadline that starts when you become resident, not when you notice. And a fine follows you across borders more reliably than most people expect. This is what to know before it costs you.
In preparation · reference section