Spain’s king emeritus intends to establish his tax residence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he moved to in August 2020 and where he established his permanent residence in March 2022, according to the newspaper El Mundo.
Juan Carlos has already initiated the relevant administrative procedures to avoid having to file this year’s Personal Income Tax (IRPF) return for 2022, according to the newspaper.
He will notify the Treasury that “the main core or base of his activities or economic interests” is no longer based in Spain and will therefore establish his tax residence in the UAE.
The King Emeritus no longer meets the requirement of having stayed for more than 183 days in Spanish territory to be considered a tax resident.
Since taking up residence in Abu Dhabi in August 2020, Juan Carlos has only been in Spain for a brief five-day visit at the end of May.
The former monarch notified his son King Felipe VI last March that he had decided to take up permanent residence in the Gulf country.
After the Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigations against him, he informed his son that he had decided to continue “residing permanently and stably in Abu Dhabi”, where he had “found peace of mind”.
The former monarch has had to settle two accounts with the Treasury. The first, in December 2020, was for 678,000 euros in relation to the use of bank cards with funds from the Mexican businessman Allen Sanginés-Krause, one of three cases under investigation against him.
Then, in 25 February 2021, he settled a second for almost 4.4 million euros for undeclared income over several years totalling more than 8 million euros in relation to travel and services at the expense of the Zagatka Foundation, run by his cousin Álvaro de Orleans-Borbón.
King Felipe VI withdrew Juan Carlos’ allowance as a member of the Royal Family in March 2020, after it became known that Saudi Arabia had given him a ‘gift’ of 100 million dollars.