Other comments relate the high income tax,
but Spain also has a "impuesto de patrimonio" wealth tax,
which forces you to declare all worldwide assets.
Even if the current rates are low, they may (will) rise.
It is surveillance masquerading as taxation,
until the rates go up and then your are trapped, gutted and left for dead.
I'm a self employed techie from Sweden living in Spain since a decade, what exactly is supposed to be crazy? I've felt like most things been pretty straightforward.
Yes, I have, as I have young children and need to raise them somewhere more humane than the US. Portugal and Spain were the options, and Spain was what we preferred after living in both.
I am not ignorant of the cost you surface wrt taxes, but taking into account my total US tax burden when you add in insurance and medical expenses for a family of four, cross jurisdiction tax credits for taxes I would pay in Spain, as well as the improved quality of life around work life balance, life pace, safety of living a car free life (walking or riding bicycles primary for transportation), and so on, it is a net positive for our situation. I admit others must perform their own assessment to understand if a potentially favorable outcome awaits them.
If you want to grind and become wealthy, it’s not the place to be; it’s a place to live. As always, be mindful what you’re optimizing for.
Ah, the complaint is merely about the taxes being high? Meh, I like to have infrastructure that doesn't fall apart + healthcare available for everyone, so hard to complain about it. It's just money after all.
(For what it's worth, I barely worked professionally in Sweden so I wasn't really used to anything tax related before I moved to Spain, but it probably colored my perspective, yeah)
To be fair I compare Spain to Switzerland where I currently live and other than the weather and maybe the mentality everything my tax money would be used for is argueable worse than here but costs 3-4 times as much.
(I didn't really earn money before I lived in Switzerland either. It's hard to imagine switching from maybe 13% tax on my income to 50% plus wealth tax)
Natives tend to have local support networks (family and friends) help with money, material help and connections. Foreigners lack safety nets.
From a government point of view, you can select the best foreigner candidates (eg pick 1 doctor out of 10 candidates). That can't be done with locals (good and bad doctors want jobs)
This is maybe true in the abstract but is entirely different from the on the ground reality in Portugal. It’s a lot more complicated in reality but generally speaking citizens have less advantages and opportunities than you might expect in key areas when all is said and done.
