Spanish YouTube ‘influencers’ flee to Andorra to avoid taxes

By Elena Gogmen Rueda

SPANISH YouTube ‘influencers’ have been fleeing to Andorra in a bid to avoid taxes – but the authorities have them in their sights.

Andorra applies a maximum tax rate of 10%, well below the 47% rate in Spain, for those with an annual income of more than €300,000 – which some of these influencers comfortably surpass. 

The flight of the influencers was highlighted at the beginning of the year with the announcement that the famous YouTuber Ruben Doblas, known as El Rubius, was finally moving there. 

Doblas said that Spain’s tax man had him ‘in the crosshairs’, and that he was being treated as a criminal when he was the ‘only influencer’ left staying in Spain and paying its taxes. 

But not everyone agrees with the alleged injustice ’suffered’ by the famous YouTuber. 

Another influencer from Bilbao, Ibai Llanos, understands that those who earn a lot of money should pay more. 

Now Hacienda (Inland Revenue) has decided to act against people it suspects of tax evasion by setting up ‘residence’ in Andorra while still earning most of their income in Spain.

The tax authority has created a ‘big data tool’ that will make the tracking of ‘delocalised’ taxpayers more effective.

It will track internet activity to try to detect ‘false residencies’. It will examine more than 70 sources of information and has already come up with ‘several thousand’ people suspected of false residency in tax havens.