Spain Today – Friday 12 April 2024

In our last Spanish news update of the week, Balearic boost for the self-employed, UK imposed BREXIT tariffs add to the UK “no longer as interesting a market as before”, and warning issued over latest text message scam.

Plus, inflation will lead the markets news.

Contents (click to jump ahead)

Spanish News Headlines

The Balearic Government has announced that the implementation of the zero quota will be approved this Friday for self-employed workers who have started their activity between July 2023 and June 2024. Finally, it will be applied without age restrictions and will be extendable to three years.

The president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, announced that she will approve the zero quota for self-employed workers in the community today, with an initial allocation of one million euro. As she mentioned, this initial item could be expanded “if necessary” during the course of application of the aid.

The United Kingdom will begin to apply a new tax on the import of food (meat, fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables…) from the European Union (EU) from April 30, and among the farmers and ranchers most affected by this measure are the Spanish,  who, along with the French, Italians and Dutch, are the main suppliers of the British Isles when it comes to sourcing food.

This is a new tariff that derives directly from Brexit, and whose objective is to cover the public costs of customs inspections. So, depending on each specific type of product, an amount must be paid within a couple of weeks that will be in line with the “risk” with which it is related by the British customs authorities. According to experts, it will amount to an average of 29 pounds (33.85 euro). However, for “low risk” products of animal origin, 10 pounds (11.67 euro) will be paid, while for “low risk” vegetables and derived products there will be no cost.

The INCIBE national cyber security office, an official body of the Spanish Government, has issued a warning of a new text message scam claiming to be from the tax office and related to a tax refund for the year 2023.

This latest fraudulent activity is seemingly timed to coincide with the tax submission period which has just started.

To read these articles in full, visit SpainToday.news

Business, Markets and Statistics

A local holiday on Friday is celebrated in the Valencia town of Cullera.

This week will end with the final reading of the CPI inflation data for March in Spain, Germany and France, as well as various relevant data in the United Kingdom, highlighting GDP, industrial production and the trade balance.

The General Shareholders’ Meeting of Ferrovial and Telefónica will take place.

In the UK we will have the Index of Production, construction industry output, and overseas trade reports.

NOAA publishes their monthly global climate report.

For local events, pick up The Leader newspaper every Monday, and This is Torrevieja for Torrevieja events.

Traffic and Travel

On the roads of Spain, coinciding with the weekends of the winter months, an increase in traffic is expected on the main routes, national roads, and motorways towards rest areas, second homes and mountain areas for practicing winter sports.

For information and updates about driving in Spain, visit N332.es

Official Websites for Travel Information

Follow Mark Nolan’s Podcast

You can follow Mark Nolan’s Podcast on your favourite platform, it’s FREE, just search Mark Nolan’s Podcast, or click the links around the website.

You can also follow me, and contact me, on Facebook and Instagram, again, just search for Mark Nolan’s Podcast anywhere really. You are also welcome to contact me through the contact form on this website.

Finally, if you do follow, I would really appreciate a like or share from time to time, as it helps spread the word which means more people can get the opportunity to join in. Thank you.