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| Expats continue to fund the economy |
The never-ending love affair between the UK and Spain –
outside of the occasional spat over Gibraltar – should be a reminder to
everyone who wants to spread the idea that Europe is divided that even
countries that are as “different” as these two countries have a lot of respect,
admiration and love for each other.
Brits are in love with the climate, beaches, hospitality,
and traditional foods and wines of Spain. Spain, on the other hand, loves the
culture, history, fairness, liberal economic and working conditions and the
food and beer of the UK.
While there are certainly more Brits living in Spain than
the other way around, the gap started to close with thousands of young Spaniards
moving to Britain to escape the recession and find work.
Some of those Spaniards are moving back home now the economy
in Spain is improving, but data from the HMRC in the UK has shown there are
still many Spaniards living in Britain and they are proving to be great for the
country.
The data showed that Spaniards contributed £802 million in taxes in 2014 while claiming only £62 million in benefits. This gave the UK
economy a major net benefit and puts the Spanish in sixth place in the list of
the top ten countries contributing taxes to Britain.
France comes top of the list, with French residents paying a
whopping £2.3 billion in taxes during 2014, putting them ahead of the Polish,
who contributed £2.2 billion. As close as these figures are the net benefit of
French expats is much higher than the Poles with a ratio of 25.6 compared to
2.4 for the Poles. This shows that Polish immigrants are more likely to claim
benefits compared to French immigrants.
Spaniards provide a net benefit ratio of 12.9 which makes
them one of the best contributors to the British economy according to the HMRC
data.
