Editorial: Missing expats

THE case of the disappearing expat. Part 1.  It makes a fantastic title for a book or a television mini-series. Last week we reported that an estimated 8,000 British and German expatriates had left the Balearics and were no longer on the official census but  the alleged exodus could be part of a cunning plan. They may have disappeared from the census but they are still with us! I am reliably informed that some expatriates have asked to be removed from the official census because they claimed they were either moving away or were no longer planning to be residents. Avariety of excuses have been used with the end result being to “disappear off official documents”to keep the taxman at bay. This stunt has allegedly been pulled by thousands of expatriates. Now obviously some expatriates have left the island and moved away for a variety of reasons ranging from the shortage of jobs to the drop in value of sterling against the euro. And there is also the taxman. Officials from the German tax office are already based in Palma working alongside their German counterpats. Inland Revenue hasn´t got their own inspectors on the island but they do work closely with Spain. I am told that the so-called census stunt will achieve little because the tax authorities have “other ways” of finding people and their assets. The drop in the official census will mean , though, that the expatriate community loses some of its muscle because it is allegedly declining in number.