The local Transport Inspection discovered that Spanish “mailbox” companies generate from 75% to 90% of their income in Spain. Reason? Spanish law, according to which delegation provisions apply to employees who spend more than 8 days in Spain. Such provisions practically do not apply to the transport industry.
How do the “mailbox” companies operate?
The most common method of circumventing provisions on conducting business activity in a delegating company is a situation in which a company with business activities in a country with high labour costs, in this case Spain, establishes a company in a country in which the labour costs are low only to employ people in it and delegate employees to its mother company. Therefore, the “mailbox” company is registered in the country which allegedly is the sending country in which, in fact, the business activity is not carried out at all.
According to the opinion of the Labour Mobility Initiative, the largest European think tank dealing with labour mobility and employee delegation, “the detection of such practices is difficult because the legislation lacks effective definition that would allow the competent pension institutions to objectively and effectively distinguish them from companies with normal business activities.
According to the cadenadesuministro.es transport website, the institution discovered that the “mailbox” companies generate in Spain between 75% and 90% of all their income. It is worth noting that they pay taxes in the headquarters countries.
What is more, the Spanish transport union federation Fenadismer alerts that such companies often commit serious offences.
Why do Spaniards establish “mailboxes”?
The cadenadesuministro.es website says that the “mailbox” companies thrive in Spain due to the laws of this country. Spanish provisions on delegating workers apply to employees who spend over 8 days in Spain. Therefore, they do not apply to the transport industry almost completely. After many appeals from national transport unions the government decided to work on changing these regulations. The carriers want the period of 8 days to be counted in the period of the whole month (e.g. 2 days each week).
We will keep you up-to-date on any provision changes.
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