Dear John,
Further to the comments in the March issue of The Islander I can confirm that six staff have been appointed in Hacienda in Palma to target boat sales and chartering. This is part of a concerted effort throughout Spain and is not limited to the Balearics.
In addition, as you may know, the banks are now declaring interest earned on non-resident accounts to Hacienda directly.
This could have serious implications for many.
The above clearly indicates a concerted effort that, it is almost certain, will be extended to the domicile of yacht crews and liability to taxation in Spain.
Although it is clearly necessary to look at each case on an individual basis, by using vehicles such as non-resident companies and trusts it is possible to minimise the problems.
Such vehicles are not necessarily expensive to set up but it is key to have the right advice. Anyone wanting further information in confidence can call me on 971 692 210.
Regards,
Richard Pollett FCA
Dear John,
I thought the following should be passed on to all. "This is an important bit of information....might come in handy. Wonder why Esat Digifone (02) & Vodafone etc (or appropriate company) have not let this one out of the bag...wouldnīt mean that they would lose profit would it??
To check your Mobile phoneīs serial number, key in the following on your phone: star hash zero six hash as (*#06#) A 15 digit code will appear on the screen.
This number is unique to your handset.
Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code.
They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the Sim card your phone will be totally useless.
You probably wonīt get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it, canīt use/sell it either. If everybody did this, there would be no point in stealing mobile phones. Send this to as many people with mobiles as possible"
Kind regards,
Brian
Whites International Yachts (Mallorca)
Dear John,
I read with interest your article on computer viruses in this monthīs Islander. Unfortunately with the advent of ADSL and also Windows XP, people are far more vulnerable than before. While the article referred to a virus giving out the IP Address, Windows XP actually has this vulnerability built in !! and it starts automatically when the pc boots. Most people surfing through ADSL will have a fixed IP issued to them by the service provider, once this simple address is known the PC is very vulnerable. But why donīt you tell people how to fix this ? It can be very simple and free. As long as the user feels pretty confident they can follow a few simple instructions to make their PC more secure. Firstly anyone with Windows XP using ADSL to connect can use the built in firewall. On the control panel ( push START / Control Panel ) is an icon called network and internet connections click this then look for the network connections icon and click that. If the user has "classic view" enabled he will automatically see the network connections icon and should double click that. You should then see an icon labelled Local Area Connection if it has a small padlock top right then the firewall is already enabled. If not, to enable the firewall, lay the mouse over the icon and right button mouse click to bring up the menu, select properties and a box will appear. Select the advanced tab on the far right at the top and click the box labelled Protect my computer and network etc, click on OK and the box should disappear and the padlock will appear top right of the icon. As with anything free this does not offer full protection but can help with certain thing., It does help with most, but not all, of the messenger pop-upīs mentioned in your article. It is NOT a virus checker and users should always use a third party Virus software and keep the definitions current.
For those really tricky pop-ups it is slightly more involved and should only be attempted by users who are confident with the system. The user needs to have "administrative rights" to effect the changes listed below. I could explain here how, but wonīt, to get administrative rights, but anyone who does not have them should not be attempting this anyway. On the control panel click Performance and Maintenance and the Administrative tools icon. Any user using "Classic View" will automatically see the Administrative tools icon. A box will pop up and you should double click the services icon. Another box will pop up: use the scroll button right hand side until you see Messenger appear in the name column. Double click on Messenger and itīs properties box will appear. There is a dropdown box labelled "Startup Type" which should read Automatic: set this to Manual as Disabled can affect other software. Click on the Apply button and close all remaining windows. This in no way affects or is connected to Windows Instant Messenger which will still function normally.
Now your computer will not accept those messenger pop-ups and should be more secure. The most secure way of surfing using ADSL is through a proxy server which makes you anonymous in that use assume another identity. Originally used by hackers and such it is now an accepted way of ADSL users with fixed IP addresses of protecting themselves. Perhaps the guys who write your articles could do one on Anonymous Proxies and help all those ADSL users out there.
Sorry to bother you with all this junk but itīs useful and itīs free.
Regards
James Walsh.
Edīs comment: Iīm not qualified to respond to this but this is what īa very experienced internet specialistī said: "Most people are unable to configure their email address... donīt expect them to be able to configure a firewall by themselves. Several people have called us because they were unable to browse the Internet and/or sending/receiving emails just after installation of personal firewalls (even didnīt notice they were installing firewalls).
The problem here is that people want to use Internet (like they want to use cars) but they donīt want to spend their time in learning how to do it (like they do when they obtain a car driver license).
Almost like everything in this life there are counter measures, if they donīt want to learn they can hire somebody to do the work. The question is: are they willing to do this?"
Dear John,
Some news regarding the Temporary Import situation of non EU vessels here which I think you and everyone should know about:
The new EU law allows non EU vessels to be used within EU waters for a total of 18 months. The key word is USED. The time starts from the date of arrival into EU waters and the 18 months is the total amount of time the vessel has been in use. If the owner uses the yacht for one month each year, the vessel could be here for a total of 18 years! When the vessel leaves EU waters the 18 months is "interrupted" and when arriving back again the 18 months starts afresh. n.b. official proof must be obtained that the vessel has visited a non-EU port. As the time in use is so difficult to prove, the local customs office had suggested that they no longer insisted on customs "bonding" of the vessels to prove time out of use. As some of the Captains who have had visits recently from the local Guardia are aware, this attitude has now changed, and I now strongly advise any non EU registered boats, when the owners are not here, to go into bond, thereby having no problem in proving the time the vessel has been out of use. Each different customs authority throughout the EU can apply their own interpretation of the law, therefore what happens in Palma does not necessarily happen elsewhere in Spain or the rest of Europe.
Regards,
Pat Bullock
Network
For futher information you can contact Pat on Tel-971 40 39 03; Fax 971 40 02 16; Email- network@atlas-iap.es