Robert Amsterdam, the international lawyer waging war on the Spanish taxman, in Marbella and Malaga

Finance

Amsterdam and former adviser Christopher Wales will be speaking to local business owners and SUR in English readers on legal guarantees and the tax burden in Spain

SUR in English

Robert Amsterdam, the international lawyer waging a high-profile legal and public advocacy campaign against the Spanish taxman, will be presenting his case in Marbella and Malaga next week.

Amsterdam's "tax pickpockets" campaign accuses the Spanish tax office (known as Hacienda) of "unfair audits, investigations, and onerous financial claims without foundation".

The campaign claims that many foreign executives, "who relocated to Spain based on the promise of the Beckham Law, which applied a flat rate to earnings in the country, were then exposed to a rule change and investigations".

Amsterdam's battle focuses on exposing alleged systemic abuses, the lack of legal safeguards for taxpayers and the controversial bonus structures for tax inspectors in Spain.

The latest step in Amsterdam's battle against Hacienda comes in the form of a book, Hacienda and the Dual State, written in collaboration with Christopher Wales, a former adviser to Tony Blair.

The book goes as far as to compare Spain's tax system to totalitarian regimes. "In Spain everything is justified in the fight against fraud," Wales said at a recent book launch in Madrid.

"The Spaniards' fear of Hacienda is something I haven't seen in any other country," said Amsterdam, describing the tax inspectors as "predators", rather than auditors.

Next week Robert Amsterdam, Christopher Wales and their team will be in Marbella and Malaga to speak, in English, about their book and their campaign against what they refer to as Spain's "fiscal hell".

The discussion will also be shown live on surinenglish.com