Tax evasion is punished quite severely in Spain and similar to the UK, it's those that can afford accountants that are liable to be avoiding/defrauding the Revenue. The great majority of people pay tax by salary deduction, again similar to the vast body of UK tax -payers.

Of course, evasion of VAT by white-van man goes on but funnily enough, many of them can't speak Spanish and have recognisable accents. Easily identified as they usually sport several heavy gold necklaces. They prey on the ex-pats that can't be arsed to learn the language.

I've just had new front disc pads and an oil-change on my car at a small two-man operation and received a complete invoice with VAT tabulated for a bill of 72,90 Euros. It's not worth being caught here, especially now that the government is beefing up inspection in order to increase income-