According to a recent study there are four million people working in the black economy in Spain! Only four million? I would have thought there were many more .....

The study, which was commissioned by the savings banks association FUNCAS, was carried out by the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. The report concluded that there are four million non-declared jobs in Spain’s black economy, and estimated that the submerged economy represents 17% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The FUNCAS study shows that many people work both officially and in the black economy at the same time.

The research was undertaken by professors María Arrazola, José de Hevia, Ignacio Mauleón and Raúl Sánchez from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

They estimate that Hacienda misses out on 30 billion euros in unpaid taxes every year through people working “black”. According to the researchers the number of people employed in the black economy in the country has risen from 1,4 million in 1980 to four million now.

I’d be surprised if the number of black workers wasn’t even higher. Nearly everyone I know is “on the fiddle”.

© Paul Whitelock

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