Hi Jools

Thanks for your reply. Hope things are good over in Aragón!

Yes, the NIE (Número de Identificación/identidad de Extranjero) is for identifying foreigners, for tax and other reasons. As you say, every foreigner has one.

Back in the days when we had those handy residence permit cards (as opposed to the inconvenient green A4 document) I had a nifty little blue card with an NIF number (Número de Identificación Fiscal).

The number was the same as my NIE though, and in recent years I have used the NIE for all ID purposes.

The CIF (Certificado de Identificación Fiscal) number is the tax ID for companies.

When I became self-employed I registered with Hacienda (tax office) in Tarragona, and have always used my NIE number for everything, income tax and IVA included.

Naturally I also registered as self-employed with the Seguridad Social too, and I have a separate social security number.

Anyway I just hope Madrid and Barcelona don't come up with any new bureaucratic obstacles for us all...

Kind regards

Jeff