paying

You can live without paying Google for more storage. The problem is not space, but Gmail

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I know firsthand that the offers that Google launches for your One plan cheaper are attractive. Paying a couple of euros a month so that the company does not bother you with warnings that you have little storage left is perfectly valid and you immediately get 100 GB so you can use it however you want. However, although it may not seem like a big deal, it ends up being a small “phantom expense” that we can easily avoid if we change our spending habits a little. cloud storage. In the vast majority of cases, the main culprit that causes us to have consumed almost all of the 15 GB that Google makes available to us for free is email. And the good thing is that they exist ways to almost immediately empty our inbox and have that free storage back. Below these lines we indicate some recommendations that will help you. 10 GOOGLE APPS THAT COULD HAVE SUCCESSFUL The problem is in your inbox If you check what takes up the most space in your Google account, it is quite likely that you will be surprised: Gmail is usually the biggest storage hog. Other times, it is also Google Photos that gives the most trouble with this, but in the case of Gmail, emails with attachments accumulate for years, and most of them are perfectly expendable: automatic notifications, old invoices, newsletters that you never read, etc. If your work depends to a certain extent on being very aware of the email, as happens to me, you find thousands of emails of press releases, presentations and, in short, material that arrives, takes up space and you don’t open it again. The good thing is that Google gives you very specific tools to locate those emails that we do not need and delete them in bulk. Between that and some tips to filter your inbox, you will be able to empty a very important part of the free storage that Google gives you in a simple way. The starting point: Google’s storage manager Before you get to work with Gmail, there’s one place worth going first: Google’s storage manager, accessible directly from this website. You can also get to it by clicking on the storage tab in Drive and clicking on “Free up space”, an option included in the Drive, Photos or Gmail app. This page shows how much space you have occupied and offers two key sections: one with personalized suggestions to free up space (such as deleting spam emails, large files or heavy attachments, indicating how much can be gained in each case) and another with shortcuts to the specific management of Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. It’s a good way to get a general idea of ​​the picture before acting: at a glance you can see which service is consuming the most and where to start cleaning. How to find and delete what matters most in Gmail If you’ve noticed that Gmail is taking up quite a bit of your cloud storage, the next step is to take action. After having deleted the emails that the Google One system itself suggested in the previous step, you can continue on your own using advanced filters that Gmail offers you, going for the heaviest emails first. To do this you can start by writing in the Gmail search engine ‘larger:15MB‘ (without the quotes) and so you will see all the emails that exceed that size. You can adjust the number depending on what you want to find: larger:5MB, larger:10MBor whatever value you prefer. It is a quick way to identify the messages that take up the most space with minimal effort. It is one thing to identify them, and quite another to know if they are really important to you or not. Going one by one is a bit of a hassle, but for example it helps me a lot to know if the email is from a long time ago or not. That’s why I also use date filters. This way, if what you want is to go also old, the command before:YYYY/MM/DD shows messages sent or received before a certain date. You can even combine both commands to locate old and heavy emails at the same time. Another very practical option is to search directly by attachments. Wearing has:attachment larger:10M All emails with attachments larger than 10 MB appear in the search bar. If you want to tune more, filename:.pdf larger:5M specifically locates emails with PDF attachments that weigh more than that amount, and older_than:2y has:attachment Filter out those that have attachments and have been in your tray for more than two years. Attached files (photos, PDFs, videos, documents) are usually responsible for the storage filling up much faster than expected. Search your keywords Beyond the commands that Gmail offers you, you can also use searches that serve you personally. In my case, for example, when I have a long list of press releases that I have already read, I simply type ‘ndp’ or ‘press release’ in the search engine and I will easily have a whole long list of press releases waiting to be deleted. Then you just need to pull the trigger. Once you have identified all the emails you want to delete, click on the selection square in the upper left corner to mark them all, click on ‘Select all conversations that match this search‘ so you can mark them all and not just the first 50, and then pull the trigger. If you know exactly what you DON’T want to delete, you can move it to its own label or mark it as featured before mass deleting the rest. That way you don’t risk losing anything important. Don’t forget to empty the trash When you have identified and deleted all the emails, you will have to pay a visit to the trash. And the emails that you have deleted do not disappear immediately: they are sent to the trash, where stay for 30 … Read more

Instagram wants you to be able to gossip about your ex’s stories without getting caught. Paying, of course

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Instagram stories they turn ten years old soon and the company is preparing a novelty that could completely change this product. The format, popularized by Snapchat, has some basic “rules”, such as that they disappear after 24 hours and that we can know who has seen our story. Instagram suggests that we can bypass these and other rules if we pay a subscription. Instagram Plus. This is what this new subscription model will be called, as they say in TechCrunch. Meta is testing a paid subscription for Instagram that will allow users to enjoy a series of benefits over normal features. Currently, Instagram has the Meta Verified subscription option (to have the blue tick) aimed at creators, but this new subscription is aimed at normal users who want to have certain benefits. Meta’s goal with this move is to diversify Instagram’s sources of income, which mainly come from advertising. Functions for the stalking. In an email to TechCrunch, Meta has detailed what extra features will come with the subscription. It is striking that the majority of functions fuel, let’s say, unhealthy uses of the platform, just when Meta has been found guilty of having designed its products to generate addiction. The functions of Instagram Plus are as follows: View stories anonymously, without the person who posted them knowing. Know which people have viewed your story more than once. Search within the list of viewers, to find out if a specific person has seen your story without having to search the list Extend the length of stories for an additional 24 hours. Feature a story so it appears at the top of your followers’ stories carousel. Send animated “superlikes” to other stories. Create audience lists beyond “best friends.” Why it is important. Instagram openly recognizing that gossip and obsession with the metrics of your stories are behaviors widespread enough to monetize. But there is something that is also very important: being able to highlight stories so that they are seen more is a change in the rules of the game. These types of functions end up creating a distinction between users that affects not only the functionalities to which they have access, but also the visibility of their content. Why now. This is the next question to ask ourselves. Instagram is, along with Facebook, the social network that generates the most incomeso it’s not that you have a liquidity problem. However, right now Meta’s actions are not going through their best momentlargely due to the mistrust generated by the astronomical spending on infrastructure for AI. With 3 billion active usersInstagram Plus has the potential to boost revenue even more to face what is coming. TObackground. Instagram is following in the footsteps of other social networks that have opted for this type of subscriptions. We saw the case of the most aggressive subscription model with Twitter (now X), which after the acquisition by Elon Musk completely changed the meaning of the blue tick. Today, if you don’t pay you can’t send messages to any user, edit posts, create longer posts or access Grok. At the other extreme we have Snapchat+, which is a subscription that adds benefits without deteriorating the free experience. Among its features are being able to access experimental features first, more storage, and access to premium lenses. They launched it in 2022 and they have done quite well: Today it has 25 million subscribers and has generated 1 billion in revenue. Availability and price. At the moment, Instagram Plus is going to be tested in a limited number of countries. Meta hasn’t said which ones, but we know it has already appeared in Japan, the Philippines and Mexico. Regarding prices, according to some users have postedin Mexico it is 39 pesos per month, which at the current exchange rate is 1.88 euros. It is not clear in which other countries they will test it or when they plan to launch it globally. Image | Sanket Mishra, Pexels

from sharing mobile data to paying again like a decade ago

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Saturday is a good day to have your internet cut off. At first you don’t notice, because you’re at home and you don’t use the computer (as much). But you end up finding out, and that’s what happened to me when I realized that I was without my O2 fiber connection, againfor the underground works from the A-5, again. Two days later I’m still the same, like many residents of the area, and this is becoming a small (but bearable) headache. The cuts are back. These works have already caused cuts in the past. They did it in July, August and November of 2025, and also in January 2026. Each time the affected areas and operators have occurred, they have varied, but for example on social networks there is data that indicate that this time the cut has been important and has affected to Movistar/O2 clients,Orange, VodafoneJazztel or Digi. Meanwhile, unlimited data. Spotting the problem on Saturday morning, I called my operator, O2, to find out what was happening. They confirmed to me that it was a fiber optic cable cut due to the works on the A-5, and they explained to me that they hoped to resolve the problem as soon as possible. And as in the previous outage, they told me that during this period I was offered unlimited mobile data on all the lines associated with my contract. It is something that operators usually offer in these cases and that certainly makes the problem mitigate… although it does not disappear. He tethering saves (quite a lot) the papers. Since then I have been using my computer with mobile data: I have shared the connection on my smartphone through tetheringwhich allows me to work normally and at decent speeds without problems. This weekend I have also used this connection, sharing it with the Chromecast on my TV to watch a series or movie without problems. Paying as before. Businesses in the area have also been affected by these service cuts, and the example is a supermarket near my house where this weekend there was no option to pay with a mobile phone. The POS did not accept contactless payments and you had to pay either in cash or with a physical debit/credit card, inserting it into the POS slot. Better to be proactive. Users have few options here beyond calling the operator to find out what happened and to have them activate that unlimited data if they had not already done so. Here it is advisable to be proactive and call because at least in my case until I called they did not activate those unlimited “bonuses”, and it makes sense: the operators may not know which users exactly are affected. If we want to have this option we will have to call and probably wait a few minutes until an agent answers us, something that may take time because these breakdowns affect many people. In my personal case the wait was about 5 or 6 minutes this time. It’s time to wait. As is often the case on these occasions, there is no clear estimate of when the problem can be resolved. In January the disconnection lasted approximately two days, and this time the outage is already on its way to lasting up to three days or more. Neither the operators nor the Community of Madrid offer much information in this regard, and in most cases the only thing that users can do is be patient. In Xataka | There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

Paying more for a very fast NVMe SSD is wasting money if you only save PDFs, but it is the only option if you are also going to work from it

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Like me, you have probably also at some point faced the purchase of a new storage unit, internal or external, for your desktop PC or portable. Something that, until a few years ago, was quite simplified: either you chose a 5,400 rpm HDD (revolutions per minute), or you chose one of 7,200 rpm. End of story. To something else. But since SSDs came onto the scene, purchasing (and usage) possibilities have changed a lot, making opting for one type or another is not so simple. Today, taking into account the price differences between HDDs (the “old” mechanical disks) and SSDs (the “modern” solid state drives), the choice is clear: SSDs win by a landslide, offering wide capacities and much, much higher speeds. Although well, the current context of AI surcharges It changes the film a little and, whatever purchase we make now, it will entail a greater outlay. But this shouldn’t last forever and, under normal conditions, SSDs are still the best value for money purchase option for general use. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links So, well, you already have one thing clear: to expand capacity, in general terms, the ideal in 2026 is to go for an SSD. However, the choice is not so simple because different technologies and different models come into the field of SSDs, each with a series of advantages and disadvantages. All of them, valid for any use you plan to give them, be careful. But not all of them cost the same and, depending on what you need your new unit for, Smart purchasing will tip the balance on one side or the other. And your pocket, of course, will thank you for choosing carefully. In other words and to give them first and last names: in a scenario in which you need more space for your PC or portable and you have to go through the checkout to expand it using an SSD, you will have to choose between an NVMe SSD or a SATA SSD (which are the main types of SSD that are generally sold). The first, more expensive and faster. The second, cheaper and slower. AND each one, in its proper context, shines with its own light. Next we are going to see how they differ and why they are a better purchase option compared to their rival, depending on the context. And thus pay more if the situation requires it or save as much as possible if you are not going to take advantage of its full potential. SATA SSD: not as fast but cheaper When SSDs burst onto the scene, they did so in a format we know as SATA. In units of different sizes (although also ostensibly more compact than mechanical HDDs) that are still commonly marketed in 2.5-inch models. If you have a laptop or desktop PC from a couple of decades ago, probably contains one of these. These SSD units were, at the time, night and day compared to mechanical HDDs. What used to take you half an hour to wait was suddenly completed in minutes. And also, without noise. The “problem” is that today, with much more modern and faster units (spoiler: NVMe), this type of SSD have been relegated more to pure storage than as devices for daily work. That is to say: what we once stored on HDDs, we now do on these SSDs. A digital storage room that, in any case, is much faster and makes it easier (and faster) to move large amounts of data and copy and paste files. In addition, the SATA SSD is probably the only option when it comes to somewhat “old” laptops: today, practically all models come with an M.2 connector (where the NVMe are installed), but if you have a laptop that is a few years old (around 2018 or earlier) it will probably not have said connector and the 2.5-inch SATA SSD is the one you will have to use. If you are also using a mechanical HDD, the change will be spectacular. Does this mean they are a bad choice? Not at all, they’re still great in 2026… but especially for what I’m doing: storing. Because if what you need is a “hard drive” on which to install the operating system, applications and games, or on which work intensively on tasks that require constant writing and reading of data (such as video editing), then you will be limited. This leads us to the next model: NVMe SSD. NVMe SSDs: faster and more expensive While SATA SSDs are somewhat larger and slower (but cheaper), NVMe SSDs are a rocket. The quickest and most direct way to describe them is: speed, speed, speed. While the former would become a one-lane national highway, the latter become a highway with eight lanes in each direction. This means that if a sporadic car (some file, such as PDFs) is going to pass through these “roads”, SATA is enough for you; If you need several heavy trucks moving at the same time (video editing, for example, with thousands of MB of data moving at full speed) then That national highway will collapse and there is no choice but to drive on the highway.. NVMe SSDs also stand out in design: they are compact, stylish and very small. The inseparable companion of any current desktop or laptop PCbut also in video game consoles by offering better performance in all types of tasks and taking up less space (something vital, for example, in the case of consoles). In fact, this is the type of SSD that the PlayStation 5, the Steam Deck… come with in the M.2 connectors that they incorporate. Connector that, by the way, has been present on practically any desktop or laptop motherboard for a few years now. This type of SSD is more expensive than its SATA relatives, but that extra financial effort is worth it if, in addition to storing data as such, you plan to work on them. … Read more

Google has made AI consume up to six times less memory. Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix are paying dearly

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we carry months wrapped in the memory crisisbut maybe there is a way out. Last week Google Research published a study in which he revealed a technique called TurboQuant. This is a compression algorithm capable of compressing the working memory of AI models up to six times without appreciable loss of quality or performance. Great news for end users, who see a light at the end of the tunnel, but terrible news for manufacturers, who this golden age could end. Let’s explain what KV cache is.. To understand TurboQuant you have to understand what that memory is that it manages to compress. When a language model processes a long conversationyou need to remember the context. Each token that is processed is stored in the so-called KV cache, a type of working memory that grows as we chat. The longer the conversation, the more memory the model requires. Compressing what is a gerund. It is one of the main bottlenecks in the AI ​​inference stage (that is, when we use the models), and one of the reasons why data centers they need as much RAM or HBM memory. TurboQuant uses a vector quantization method to compress this cache while maintaining the precision of the model. Pied Piper. As soon as this Google study appeared, the analogies began with the plot of the series ‘Silicon Valley’. In it, the fictional startup in the plot managed to develop an extraordinarily efficient compression algorithm called Pied Piper that threatened to revolutionize the technology industry. These days, multiple references to the series appeared on social media, which had already been referred to as visionary for reflecting what is happening with spectacular accuracy even when the series was a comedy. Six times less memory. The Google Research paper states that this method is capable of reducing the KV cache six times without an appreciable difference in performance in long conversations. The researchers will present their results at an event next month and explain the two methods that allow it to be put into practice. If they confirm what they’ve already teased, the implications are huge: less memory for inference means data centers can do the same thing with much less hardware/memory. Google’s DeepSeek moment. The discovery has some analysts calling this Google’s “DeepSeek moment.” A year ago, the Chinese startup DeepSeek launched an AI model that competed with the best but had cost much less to develop. That shook the industry, and now we return to a technical achievement that points to the same thing. In AI, doing the same with less is crucial, given the enormous resources that this technology requires. There are those who already have done evidence preliminaries with TurboQuant and have confirmed that the method does indeed work. Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix pay dearly. The impact of this technique can be enormous, and this has already begun to be noticed in the stock market valuations of DRAM memory manufacturers and HBM. Companies like Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, SanDisk and Kioxia fell noticeably last week from their recent highs. On March 18 it was around $471, and today its shares are at $357, a staggering 24.2% drop. The same has happened with the rest of the manufacturers, which were already falling since that date, but have accelerated that fall with the launch of TurboQuant. But. The technique can theoretically be applied only to the inference phase, but the training phase of AI models is not affected by this compression technique. Therefore, huge amounts of memory will still be needed during the training phase. Besides we will have to wait for AI companies to actually start applying said system if it is confirmed to work, and that will be when we can see the real impact. Theoretically this will give a lot of room for maneuver to big tech, which will be able to reduce token prices even further, but it remains to be seen if they do so. RAM memories drop in price. The impact of TurboQuant has also been clear in the prices of memory modules, which have dropped appreciably in price. For example, the Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32 GB 6000MHz (2x16GB) modules were at 489.59 euros on Amazon until a few weeks ago according to CamelCamelCamel, but right now they are at 339.89 euros, a notable discount. It is true that not all components are falling equally, but there are indeed cases in which reductions seem to be occurring. In Xataka | The RAM crisis is destroying all of Valve’s plans with its Steam Machine

Is it worth paying twice as much for a mobile phone that has changed so little?

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Samsung has been faithful to its annual event and presented a few hours ago the new Galaxy A57 (next to Galaxy A37). This is placed as the best mid-range phone that South Koreans havealthough you may very well be wondering how it is different from Galaxy A56last year’s model. To make it very easy for you, we are going to see the main differences so that you have it easier when choosing one or the other right now. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Galaxy A56 5G, Android smartphone, 256 GB storage, 8 GB RAM, anthracite, 6X update, large screen, long life (warranty) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The differences between the Galaxy A57 and the Galaxy A56 Continuous design, but lighter and thinner At first glance, both Samsung devices are quite similar. Both the Galaxy A56 and the Galaxy A57 rely on a metal edge and a glass back where the camera module sticks outso both one and the other will “limp” you if you place them with the screen facing up on a table. Now, there are changes in dimensions and weight. Samsung has been insisting on making its phones thinner for some time (the Galaxy S26 family is the perfect proof of this) and the Galaxy A57 is no exception. We are faced with a mobile that It is only 6.9 millimeters thicka good cut if we take into account that the A56 is 7.4 millimeters. There is also a notable difference in weight: the new model weighs 179 grams compared to the 198 grams of its predecessor. All this translates into a better in-hand experience. Processor and memory configurations Samsung continues to rely on its own Exynos processors for its mid-range phones. The new Galaxy A57 mounts the Exynos 1680a direct evolution of the Exynos 1580 that its predecessor rides. We do not have data yet on the performance of this new CPU, but hopefully it will be more powerful and efficient. The Galaxy A56, as we told you in its analysis, offers plenty of power for everyday life and the most common apps, something that will not change with the new model. There are also differences at the memory level. The Galaxy A56 started with 6 GB of RAM, although it had an 8 GB configuration. The new model raises the level and starts with 8 GB of RAMalthough with the possibility of purchasing a version with 12 GB of RAM. It also goes up a level in storage, now starting from 256 GB with the possibility of choosing 512 GB, something that the Galaxy A56 did not offer (which started from 128 GB and went up to 256 GB). Lots of AI and six years of updates As usual, the new Galaxy A They come hand in hand with a more modern version of One UI, Samsung’s custom layer based on Android. In this case it is One UI 8.5 (Android 16), although the most interesting thing is once again the years of support that the company offers for these phones. The Galaxy A57 has six years of guaranteed updatesso you will receive up to Android 22. Logically, coming out in 2025, the Galaxy A56 will receive one year less of updates at this point. AI is one of the key pieces of Samsung software, also in the Galaxy A57. Beyond Galaxy AIwe can expect this device to come with features like voice transcription on the recorder, smart object erase or ‘Circle to Find’, as well as Gemini. However, all of these functions They should also be present on the Galaxy A56. Few changes at the battery and camera level We are mainly emphasizing the differences between both terminals, but it is also important to point out where there are no changes. The battery is one of these aspects, since both devices have a 5,000 mAh battery. Although it is true that this figure is far from silicon-carbon batteries that other manufacturers mount, Samsung devices are very well optimized. Both one and the other should give you more than a day of autonomy. In addition to fast charging (which in both cases is 45 W via cable), they also repeat the same cameras, both rear and selfie camera. There may be differences when testing them thanks to the processing and artificial intelligence, although we still have to wait to issue a verdict here. The price has a lot to say right now Of course, if we talk about differences, we must put the price into the equation. The new Galaxy A57, which comes out on April 10, starts at 529 euros in its configuration with 128 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. On the other hand, the Galaxy A56 right now can be found much cheaper. In fact, the version with 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM comes out 284.12 euros (with the discount coupon ‘ASES43’). In summary: which Galaxy to choose based on your needs Why choose the Galaxy A57 Although there are not many changes, there are. The problem is that may not be enough to justify paying the price difference what’s there right now. This is where the new model stands out the most: It comes with a new processor: We don’t have figures yet, but the new Exynos chip, on paper, is more powerful and efficient. It is lighter and thinner– The Galaxy A57 has become lighter and thinner. With an almost identical design, this new mobile is more comfortable in hand. Initial storage configuration is better: Starting from 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, the cheapest version is better than the Galaxy A56. You are looking for the greatest possible longevity: Both devices have six years of updates, but this one has arrived a year later, so it will receive more updates (both operating system and security). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Why choose the … Read more

Taking money from a family member just before their death seemed like a great idea to avoid paying taxes. It wasn’t

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Why should an additional tax be paid for receiving money in inheritance for which the deceased already paid taxes? Many people ask that question and They decide to jump into the mountains (prosecutor) trying a thousand and one tricks to avoid payment of the Donations and Inheritance Tax. The most common trick is to empty bank accounts of the family member before he or she dies. Spoiler: it goes wrong. A solved case by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid shows that this belief can be very expensive, and that the attempt to avoid the treasury can end up exactly where one wanted to avoid arriving: paying the Treasury even more than what they would have paid in the beginning. Money, what money? A woman was listed as the owner or authorized person on several of her sister’s bank accounts. In September 2017, this died without leaving a will. When the General Directorate of Taxes of the Community of Madrid began to investigate the case, it found that the deceased’s assets were much larger than what her sister wanted to make out. As of December 31, 2016, the three bank accounts of the deceased accumulated considerable balances: one with 9,217.08 euros, another with 51,216.58 euros and a third with 132,644.53 euros, in which the sister appeared directly as joint owner. In addition to these savings, the deceased had received 45,000 euros in April 2017 for the sale of her part of a property that she shared with her sister. By December 31, 2017, all the money in the accounts was gone. The Treasury calculated that the total money and assets that should have been declared in the inheritance amounted to 122,931.67 euros, to which was added the value of 50% of a property in Hoyo de Manzanares valued at 1,812.50 euros. ​No resignation possible. The sister responded to the first requests from the Treasury by assuring that the deceased had died without assets. Some time later he provided a notarial document of renunciation of inheritance dated September 29, 2020, more than three years after death occurred. His argument was that he did not know that his sister had assets, and that the only movements he had made in the deceased’s accounts were payment procedures for the residence where he received care his sister in her last month of life. The court that reviewed the case in the first instance initially agreed with him, considering that this payment could be interpreted as timely management. However, the Community of Madrid, in charge of collecting the tax, appealed and the TSJM resolved differently. Although in theory you can renounce an inheritance at any time during the process, doing so after having acted on the deceased’s assets has tax consequences that no notarial deed can erase. What does it mean to accept an inheritance without wanting to do so?. In Spain, you do not need to sign any paper to legally become an heir. The law includes in its article 999.3 the figure of tacit acceptance, which occurs when someone acts on the assets of a deceased as if they were already theirs, even if they have never confirmed acceptance of inheritance. Withdrawing money from your accounts, selling your property or simply managing your assets are examples of actions that, in the eyes of the law, are equivalent to saying “yes, I accept”, even if no paper has been signed.​​ The problem is that many people are not aware of this rule and believe that as long as they do not sign anything before a notary, they are safe. In reality, what matters is not what is signed, but what is done. The Supreme Court takes decades establishing that any act that unequivocally reveals that someone he is behaving like an heireven if informally or even unconsciously, has the same legal and fiscal effects as an express acceptance of the inheritance.​ What the law says about disappearing money. The TSJM applied the article 11.1.a of the Inheritance and Donation Tax Lawwhich establishes that the assets that would have belonged to the deceased up to one year before his death They are considered part of the inheritanceunless proven otherwise by solid evidence. Not only did the sister not provide any explanation as to what had happened to that money, but she did not even try throughout the entire process. The court also assessed that the deceased was admitted to a nursing home and was receiving special care, which made it highly unlikely that she would have been able to manage the withdrawal of the money from her accounts on her own. Given that the sister was the owner or authorized owner of all of them, the judges concluded that moving that money was equivalent, in the eyes of the law, to having accepted the inheritance. Pay the tax, but get rid of the fine. The TSJ of Madrid confirmed that the woman had to pay 26,217.11 euros as settlement of the Inheritance Tax for her sister’s inheritance. However, the judges annulled the fine of 17,999.73 euros that the Madrid treasury demanded, because the Community of Madrid failed to prove that the woman had acted with the deliberate intention of deceiving the treasury, something that the law requires before being able to impose a financial penalty of that type. In Xataka | The “Great Transfer of Wealth” is not only a thing for the rich: demographic change will concentrate wealth among the youngest Image | Pexels (cottonbro studio)

Getting married in Switzerland was equivalent to paying more taxes than a single person. And a referendum has put an end to the problem

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In Switzerland, marriages they are news. And not because of its rise or fall, demographic issues or new trends when celebrating them. They are for strictly tax reasons. In a historic decision the Swiss have supported majority (with 54% support) a reform that will basically put an end to what is called the “marriage penalty” in the country. In other words, saying ‘I do’ in Switzerland will no longer be (in most cases) a sentence to paying more when declaring income to the Treasury. The decision has come preceded by an intense debate, which gives a clue that the issue does not only have fiscal implications. The background is social, cultural and historical. What has happened? That after years of debate Switzerland has given the ‘green light’ to a key tax change for marriages. Couples in the country who formalize their relationship will stop paying taxes jointly, through a single tax return in which the sum of their income and assets is taken into account. From now on, each spouse will be taxed individually. Just as if he hadn’t gone through the altar. The measure has received the endorsement of 54% of voters during a referendum in which they have discussed more topicsbut it does not mean that it will be activated immediately. The idea is that it be adopted gradually, over the next five years. The cantons have margin until 2032. Is it so important? Yes. In fact in Switzerland (and other countries who have paid attention to the fiscal change) there is no talk of joint or individual taxation, but of something much more forceful: the end of the “marriage penalty”. Because? Because according to its promoters, the current Swiss tax regime punishes those marriages in which both spouses work and enjoy good salaries. In these cases, with the current system, couples are forced to bear greater burdens than they would face if they remained single. That is, the same couple can find themselves in one or another tax bracket (more or less beneficial) depending only on whether they have formalized their relationship. Why’s that? Basically because the Swiss system is a few decades old and is based on a traditional family model in which each household has a single base salary. If the family receives more income (a second payroll) they are usually taxed at a higher marginal rate. “The joint model came from a time when women’s income was considered a ‘complement’ to that of their husbands,” clarify Swiss Info. With the new system, that changes. Does it influence that much? What we have seen so far may sound abstract or too theoretical, but its scope is better understood with practical examples. In January Swiss Info carried out a simulation for different profiles of households with one or another tax system and found that the ‘photo’ changes quite a bit. The summary is very simple: new tax model It mainly benefits marriages in which both spouses earn the same or similar amounts and harms (forcing them to face a greater tax burden) those in which there is a greater imbalance of income between the members of the couple. A practical example. Let’s take the case of a couple in which both members earn the same: 100,000 francs. With the joint model that has been operating in Switzerland for years, its tax burden would be about 6,700 francs. With the new individual taxation system it would drop to 2,700. Things change in couples in which there is only one salary. In these cases (with the same level of income) individual taxation will mean an increase of 32% compared to joint taxation. What is the change looking for? Its promoters assure that the new model will solve a problem that has been dragging down the Swiss economy for some time: a tax system that discourages paid work for those people who provide a second income to their homes. When changing the legal framework, remember Financial Timesthe Swiss government hopes to increase the nation’s workforce by about 60,000 people and increase the national GDP by about 1%. Advocates of the change hope it will help women gain strength in the Swiss labor market. It is estimated that only 60% of Swiss women work full time, a percentage lower than the OECD average, which is around 78%. The “marriage penalty” has also led to some curious practicessuch as couples who marry without legally registering their union or even marriages that they divorce before retiring for tax reasons. Are they all advantages? Not at all. At least that is what the sectors most critical of the measure maintain, warning of several negative effects. The main one, that the new system will result in more bureaucracyincreasing the workload (and costs) of the administration. There are cantons that also fear that the change of model will affect their coffers, punishing them with a loss of income. Beyond the practical issues there is another ideological one: part of the critical sector warns that individual supervision will generate inequalities that will harm traditional families above all. According to the Government, the new framework will more or less half of the taxpayers see their tax burden reduced. 36% would not notice changes and only the remaining 14% will have to pay more taxes. Images | Leonardo Miranda (Unsplash), Ronnie Schmutz (Unsplash) and Leo_Visions (Unsplash) In Xataka | 40,000 euros to say “yes, I want”: weddings in Spain have become events and their price is skyrocketing

Dubai was a mecca for expats. Now they are driving 10 hours and paying thousands of dollars for a flight to escape from there

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Iran has shown it needs very little to upend Middle East air traffic and hit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where it hurts the most: the image of reliability that has been built for years at an international level, with great benefitsby the way. The wave of attacks launched by Tehran to neighboring countries that facilitate US military deployment in the region, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the UAE itself, has affected thousands of flights and left a curious image: expats desperate to leave Dubai. There are those who are shelling out large sums to fly on private jets and those who have even driven 10 hours to get to Riyadh and get on a plane there. What has happened? If Tehran wanted to damage the image of stability of neighbors like the UAE, it was completely right. Although the country managed to intercept most of the drones and missiles launched by Iran, the truth is that some of the projectiles reached Dubai, the tourist and financial heart of the region. In practice, this translated into fires in luxury hotels, towers with windows shattered by explosions, a knocked out airport and, above all, considerable reputational damage for a city that has spent years building the image of a safe and comfortable destination for expats. Sums it up beautifully Elizabeth Rayment, a consultant caught off guard by the Iranian attack in Palm Islands: “You never expect to hear missiles flying overhead in Dubai.” Have there been more consequences? Yes. The most serious are undoubtedly the victims. Arab News I was talking yesterday about three deceased and 58 injured in the United Arab Emirates. There are not many if you take into account that the country’s authorities claim to have detected a total of 156 ballistic missiles and several cruise missiles, in addition to more than half a thousand drones, most of them intercepted and destroyed. The other consequence is the chaos generated in air traffic in the Persian Gulf, where some airports and airlines have had to suspend their operations, affecting both customers in the region and others who had planned to pass through Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Qatar to take connecting flights between Europe and Asia. Have many been cancelled? FlightAware estimates that around 2,800 operations and on Sunday more than 3,1500. Added to these are the flights canceled and suspended today by Gulf airlines. For reference, Financial Times assured this morning that more than half of the services that had been booked for today in the region have been cancelled. The Iranian attacks have altered to a greater or lesser extent the programming of Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways and the airports of Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, as well as other terminals in Kuwait and Bahrain. The BBC has chatted with travelers who have found flights canceled upon arriving at the terminal. There are those who already talk about the biggest crisis aviation since the pandemic. How do I leave the country? That is the question that expats and tourists have been asking themselves since Saturday. The Iranian attacks have surprised them in the region and now they find that there are few (or no) regular flights that take them to other parts of the globe. Faced with such a scenario, there are those who have armed themselves with patience, those who have drawn on their checkbook and those who have resigned themselves to traveling kilometers and kilometers to reach airports with flights. So I told it a few hours ago FTwhich speaks of “tens of thousands of passengers” stranded in the region and assures that there are Dubai residents who have traveled to neighboring Oman to get a flight. What’s more, some have even driven 10 hours to get on a plane in Riyadh. They don’t have it easy. Most scheduled flights these days between Muscat (Oman) and Europe are reserved. And what do they do? The wealthiest, pull out their checkbook and try their luck with private jet companies. EnterJet, which is dedicated to intermediating between customers and available planes, says that reservations have skyrocketed 40% since the weekend. The problem is that the sector also has its limitations. Its founder explains to Financial Times that “the only viable option” to operate is the Muscat terminal, which makes it difficult to obtain landing slots. Added to this are the difficulties in finding ships. The businessman hopes that as traffic recovers in the Gulf, private flights will increase. Are they very expensive? The situation in the Gulf has caused a curious effect: while the price of airlines such as International Airlines Group or Air France-KLM they resent the price of private services skyrockets. The JetVip agency (Oman) explains to Guardian that a flight to Istanbul on a small Nextant jet costs around 85,000 euros, about three times the normal price. The same media reveals that seats on private charter flights to Moscow are paid for about 20,000 euros… per person. Rates vary depending on the company, but they usually always range in the five digits, or even more. It may sound strange, but we must keep in mind that Donald Trump has hinted that the offensive against Iran could continue even further. “four weeks” and the question remains as to how Tehran will respond. Added to this is that over the last few years the UAE has managed to position itself as a priority destination for thousands of expatsa position largely based on reliability and stability that Tehran has now managed to damage with missiles. Images | Michael Ranzau (Flickr) In Xataka | The arrival of the B-2s to Iran can only mean one thing: the search for the greatest threat to the United States has begun

Is it worth paying extra to spin faster?

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Life takes many turns, but not as many as a washing machine. If you start looking at a washing machine, it’s normal that your eyes will focus on the capacity or the price. But, what are those RPMs that they put on their technical sheet? It is not just another number, but it has its importance. Because a washing machine with a higher RPM has, in most cases, an even higher price. Is it worth spending more to have more RPM in your new washing machine? Since there is no simple answer, I am going to explain to you what it means for a washing machine to have more or less RPM. And if it’s worth spending that extra. Faster is not always better. The same thing happens inside your washing machine. When a washing machine finishes the wash cycle, everything in the drum is dripping with water. At that moment it is the turn of the centrifuge, that thing that makes a washing machine look like it’s going to fly away. Basically, the drum begins to rotate at a very high speed, causing the clothes, sheets or whatever we have put in the washing machine to stick to the walls of the drum. So that? So that the water comes out through the holes in the drum due to centrifugal force. Now that we know what the spin of a washing machine does, it’s time to talk about the RPM or revolutions per minute. There is not much mystery here: it is a unit of measurement that is used to know, in this case, how many revolutions does the drum make per minute. These are impressive figures, since if the cycle we use in the washing machine spins at 1,200 RPM, it means that the drum makes 20 revolutions per second. Numbers aside, what does more or less RPM mean when spinning? The higher the number of revolutions per minute of the drum, the greater the centrifugal force that is generated and, therefore, the greater the amount of water that is extracted from the clothes. So, in short, choosing a very high RPM number in our wash cycle will make the clothes come out with much less water. This is ideal if you put in a load of laundry and want it to be dry as soon as possible. Or even if you are going to use the dryer later, because if the clothes come out with less water, you will be able to use the dryer for less time. If we stop there, logic will tell us that it is better to use 1,400 or 1,600 RPM to remove dry or almost dry clothes from the washing machine. Spoiler: it is not like that. These types of spins make a lot more noise, so you don’t want to run them at night. Besides, they make clothes come out very wrinkledso it’s time to have a good time with iron in hand. It’s not that you have to worry about using it a few times, but in the long run, 1,400 or 1,600 RPM causes the fibers of the clothing to wear out much faster, so your clothes will be damaged. And what remains is what affects our pocket: Using these RPMs causes the washing machine’s consumption to increase a little. It’s not a drama, especially since then you will have to use the dryer less time (which uses a lot more) or use the clothesline less time. However, it is something to keep in mind because it adds to the higher price of the washing machine. The good and the bad of both options, face to face 1,200 RPM 1,400 or 1,600 RPM THE GOOD 🟢 It’s cheaper and will make your clothes suffer less. Your clothes will come out practically dry, so your laundry will be ready sooner. THE BAD 🔴 It will take you longer to dry your clothes (even with a dryer) They make more noise and clothes suffer more. It will also appear more wrinkled. Ideal for: Homes that air dry clothes and take great care of each garment Humid climates where air drying clothes is torture or for families who do a lot of laundry We do the math to see which one can compensate you more. As you can see, Both have advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the spin speed will almost always depend on the type of clothing or fabric that we put in the washing machinebut here the question is whether it is worth having that extra that 1,400 or 1,600 RPM gives you. Above all, because a washing machine is an appliance with a very long useful life. You are going to live with her for many years, so it is better to choose well. If at home you tend to blow dry and don’t use the dryer too much, With a 1,200 RPM washing machine you will have plenty. Because? Actual use: You don’t have the highest spin power, but you do have a balanced and sufficient one for most people. So?: You spend less on your new washing machine and you still have enough spin to remove clothes with little water. And, in the long run, you will take better care of your clothes. However, in a humid area such as northern Spain, you will know what an ordeal it is to dry your clothes outdoors. If we add to this intensive use of the dryer and you put so many loads in a week that you don’t have room to hang everything, then You may be interested in opting for a washing machine with 1,400 or 1,600 RPM. Because? Actual use: You live in an area where it is (almost) impossible to dry clothes because of the humidity and you want to use the dryer as little as possible. So?: You spend a little more, but you will take the clothes out of the washing machine practically dry. A blow of the dryer and you will … Read more

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