Spain's Beckham Law: who qualifies and how to apply

Spain's Beckham Law: who qualifies and how to apply

Blog Article

Relocating to Spain brings up an immediate concern: what your tax bill will look like. For a lot of expats, the answer depends on a single regime — the special expat tax regime, better known as the Beckham Law.

The mechanism is simple: rather than paying progressive resident rates on everything you earn globally, you are taxed like a Beckham law requirements in Spain non-resident on the income you earn in Spain, at a flat rate of 24% up to 600,000 euros with 47 percent applying beyond that threshold. If your salary is significant, the difference is substantial.

The conditions are strict. As a general rule, you must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the five years before the move, your relocation must be linked to an employment contract or a director role, and the activity must be performed principally on Spanish territory. Recent reforms opened the door to remote workers and certain entrepreneurs.

Timing is the part people get wrong. The election must be filed within six months of starting the activity that triggers residence. Miss it and the regime is lost for the whole assignment. Once granted, it applies for the year of arrival and the following five.

It is not automatically the better option. If you have significant income outside Spain, the interaction with wealth tax and reporting duties needs to be modelled first. Running the numbers in advance avoids an expensive mistake.

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