Tom, a software engineer from London, accepts a job with a company in Valencia. Once he becomes resident, Spain would normally tax his income from anywhere in the world at the progressive rates of Spanish income tax. Because he is moving here to work, he may be able to choose something different: to be taxed, for six years, largely as if he were a non-resident. That option is popularly known as the Beckham Law.
What changes
Under the regime, the salary Tom earns while it applies is treated as Spanish income, and his taxable income is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 a year and 47% above that. Pay for work he did before the move is not treated as Spanish income by that rule; it is taxed only if it arises in Spain under the ordinary non-resident rules. Dividends, interest and gains on the sale of assets have their own scale, from 19% to 30%, and other income is taxed only if it arises in Spain, so foreign income such as rent from a property he keeps in London drops out of his Spanish income tax return while the regime applies. For wealth tax, he is taxed only on assets and rights located, exercisable or to be performed in Spain.
The trade-off is that the rates apply to the whole taxable amount, without the personal and family allowances that ordinary residents get, and income cannot be offset item against item. Whether the regime pays off depends on the person, so the two options should be compared with real figures before choosing.
Who can choose it
Tom must not have been tax resident in Spain in any of the five tax years before the move, must not obtain income through a permanent establishment (a fixed place of business) in Spain, and must move, in his first year under the regime or the year before, for one of the reasons the law lists. The first route is a job: an employment contract with an employer in Spain, a posting ordered by his employer and backed by a posting letter, or working for his employer remotely, exclusively through computers and telecommunications, which covers people with Spain’s international teleworking visa. Self-employed people working for clients abroad, including many digital nomads, do not qualify through the job route.
There are other routes, each with its own conditions: becoming a company director, a business activity that qualifies as entrepreneurial on a favourable report from ENISA, the state-owned company that assesses innovative projects, and work as a highly qualified professional for start-ups or in training, research, development and innovation, where that work brings in more than 40% of the person’s total business, professional and employment income. UK, US and Canadian nationals taking the entrepreneurial route also need Spain’s residence authorisation for entrepreneurs before they move, unless EU free-movement rights cover them.
His spouse, his children under 25 and, if they are not married, the other parent of his children can join the regime too, under conditions of their own, but only for the years in which it applies to him.
The six years are the first year of residence and the following five. The count starts in the first calendar year in which, after the move, he spends more than 183 days in Spain, so if Tom arrived in November it would usually start the following year.
The six-month deadline
Each person chooses the regime by filing Modelo 149, and Tom has a maximum of six months. The period does not run from the day he lands in Valencia but from the start date of his activity: the date shown in his registration with Spanish Social Security or, if he stays in the UK system, in the documents that allow this, or, where no registration is required, in the document showing when the activity began. Family members have six months from their own arrival, or until Tom’s deadline if that is later.
One more thing to watch. If Tom has already used the special withholding procedure for people changing residence, under which the Spanish Tax Agency can issue a document giving the date from which the employer must withhold as for a resident, he can no longer opt for the regime. The election can be made after arrival, within the six months, but the comparison is best made while the job offer is still being considered.
Once in, the regime can be renounced only in November and December, with effect from the following year, and anyone who stops meeting the conditions is excluded from that year. In either case, the regime cannot be chosen again.
Sources: Personal Income Tax Act (Law 35/2006), article 93; Income Tax Regulations, articles 89.B and 113 to 119; Non-Residents Income Tax Act; Wealth Tax Act, article 5; Law 14/2013; Law 28/2022.
By José Vicente Díaz Madrid, tax and accounting adviser, Grupo Avanza Consultores (Paterna, Valencia). General information on Spanish tax law as at October 2026; it is not personalised tax advice.