Beckham Law Without the Digital Nomad Visa: What the DGT Actually Ruled (V2460-25)

The case the DGT actually decided

The person who asked is not a generic “expat”. He is a dual national: Spanish, and since 2011 also American. He lives in the United States, works for a US company, and agreed with his employer to work from Spain from August 2025: as an employee, teleworking, keeping his US Social Security coverage instead of registering with the Spanish system.

Hence the problem. The Digital Nomad Visa (formally, the visa for international teleworking) is an immigration permit for non-EU foreigners: a Spanish national cannot apply for it. So he asked the Directorate-General for Taxes (DGT) the question every dual citizen and returning national eventually asks: if I cannot get the visa, am I locked out of the Beckham regime?

The DGT's answer: no, you are not locked out, but on conditions the one-line summaries drop.

What the DGT actually said: the real quote

Start with the law. Article 93.1.b) LIRPF requires that your move happens as a consequence of an employment relationship, and says (in the wording of Law 28/2022) that this condition is met “when, without being ordered to by the employer, the work is carried out remotely, through the exclusive use of computer, telematic and telecommunication means and systems”, adding: “In particular, this circumstance shall be deemed met in the case of employees who hold the international teleworking visa.”

“In particular” is the load-bearing phrase. The visa appears in the law as an example that evidences the telework condition: a safe harbour, not a gate. The condition itself is the remote employment, carried out exclusively through telematic means.

Now the misquote. The sentence repeated across the internet, that “the absence of the visa does not prevent the application of the special regime”, is a tax publisher's paraphrase, not the DGT's wording. Substantively right, but the real operative paragraph says more, and the extra words are where your risk lives. Here it is, translated in full:

Therefore, insofar as such an employment relationship with the entity exists (a matter outside the scope of this Directorate-General's powers) and the work can be carried out remotely, through the exclusive use of computer, telematic and telecommunication means and systems, the consultant may opt for the special regime provided for in article 93 of the LIRPF if, as set out above, he acquires tax residence in Spain as a consequence of that relocation to Spanish territory and, in addition, he meets the requirements of letters a) and c) of article 93.1 of the LIRPF.

Three things hide in there that the summaries drop: the employment must genuinely exist, and the DGT expressly refuses to vouch for it; you must actually become a Spanish tax resident because of the move; and the rest of article 93 applies in full. “May opt” is doing quiet work too: the DGT resolves the legal question. It does not “approve” anyone's file.

The three requirements that actually matter

Baseline: the move must actually make you a Spanish tax resident: broadly, more than 183 days in Spain in the calendar year, or Spain becoming the main base of your economic activity. From there, three requirements decide the case:

1. Five clean years. Not a Spanish tax resident during the five tax years before the year you move. For returning Spaniards and dual nationals this is usually the decisive test, and it is counted in tax years, under tax-residence rules, not by calendar intuition or by what your passport says.

2. A genuine employment relationship, worked remotely by exclusively telematic means. You are an employee of the foreign company (payroll, direction, subordination) and your work for it is done from Spain entirely through telematic systems. Exclusive means exclusive: a role that requires regular in-person work in Spain sits badly with this clause.

3. No permanent establishment. No income obtained through a permanent establishment in Spain. Normally a non-issue for a pure employee; a live question if you freelance on the side or your role effectively plants your employer's business here. How far a home office can be pushed into that concept is being tested in practice right now. We treat it as an open front, not settled ground.

The three pieces of fine print nobody quotes

1. The DGT did not validate the job

That parenthesis in the conclusion, “cuestión ajena al ámbito de competencias de este Centro directivo”, means the DGT treats whether your employment really exists as outside its powers. A favourable ruling on the visa question is not a certificate that your job is real. If your “employment” is disguised freelancing (you invoice, you control your own work, there is no payroll), this ruling will not save you in a later check. It is exactly what we probe in the discovery call before filing anything: for your protection, not ours.

2. Your 6-month window runs anyway, anchored to your home-country Social Security paperwork

The option is exercised by filing Modelo 149 within a 6-month window. Keeping your home-country Social Security means there is no Spanish registration to start the clock, but not that there is no clock. The regulation anticipates your case: the deadline runs from the start-of-activity date stated in the documentation that keeps you under your home-country scheme (for US employees, typically the certificate of coverage under the US–Spain Social Security agreement). And the window is unforgiving: Spain's central tax tribunal has held that an option filed late simply has no effect. No appeal, no extension. Check your date before anything else: our 6-month window checker exists for precisely this.

3. The employer letter has three mandatory elements

For voluntary telework cases like this one, the Modelo 149 must be accompanied by a document issued by your employer stating three things: (1) recognition of the employment relationship with you, (2) the start-of-activity date as it appears in the Social Security documentation (Spanish registration or home-country coverage papers), and (3) the estimated duration of the work performed from Spain. All three are in the regulation. A generic HR letter that says “X works for us” covers one of the three.

The documents to line up before you file

• Modelo 149, filed inside the window: identity, NIF, nationality, employer, date of entry into Spain, start-of-activity date.
• The employer document with the three elements above, drafted carefully, not improvised.
• Your Social Security documentation: Spanish registration, or the home-country coverage papers whose date anchors your window.
• Evidence the work is genuinely remote: the employment contract and, ideally, the written remote-work arrangement.

One honest note: after filing, the tax agency issues an acknowledgment within 10 working days. It certifies that you opted in, not that you qualify. The AEAT checks the requirements afterwards, and can look back for years. Anyone who promises you “approval” is describing a document that does not exist.

When this is NOT your route

If you invoice your US company as an independent contractor (a 1099 relationship, not a W-2 one), there is no employment relationship, and this ruling is not about you. Self-employed professionals have their own, much narrower doors into the regime; start from our freelancers page instead. And if your “employment” is employment on paper only, see fine print no. 1: that is the one thing the DGT expressly declined to bless.

If you are a US citizen, one more layer sits on top: you keep filing with the IRS wherever you live, and Beckham's flat 24% interacts with the Foreign Tax Credit in ways that can surprise. That separate analysis (we never quote an American a net saving without modelling the US side) lives on our US citizens page.

Where this leaves you

If you are a remote employee of a foreign company (dual national or not, visa or no visa), the door is open in principle. Whether your case fits depends on your five-year history, the reality of your employment and your dates. Two minutes with the eligibility checker gives you a first honest read; the window checker tells you how much time you have left. Green result? Our 149 service for remote workers takes it from there. Ambiguous? The next step is a call with us, not a form. That is how we work: we only file cases that sit on solid ground, and we put in writing why yours does.

Cited with date: check us

Orientation only, not tax or legal advice. Your case is reviewed and signed by a registered professional before anything reaches the AEAT.