The Beckham Law: your questions, answered

It's Spain's impatriate regime (art. 93 LIRPF). People who move to Spain for work can be taxed like a non-resident (on a flat rate, on a narrower base) instead of the ordinary progressive scale, for up to six years.

Employment income is taxed at a flat 24% up to €600,000 (47% on the excess). Spanish-source savings follow a 19–30% scale. These are orientation figures, reviewed and signed by a registered tax advisor (AEDAF) before anything is filed.

People who become Spanish tax-resident because of work (an employment contract, a director appointment, a digital-nomad visa, or certain entrepreneur and highly-qualified-professional routes) and who have not been Spanish tax-resident in the previous five years.

You must file Modelo 149 within six months of registering with Spanish Social Security, not from your arrival. The window cannot be extended: miss it and you lose the regime for that move.

The year you arrive plus the following five: six tax years in total.

Yes. Remote workers and digital-nomad-visa holders are one of the main routes in. The exact path depends on your contract and employer, so it's worth a quick check.

Under the regime you're taxed on Spanish-source income plus your worldwide employment income. Foreign passive income, such as foreign dividends or rent, is not taxed in Spain while you're in the regime.

No. Impatriates under the regime are exempt from the Modelo 720 overseas-asset declaration.

Not always. Below roughly €55,000 the ordinary system often wins, because you'd keep the allowances Beckham gives up. The higher your salary, the more it saves. Check your case in the savings calculator.

Modelo 149 to opt into the regime (within the 6-month window), and Modelo 151 as the annual income-tax return for as long as you're in the regime.

You must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the five years before your move (reduced from ten by Law 28/2022). If you were, it's worth reviewing the detail: it isn't always an automatic no.

Yes. Holding two Spanish employment contracts at the same time is not in itself a ground for exclusion (professional athletes are the one express exception in the law). One point catches people out: the €600,000 mark that triggers the higher withholding rate is applied by each payer separately, while the tax itself is worked out on your total taxable base. Two payrolls can therefore withhold at 24% each and still leave a balance to settle in the annual return. A second payer abroad withholds nothing in Spain but still adds to that base. We model both payrolls before you commit.

This is the most disputed point of the regime right now. In July 2025 the tax authority review body set a unifying criterion that a notional income is imputed on the home an impatriate owns and occupies, which binds the administration; the Madrid High Court has ordered refunds to taxpayers on the opposite reading, and the European Commission has an infringement file open on the wider issue. Our default is the safe route, declare the imputation, together with a correction request that keeps your years open while the courts work through it. If you would rather argue it from your first return, that is a decision you take with the lawyer and it goes in writing.

Not necessarily, but this is the fact pattern most often questioned. The regime asks that your move be a consequence of the employment contract or of the appointment, and dates are the first thing looked at: recent administrative refusals have turned on gaps of a few months between entry and contract. A prior stay for studies does not automatically break the link. We review your timeline date by date and tell you where you stand before anything is filed.

Your case is led by Daniel Bertomeu, a registered tax advisor (AEDAF), and reviewed and signed by Juan Bertomeu, a bar-admitted lawyer (ICALI nº 4643). All backed by Expat Abogados, not an anonymous platform.