Spain's Beckham law lets a person who moves to Spain for work pay 24 percent on employment income up to €600,000 and 47 percent above it, instead of the ordinary progressive scale. It applies for the year of arrival and the five years after. The election must be filed within six months of starting work in Spain.
What the Beckham law is
It is an elective regime that taxes a new Spanish resident as if they were a non-resident. Article 93 of Ley 35/2006 lets a person who becomes Spanish tax resident because of a move to Spain choose to pay under the non-resident income tax rules while remaining an income tax payer, for the tax year of the move and the five following tax years. That is six tax years in total.
The practical effect is on scope. An ordinary Spanish resident is taxed on worldwide income, wherever it arises and whoever pays it. Under the regime, the non-resident rules apply to income obtained without a permanent establishment, with one override written into the law: all employment income earned while the regime applies is treated as obtained in Spain. Salary is therefore taxed in full at the flat rates, while investment income is taxed only where it has a Spanish source.
The name comes from the footballer, but the law now excludes professional athletes on the special sports employment relationship. Residence itself still follows the ordinary tests, including the more than 183 days rule in article 9, which works differently from the UK and US versions described in the 183-day rule compared across four countries.
What it costs
Article 93.2.e sets two scales. Employment and business income from qualifying activity:
- Up to €600,000 · 24 percent
- Above €600,000 · 47 percent
Savings income, the category in article 25.1.f of the non-resident tax law, which covers dividends, interest and capital gains from transfers of assets:
- First €6,000 · 19 percent
- €6,000 to €50,000 · 21 percent
- €50,000 to €200,000 · 23 percent
- €200,000 to €300,000 · 27 percent
- Above €300,000 · 30 percent
The top savings rate of 30 percent applies from 1 January 2025, after Ley 7/2024 amended the scale. The employer withholds at 24 percent, and at 47 percent on pay from one payer above €600,000 in a calendar year.
Worked on the statutory scale, with no other income:
- Salary of €300,000 · 24 percent flat · €72,000
- Salary of €1,000,000 · €144,000 on the first €600,000 plus €188,000 on the rest · €332,000
- Spanish dividends of €100,000 · €10,380 on the first €50,000 plus €11,500 on the next €50,000 · €21,880
Income is not netted. The law taxes each item separately with no offsetting between them, so a loss on one Spanish asset does not reduce tax on another. Relief for foreign tax on employment income earned abroad is capped by article 114 of the regulation at 30 percent of the tax on that income.
Who qualifies
Three conditions in article 93.1 must all be met:
- No Spanish tax residence in any of the five tax years before the year of the move.
- The move, in the first year of the regime or the year before, follows one of four events: an employment contract with a Spanish employer or an assignment letter from a foreign employer; remote employment carried out exclusively by telematic means, including holders of Spain's international remote work visa; becoming a director of a company, with limits where the company is a passive holding entity; or economic activity that is either entrepreneurial with a favourable ENISA report or highly qualified work for start-ups or in research and innovation earning more than 40 percent of the person's income.
- No income obtained through a permanent establishment in Spain, except for the entrepreneur and highly qualified routes.
The remote route is the one most relevant to location-independent employees; the wider tax picture for that group is set out under digital nomad tax. A spouse, or the other parent where there is no marriage, and children under 25 can also elect if they move in the first tax year, become resident, meet the same five-year and permanent establishment conditions, and together have a lower taxable base than the main taxpayer.
When the deadlines fall
The election is a communication on modelo 149. Article 116 of the regulation allows six months from the start date of the activity shown on the Spanish Social Security registration, or on the document that keeps the home country's Social Security, or on proof of the start date where no registration is required. Family members have six months from their entry into Spain, or the main taxpayer's deadline if later. The annual return is filed on modelo 151, not the ordinary modelo 100.
Three further dates bind once the regime applies:
- Renunciation · November and December only · effective from the following 1 January · no return to the regime afterwards
- Exclusion after a condition fails · report within one month · the regime ends for the whole tax year of the failure
- End of the assignment to Spain · report within one month
With the window open from 1 November, anyone weighing whether the regime still pays for 2027 has two months in which to decide. The comparison turns on the size of foreign investment income, which the regime leaves outside Spanish tax, against the salary itself, which the regime taxes at a flat rate in place of the ordinary progressive scale.
How it interacts with wealth tax and leaving Spain
A person under the regime is subject to Spanish wealth tax on a territorial basis only, under the same article 93.1: assets located in Spain are in scope, assets abroad are not. For an ordinary resident, wealth tax applies worldwide.
The regime lasts six tax years and then stops, after which worldwide taxation applies in full. Spain's exit tax on shareholdings, which can apply on a later departure, is covered in our note on exit taxes in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain. For the Dutch equivalent, which is being reduced, see the 30 percent ruling moving to 27 percent.
Heed's reading: the regime is less a low rate than a narrow base. On a salary of €300,000 the difference is the flat 24 percent; for a person with large foreign portfolios, the larger effect is that foreign dividends and gains fall outside Spanish tax for six years.
Heed monitors international tax law changes across every jurisdiction we track and sends personalised alerts before they affect your situation. Spain's rates, thresholds and residence rules are tracked in the Spain country guide.