Moving to Spain for work raises one question very quickly: how much tax will you actually pay. For a lot of expats, the answer comes down to web one special rule — the special expat tax regime, commonly called the Beckham Law.
The mechanism is simple: instead of being taxed as a Spanish resident on your worldwide income, you are taxed like a non-resident on the income you earn in Spain, at a fixed rate of 24% up to 600,000 euros and 47% above that. If your salary is significant, the saving can be considerable.
Not everyone qualifies. In broad terms, you must have been non-resident in Spain for the previous five tax years, 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.
The deadline is where most applications fail. You have to apply within six months of registering with Spanish social security. Let that window close and the regime is lost for the whole assignment. The benefit then runs for the year of arrival and the following five.
It is not automatically the better option. Where a large part of your wealth sits abroad, the effect on wealth tax and on the 720 declaration should be calculated before deciding. A short analysis before applying is usually time well spent.