Posted to Spain by your employer: residency and tax basics

Key rules

• Special regime deadline: You must apply to the AEAT within six months of starting work or registering with Social Security.
• Treaty: Your home country's tax treaty with Spain decides whether a short assignment is taxed in Spain at all.

Your posting does not give you a special tax status by default. You become a Spanish tax resident by the usual tests. Then you can choose between ordinary taxation and a special regime for posted workers.

When you become resident

Staying in Spain for more than 183 days in a calendar year normally makes you a tax resident. You can also be resident with fewer days in two cases:

• your main business or economic interests are in Spain;
• your spouse and minor dependent children live in Spain (this is a presumption, and you can challenge it).

Resident status means Spain taxes your worldwide income under ordinary IRPF, which has progressive rates.

The special regime for posted workers

If you become resident, you can opt for the special regime, often called the "Beckham" regime. Intra-group postings are a core case for it. Under it, you are taxed like a non-resident on Spanish-source income, not under progressive IRPF.

• Rate: a flat 24% on work income up to 600,000 euros, and 47% above that.
• Foreign income: generally left out, except work income for work you do in Spain.
• Duration: the year you arrive plus five more years.
• Main conditions: the five-year gap: you were not Spanish tax resident in the previous five years. Your move is caused by an employment contract or by your employer posting you to a Spanish entity. You earn no income through a permanent establishment in Spain. Your move can also be caused by starting work as an entrepreneur or highly qualified professional, or by remote work for a foreign employer under a digital nomad visa.
• How to apply: file Modelo 149 online with the AEAT. There is no fee, and your employer's payroll team can help you prepare it.
• If you are late or do not qualify: you are taxed as a resident under ordinary progressive IRPF.

If you stay 183 days or fewer

A stay of 183 days or fewer in a calendar year does not make you resident by itself, unless one of the two exceptions above applies. As a non-resident you pay non-resident income tax (IRNR) on Spanish-source employment income, meaning pay for work done in Spain.

• The rate is a flat 24%, and a lower rate applies if you live in the EU or EEA (rates and allowances).
• Non-EU residents get no deductions.
• A tax treaty between Spain and your home country may exempt the pay. This typically needs a stay under 183 days in a 12-month period, a non-Spanish employer, and a cost not borne by a Spanish entity or permanent establishment.
• Trips out of Spain still count as days in Spain, unless you prove you were resident elsewhere with a tax residence certificate from your home tax authority.

The treaty text decides, so read the one between Spain and your home country.

What to do

1. Count your expected days in Spain and note where your family will live.
2. If you will be resident, check whether you qualify for the special regime and compare it with ordinary IRPF.
3. If you will be short-term, check your treaty and get a tax residence certificate.
4. Ask a tax adviser to run the numbers before you choose, because the regime cannot be applied for after the deadline.

If you are a remote worker for a foreign employer

A remote worker for a foreign employer meets the same conditions (see the remote-work condition above); the rate, the duration and the deadline apply to you too. Your tax residence is covered on the remote workers page.