What the regime is, and what it is not
Article 93 of the Spanish Personal Income Tax Act lets someone who moves to Spain be taxed, for six tax years — the year of arrival and the five following — under the rules of the non-resident income tax, while remaining a Spanish income tax payer. The rate is 24 % up to 600,000 € of employment-type income and 47 % on the excess, and most foreign-source income falls outside the Spanish net.
It does not release you from VAT, from social security, or from any of the formal obligations of your activity. Written down that looks obvious. It is nevertheless the origin of about half the problems we see: people who elected for the regime and quietly stopped filing quarterly VAT returns, and found out two years later.
Can someone self-employed elect for it?
For years, no. Act 28/2022 on start-ups opened the door for specific cases, and only those:
- Entrepreneurial activity, evidenced by a favourable report from ENISA, the state agency that assesses whether a project is innovative and of economic interest.
- A highly qualified professional providing services to start-up companies, or carrying out training, research, development and innovation activities.
- An international remote worker, although in that case the normal pattern is employment with a foreign employer rather than self-employment.
An ordinary self-employed person with Spanish clients and a conventional activity still cannot elect. And electing when you do not qualify is the worst version of this problem: it surfaces years later, with interest, and by then five returns have been filed on the wrong basis.
The forms that are clear
| Form | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|
| 149 | Notifies the election, a waiver, exclusion, or the end of the posting | The election, within six months of registering with social security |
| 151 | The annual income tax return adapted to the regime. It replaces form 100 | Same window as the ordinary income tax season |
| 303 and 390 | Your VAT, if you are a business or professional for VAT purposes | Quarterly and annually, like anyone else |
| 349 | Intra-EU supplies and acquisitions of services, where there are any | According to your reporting period |
The questions nobody answers cleanly
Is form 130 due?
The regime applies the rules of the non-resident income tax, and that tax has no payments on account of the kind form 130 makes. That is the reasoning, and it is the one most firms follow. Having said that, it is the point where we have seen the widest disagreement between advisers, and the consequences are not symmetrical: filing when you need not costs you cash flow, while not filing when you should costs a surcharge. It is worth settling in writing before the first quarter, not after it.
What withholding do my clients apply?
On employment income the regime fixes 24 %. Where what you issue are invoices for a professional activity, the withholding rule has to be analysed against your actual facts and against who is paying you — a Spanish business, a Spanish individual, a foreign company. It is not a question with one answer for everybody, and a guide that gives you one is guessing.
What about my income from outside Spain?
That is both the attraction of the regime and its small print. For the entrepreneur and the highly qualified professional, the entirety of the income from that activity is treated as obtained in Spain — so the regime does not shelter your business income merely because the clients are abroad. Other foreign income follows its own rules, and dividends, interest and capital gains from abroad are generally outside the Spanish charge while the regime lasts.
Social security does not follow the tax
Electing for article 93 has no effect on whether you must register with the RETA, the Spanish self-employed social security scheme, or on what you contribute. Since 2023 contributions are based on real net earnings, with a provisional band chosen during the year and a settlement the following year against what you actually earned. Someone arriving mid-year, with a foreign coverage certificate or without one, should get that checked at the same time as the tax election and not six months later.
Four mistakes that cost the regime
- Filing form 100 instead of form 151.
- Stopping VAT filings on the belief that the regime exempts you from everything.
- Missing the six-month window for form 149. There is no extension, and no good-cause exception.
- Changing activity without checking whether the new one still fits the ground you came in on. The qualifying condition has to hold throughout, not just on day one.
Leaving the regime, on purpose or otherwise
The regime ends when the six years run out, when you waive it, or when you are excluded because a condition has stopped being met. Waiver and exclusion are both notified on form 149, and the timing matters: a waiver takes effect from the following tax year, whereas an exclusion bites in the year the condition failed. After the regime you fall back into ordinary Spanish residence taxation, on worldwide income and with the usual reporting on foreign assets. Planning the exit is usually more valuable than planning the entry, because the jump in effective rate can be considerable.
We run your VAT filings and your annual return. Deciding whether you fit the regime at all, preparing an ENISA report or defending an exclusion is legal work and is quoted separately, with a fixed price agreed before we start. We tell you that beforehand rather than on the invoice. See the Beckham regime for the self-employed for the wider picture and pricing for the recurring side.
Questions we get asked about your Beckham regime
Does the Beckham regime remove my VAT obligations?
No. It is an income tax regime. If you are a business or professional for VAT purposes you keep filing forms 303 and 390 like anybody else, and form 349 if you deal with businesses elsewhere in the EU.
Can I elect if I am self-employed with Spanish clients?
Only if you fit one of the listed cases: entrepreneurial activity with an ENISA report, or a highly qualified professional on the terms the Act sets out. An ordinary activity does not qualify, however international the clients are.
How long does it last?
The year of arrival and the five following: six tax years in total, not renewable.
Form 100 or form 151?
Form 151. It is the return adapted to the regime and it replaces the ordinary one for as long as you are inside it.
What the regime does not cover
Article 93 is an income tax regime and nothing more. If you also carry on a business or profession, VAT does not go away, the quarterly returns do not go away, and neither do the record-keeping duties that come with them. That confusion causes more first-year trouble than any other point on this page.
Local taxes stay where they are too: council property tax on anything you own here, and the municipal land tax if you sell. The regime changes how your income is taxed, not which taxes exist.