Carmen and Javier, Spanish nationals married under the community property regime known as gananciales, came back to Málaga in 2024 after eight years working in Dublin. They left an account open there in Javier's name with 58,000 €, funded from both their salaries. Carmen, for her part, is an authorised signatory on her mother's Irish account (her mother still lives in Cork), which holds about 35,000 €, so that she can pay bills for her if needed. When preparing their first Modelo 720, the Spanish return on assets held abroad, they asked themselves: does only Javier file, as the holder? Do they both file for the total? And where does her mother's account come in? The answer depends on a word hardly anyone looks at: the capacity in which each of them is connected with the account.
The capacities that create an obligation in the accounts block
Article 42 bis of the Reglamento General de Gestión e Inspección (Royal Decree 1065/2007, the regulations on tax management and inspection) does not refer only to holders. It requires information on accounts abroad of which you are the holder, or on which you appear as representative, authorised signatory or beneficiary, or over which you have powers of disposal, or of which you are the beneficial owner under anti-money-laundering rules.
| Capacity | What it means | Obligation for accounts? | Obligation for securities and real estate? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holder | The account is in your name | Yes | Yes |
| Authorised signatory or with power of disposal | You can move funds that are not yours | Yes | No, according to the Agencia Tributaria |
| Effective beneficiary | You actually receive the funds (not a potential beneficiary) | Yes | Only for temporary or life annuities |
| Beneficial owner | The funds are yours even if the account is in someone else's name | Yes | Yes |
The second column from the right is important: the authorised signatory only exists in the accounts block. Someone with authorised signing rights over a relative's securities portfolio does not declare that portfolio for that reason.
Javier and Carmen: the community account in one spouse's name
The Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, answers this specific case in its frequently asked questions: when a community asset is held in the name of only one of the spouses, both are obliged if both are resident. Javier declares as holder, with a 100 % interest. Carmen declares as beneficial owner, with the capacity "8. Other forms of beneficial ownership" and 50 %.
Applied to their figures:
- balance of the Dublin account on 31 December: 58,000 €;
- Javier: accounts block of 58,000 €, above the threshold, he declares the account as holder at 100 %;
- Carmen: the same account, with the same total balance, appears in her block as beneficial owner at 50 %;
- each files their own 720, and both show 58,000 €.
Whether the account is community property depends on their matrimonial property regime. In this case both are Spanish and married under gananciales; if the marriage is governed by another country's law, which part belongs to each spouse has to be confirmed by a professional in that system, and we carry that conclusion over to the 720.
Carmen and her mother's account
The 50,000 € threshold is calculated with the total balance of all the accounts in which Carmen has any of the capacities above, not only those that are hers. The Agency confirms this with an example: a person who holds an account of 40,000 € and is an authorised signatory on another of 30,000 € is obliged to declare.
Carmen's accounts block looks like this:
| Account | Capacity | Balance counted | Percentage declared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dublin (Javier's) | Beneficial owner | 58,000 € | 50 % |
| Cork (her mother's) | Authorised signatory | 35,000 € | As corresponds to the authorisation |
| Total for the block | 93,000 € |
Even though Carmen does not own a single euro of her mother's account, she must include it on her 720. That does not make the money hers for income tax (IRPF) or wealth tax purposes: her mother is still the owner and Carmen does not declare any interest on that account. It is a reporting obligation, not an attribution of income.
And if her mother one day revokes the authorisation, Carmen will have to report on the 720 for that year the date of revocation and the account balance on that date. The Agency makes this clear too in its answers on the form.
If you are the holder of an account and also appear as an authorised signatory on it, only the holding is declared: the Agency considers that holding already includes authorisation. What you do have to declare are all the accounts belonging to others on which you have signing rights, even if you use them once a year.
If your situation mixes your own accounts, your partner's and your relatives', describe each one with the capacity in which you appear on it in the Modelo 720 form; it is the quickest way to identify what goes into your block and what does not.
The beneficiary: only the effective one
The capacity of beneficiary is confusing because it means different things in different documents. For the 720, the Agencia Tributaria clarifies that it refers only to the effective or actual beneficiary of an account or of a temporary or life annuity, not to a potential beneficiary. Someone named as beneficiary in the event of the holder's death declares nothing while the holder is alive.
When a joint holder is excluded
There is a nuance worth bearing in mind: the grounds for exemption in the Regulations (for example, the holder being a Spanish company that has the account recorded in its books) also release the authorised signatories and beneficial owners of that account, because that is how the Agency interprets it when the holder is exempt. But it does not work the other way round: one of the individual joint holders being non-resident does not exempt the residents.
Who files in Carmen and Javier's household
| Person | Dublin account | Cork account | Files a 720? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Javier | Holder, 100 % | — | Yes |
| Carmen | Beneficial owner, 50 % | Authorised signatory | Yes |
| Carmen's mother | — | Holder | No, she is resident in Ireland |
If what you have is an account shared with a sibling or other relative in which you are both holders, we develop the reasoning on the total balance and the mistake of dividing it in the account is joint: do I declare the total or my share?. For the mechanics of the codes and fields on the form, the guide how Modelo 720 is filled in goes through it field by field.
Couples who return to Spain with accounts in the country where they worked are a very common case at Salama Tax; on that page we explain how we prepare each spouse's 720 so that both tell the same story.