Josefina retired in 2021 after a career at a savings bank in Alicante and the following year moved to Ireland, where her son lives. Her Social Security pension is 26,600 € a year. Nobody told the payer, which went on withholding tax as it would for anyone resident in Spain: about 3,100 € a year. In Ireland, her adviser included the pension in her return from the first full tax year. In September 2026, going through her papers, Josefina realises she has spent four years paying twice on the same pension.
For the example we assume that the applicable treaty reserves her pension to the country of residence. That is the first thing to check, with the treaty text and the pension decision in front of you, because if the treaty gave the pension to Spain the problem would not lie in Spain but in how double taxation is eliminated in the other country, and that is no longer a matter for us.
Two separate problems with a single cause
Josefina's situation has two fronts, and they are resolved by separate routes:
| Front | What corrects it | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| The withholding that is still being made | Proving residence to the payer | Going forward only |
| What was already withheld in earlier years | Refund return to the Agencia Tributaria | Going back only, year by year |
Doing only the first leaves past money with Hacienda (the Spanish tax authorities). Doing only the second means repeating the claim every year, indefinitely. Both have to be done, and in that order: first the withholding is stopped, then the past is recovered.
Stopping the withholding: the certificate that works
The Spanish payer withholds because it does not know Josefina is no longer resident, or because it knows but has no document allowing it to apply the treaty. Article 31.2 of the Spanish non-resident income tax act allows the withholder to apply what the treaty provides, but it needs proof.
That document is the tax residence certificate issued by the tax administration of the country where you live. Not just any version will do: the rules on the non-resident forms require it to state expressly that the taxpayer is resident "within the meaning of the Convention". Without that wording the certificate proves something, but not what is needed. The difference between the two versions is explained in the two tax residence certificates.
Josefina requests it from the Irish administration (her adviser there knows the procedure) and hands it in to the body that pays her pension with her file number visible. From the payslip on which the payer applies it, the withholding should disappear or be adjusted. It is worth checking the next payslip and not treating the matter as closed until you see it.
Recovering the past: one return per year
What was over-withheld is claimed with Modelo 210 (the Spanish non-resident income tax return) in its refund version. Years are not grouped: each year is a return with its own residence certificate, its own withholding certificate and its own processing. It can happen, and does, that one year is refunded without any problem and additional documents are requested for the next.
With Josefina's figures, and always on the assumption that the treaty reserves the pension to Ireland:
- Annual pension: 26,600 €. Tax due in Spain under the treaty: 0 €.
- Withholding borne each year: 3,100 €.
- Excess per year: 3,100 − 0 = 3,100 €.
- Years affected: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 so far.
- Maximum recoverable if everything were in time: 3,100 × 4 = 12,400 € for the full years, plus what was withheld in 2026 until the payer applies the certificate.
That "if everything were in time" is the delicate part, and it deserves a section of its own.
The four-year limit is not counted the way people think
The Ley General Tributaria (the general tax act) sets four years as the period for claiming refunds (article 66.c) and says that the period starts when the deadline for requesting the refund ends or, failing that, when it could have been requested (article 67). For non-resident refunds arising from a treaty, the ministerial order regulating these returns counts the four years from the end of the period the payer had to declare and pay in the withholding being claimed.
The practical consequence is awkward: the clock does not run by calendar years but by each period in which withholding was paid in. If the payer pays withholdings in monthly, those for January of a given year expire before those for December of the same year. In September 2026, the withholdings for the first months of 2022 may already be out of time while those for the last months are still alive.
When there are several years of withholding to claim, the priority is to file the oldest year first, even if the papers are incomplete, because that is the one that is expiring. Waiting until everything is perfect to file all four years together is the most common way of losing the first one. And do not assume a year is lost without calculating the dates: sometimes part of it remains.
What goes with each refund claim
The documents are repeated for every year, which multiplies the work if it is not organised:
| Document | Particular feature |
|---|---|
| Residence certificate for the year claimed | One per year; the 2026 certificate does not prove 2023 |
| Payer's withholding certificate | Gross amount and withholding for that year |
| Pension decision | To show which article of the treaty applies |
| Account for the refund | Must be in the taxpayer's name |
The residence certificate expires twelve months after it is issued and proves a specific period. Obtaining certificates for past years can take time in some countries, and that time runs against the deadline. We go into this in whether you have to request the certificate every year.
If you are in Josefina's situation, you can send us your withholding certificates and the date of your move through the pensioners form; with that we work out which years and which months can still be claimed before doing anything else.
Why it is not a good idea to fix it only in the other country
Some people try to resolve the double taxation by asking the country of residence to deduct what was paid in Spain. If the treaty gives the pension to the country of residence alone, that country usually has no reason to deduct a tax Spain should not have collected: the correct route is for Spain to refund it. How the other country's administration acts in these cases is not something we can state; the adviser the client has there confirms it, and we coordinate with that adviser so that both sides add up and nobody claims the same thing twice.
What to do if the year of the move is doubtful
In Josefina's case, 2022 is the year she left. If that year, because of days or economic interests, she was still tax resident in Spain, there is nothing to claim through the 210: she was taxed here on her worldwide income and the withholding was correct, and what would have to be reviewed is her income tax return for that year. The year of departure requires the timetable of the move to be examined carefully, and the criteria that decide it are in dual residence conflict. The general explanation of the refund, with more detail on the scale the payer applies when Spain can tax, is in how to recover over-withheld tax.
When withholding was due but too high
The treaty does not always leave the pension at zero in Spain. If Spain can tax it (for example, a civil servant's pension), what is claimed is the difference between what was withheld and what results from the non-resident scale. The procedure is the same, but the calculation changes, and sometimes the excess is small. Before filing four returns it is worth knowing how much is at stake in each one.
Recovering withholding on Spanish pensions and keeping track of the certificates year by year are described in the section of Salama Tax for people who receive their pension outside Spain.