Valeria Ortiz is Argentinian, has worked in Madrid since 2022 and shares an account at a bank in Montevideo with her brother Martín, who still lives in Buenos Aires. They opened it together with what their parents left them. On 31 December 2025 the account held the equivalent of 64,000 €. Valeria reasoned like this: "Half is Martín's; mine is 32,000 €, I don't reach 50,000 €, so I don't have to file anything." It is a very widespread line of reasoning and it is wrong. Valeria does have to file, and the fact that her brother does not live in Spain does not take the obligation away from her.
The rule: full balance, percentage stated separately
Article 42 bis of the Reglamento General de Gestión e Inspección (Royal Decree 1065/2007, the regulations on tax management and inspection) requires information on the accounts you hold, without distinguishing between sole holder and joint holder. The Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, explains in its frequently asked questions on Modelo 720, the return on assets held abroad, how shared accounts are handled: the total balance is reported, without apportioning it, stating the percentage held. The 50,000 € threshold is also compared with that total balance, however many holders there are.
According to the Agency, the same approach applies to any asset in the three blocks that has several holders: shares bought jointly, a fund in the names of two people, a property in co-ownership.
| What Valeria thought | What the rules require |
|---|---|
| My share is 32,000 € | The balance compared is 64,000 € |
| I don't reach the threshold | It exceeds the threshold |
| I don't file | She files the account with 64,000 € and 50 % |
| My brother will declare it | Her brother is not resident in Spain: he has no 720 |
Why dividing is a mistake, not an interpretation
People who split the balance to see whether they reach the limit usually think they are being careful, because "I'm only declaring what's mine". But the 720 is not a wealth return: it is an information return on accounts. What Hacienda, as the Spanish tax office is commonly known, wants to know is which account exists, at which institution, what its balance is and who is connected with it. Each holder's percentage is one more item in that information, not a preliminary filter.
If the balance were divided, you would only need to open accounts with two or three relatives for none of them ever to be declared. The Agency's approach closes that door.
The full calculation for Valeria's block
Valeria also has an account of her own at a Dutch bank, opened when she worked in Amsterdam for a year, with 9,000 € in it. Her accounts block looks like this:
- account in Montevideo, shared: total balance 64,000 €;
- account in Amsterdam, her own: 9,000 €;
- total for the block for threshold purposes: 73,000 € on 31 December;
- the average balance of both accounts for the last quarter is also checked;
- once the threshold is exceeded, both accounts are declared: the shared one with 64,000 € and 50 %, and the Dutch one with 9,000 € and 100 %.
Without the shared account, the Dutch one would never have created an obligation on its own. This is often overlooked: the shared account is not only declared itself, it also pulls in the other accounts in the block.
Who is obliged and who is not
The 720 obligation depends on each person's tax residence in Spain, not on the account. In an account with several holders, each one looks at their own situation:
| Holder | Tax residence in the year | Files the 720 for the account? |
|---|---|---|
| Valeria | Spain | Yes, with the total balance and her 50 % |
| Martín | Argentina | No; his obligations there are confirmed by his Argentinian adviser |
| If Martín moved to Madrid | Spain | He would too; each sibling files their own 720 with the total and their percentage |
The third row surprises anyone who thinks the account is declared only once. It is not: each resident holder files their own return, and both show the same total balance.
There is one specific exception worth knowing: if one of the holders is exempt in their own right (for example, a Spanish company that has the account recorded in its accounts), the others remain obliged in their own capacity. The Agency gives the example of a 150,000 € account held 70 % by a company and 30 % by an individual: the individual declares 150,000 € with their 30 %.
The percentage you declare has to match the real ownership of the funds. If the bank contract does not set shares, it is wise to put in writing which part belongs to each person and where the money came from. That same percentage is the one later used to attribute the interest in income tax (IRPF) and the balance in the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (Spanish wealth tax), so a mistake here is repeated in three places.
If you share accounts or investments with relatives in another country, you can tell us how ownership is divided in the Modelo 720 form, even if you are not yet clear on the percentage; we review it against the bank contract.
What changes if your share is not half
Nothing in the mechanics: the total is still declared, with the corresponding percentage. If Valeria had contributed 70 % of the funds, she would declare 64,000 € with 70 %. What does change is what comes afterwards:
- in income tax, the portion of the interest included in her income;
- in wealth tax, if she were liable to it, the portion of the balance that forms part of her net worth;
- and the consistency between what is declared on some forms and on others, which is the first thing Hacienda compares.
When the account is closed or divided up
If the siblings decide to share out the balance and close the account, Valeria will have to report the closure in the 720 for the year in which it happens, with the date and the balance on that day, provided the account had been declared before. And if her share goes into another account abroad, that new account enters her block from that year. The details of this rule are in I have filed it once before.
Other arrangements that are not joint ownership
Being a joint holder is not the same as appearing as an authorised signatory on someone else's account, nor as being a beneficiary, nor as having an account that forms part of the marital community of property in your spouse's name. Those situations can also create a 720 obligation, with their own rules for each; we deal with them in the joint account abroad and who declares it. The overview of the blocks is in the guide to the three blocks of the 720.
Families with accounts spread across countries are a common profile at Salama Tax, where we explain how we prepare the 720 when there are several holders and how it is coordinated with the rest of the year's taxes.