For Spaniards

How tax residency works

Under Article 9 of the personal income tax law (Ley del IRPF), you are a Spanish tax resident for a calendar year if you spend more than 183 days in Spain, or if the main centre or base of your business activities or economic interests is in Spain. Sporadic absences count as days in Spain unless you prove tax residence in another country, normally with a tax residence certificate.

Spain also presumes you are resident if your spouse, not legally separated, and your dependent minor children live in Spain. You can rebut it, but it often catches people who move ahead of their family.

Residence is decided by whole calendar years, with no split year in Spanish domestic law. If you leave in July having spent more than 183 days in Spain, you are resident for the whole year on worldwide income, unless a tax treaty with your new country resolves the year differently.

A special rule applies to Spanish nationals who move to a jurisdiction on Spain’s list of non cooperative jurisdictions: they remain Spanish taxpayers for the year of the move and the following four (Article 8.2). The list, set by Order HFP/115/2023 and last amended in June 2026, includes Vanuatu but not Panama, the UAE, Paraguay, Uruguay, Georgia, St Kitts and Nevis or Antigua and Barbuda.

Leaving properly

Because the year is all or nothing, the date you leave matters as much as how. Plan the move so the facts point clearly abroad from the start of the first year you want to be non resident.

1. 01

   Plan the calendar year

   Leave early enough to spend 183 days or fewer in Spain that year, and move your spouse, children and economic base at the same time.

2. 02

   Get a tax residence certificate

   A certificate from your new country is the strongest evidence that your time away is not a sporadic absence. Spain and Paraguay have had a tax treaty in force since October 2024, which helps here.

3. 03

   File Modelo 030

   Notify the AEAT (Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency) of your new tax address abroad using Modelo 030, the form for changes of personal details.

4. 04

   Update the registers

   Deregister from the padrón, the municipal register, and register at the Spanish consulate as a resident abroad, so official records match your move.

5. 05

   File the last resident return

   File your final IRPF return for your last year of residence, including any exit tax gain, then use Modelo 210 for any Spanish income as a non resident.

Exit tax, property and investments

Spain’s exit tax (Article 95 bis of the IRPF law) treats unrealised gains on shares and fund units as realised when you stop being resident, if you were resident for at least 10 of the previous 15 years and your holdings are worth more than 4 million euros in total, or more than 1 million euros in a company in which you hold over 25%. The gain goes into your last resident return as savings income, taxed at up to 30%.

If you move to another EU or EEA (European Economic Area) country, you can opt to pay only if, within 10 years, you sell the shares, leave the EU or EEA, or fail to report. For a temporary move for work, or to a treaty country with information exchange, you can request a deferral with guarantees. If you become resident again without having sold, the tax can be reclaimed.

Spanish property stays taxable under non resident income tax (IRNR, Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes). A home kept for your own use is taxed on deemed income of 1.1% or 2% of its cadastral value; rent is taxed at 24% of the gross amount, or 19% of the net amount for EU and EEA residents. Gains on sale are taxed at 19%, and the buyer withholds 3% of the price on account.

The wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio) taxes non residents on Spanish assets above an allowance of 700,000 euros, and regional rules can apply. The solidarity tax on large fortunes, created as temporary, has been extended until regional financing is reformed; it applies to net wealth above 3 million euros, including the Spanish assets of non residents, with wealth tax paid credited against it.

Inheritance and gift tax follows the heir. Heirs living in Spain are taxed on everything they receive, wherever it is; non resident heirs are taxed only on Spanish assets, and can use the regional rules that would apply to residents.

Pensions and social security

Spanish Social Security pensions are paid abroad by the INSS (Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social, the national social security institute), which asks for an annual proof of life. As a non resident, a Spanish pension is taxed in Spain on a scale from 8% to 40%, unless a tax treaty gives your new country the right to tax it. Spain has treaties with the UAE, Panama, Uruguay, Georgia, Argentina and Paraguay.

Private pension plans (planes de pensiones) can be kept, and withdrawals are taxed as earned income in Spain, subject to any treaty. Spaniards abroad can keep building Spanish pension rights through a special agreement (convenio especial) with Social Security, and Spain has social security agreements with much of Latin America.

Public healthcare is tied to residence, so ordinary entitlement ends when you settle abroad. Spanish nationals of origin who live abroad and receive a Spanish pension, or work as employees, can receive care during temporary stays in Spain under INSS rules.

Dual citizenship

Spain restricts dual nationality. Under Article 24 of the Civil Code, a Spaniard of age who lives habitually abroad and voluntarily acquires another nationality loses Spanish nationality three years after acquiring it, unless within that period they declare to the civil registry, usually at the consulate, that they wish to keep it.

Acquiring the nationality of an Ibero American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal or, under a 2021 treaty, France does not cause loss at all.

For our programs this splits cleanly. Argentina and El Salvador are Ibero American, as are Paraguay, Panama and Uruguay if you later naturalise there, so Spanish nationality is unaffected. St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Vanuatu, São Tomé and Príncipe and Turkey are not: if you live abroad, make the declaration to keep Spanish nationality within three years of acquiring the new one. Our team builds that step into the file of every Spanish client.