Putting your tax affairs in Spain in order if you are a foreigner or live abroad

First, whether you were tax resident in Spain each year

Almost everything else depends on this, and it is looked at year by year, because residence can change from one tax year to the next. You are tax resident in Spain if you spend more than 183 days of the calendar year here, counting sporadic absences as days spent in Spain, unless you prove your tax residence in another country, or if the main centre or base of your activities or economic interests is in Spain; and it is presumed, unless proven otherwise, when, under those same criteria, your spouse, not legally separated, and your minor children who depend on you are habitually resident here (Personal Income Tax Act, article 9.1). If the other country is a territory classed as a tax haven, the Tax Agency may require you to prove that you spent 183 days there. The law does not make it depend on a residence permit or on being on the municipal register (padrón). A resident declares worldwide income in Spanish personal income tax; a non-resident declares only what is obtained in Spain, under Non-Resident Income Tax, usually on form 210. If both countries treat you as resident and they have a double taxation treaty, the treaty determines to which of the two your residence is attributed for the purposes of the treaty itself. The rules are set out in more detail on our page for non-residents.

The clock: which years are still open

The Tax Agency's right to assess a tax becomes time-barred after four years, counted from the day after the deadline for filing that year's return ends (General Tax Act, articles 66.a and 67.1). Each tax and each year has its own date, and some actions interrupt the period and make it start again, so nothing is treated as time-barred without checking it. What is still open is brought up to date at once and in order, because the result of one year can carry over to the next. What interrupts the period is explained in our guide on when a tax debt becomes time-barred (in Spanish).

Acting before the Tax Agency changes the result

Anyone who files a return with tax to pay late, without a prior request from the Tax Agency, pays a surcharge, calculated on the amount payable. It is 1% plus a further 1% for each full month of delay since the deadline ended, and it excludes penalties and late-payment interest; if the return is filed once twelve months have passed since the deadline ended, it is 15%, it still excludes penalties, and late-payment interest is added from the day after those twelve months end (General Tax Act, article 27.2). If the return has nothing to pay, there is no surcharge, but filing it late can be a separate, minor infringement (article 198). The surcharge is reduced by 25% if the tax due is paid when the return is filed (or, where the Tax Agency issues the assessment, within the period that assessment opens) and the surcharge itself is paid within the period opened by its notification. With a deferral or instalment plan, the reduction is kept only if the plan was granted against a guarantee (aval) or a surety insurance certificate, was requested within those same periods and the agreed instalments are paid; otherwise the reduction is claimed back (article 27.5). What the surcharge excludes is the penalty for the delay: the new return must be complete and correct, because if it is not there may be an infringement in respect of it (article 179.3). A prior request is any action by the Administration carried out with the formal knowledge of the taxpayer and aimed at recognising, regularising, checking, inspecting, securing or assessing the debt (article 27.1). From that moment, as a rule, the surcharge no longer applies to that debt, which is why the first thing we check is whether the Tax Agency has already acted. If a letter has already arrived, what applies is explained in our guide to letters from the Spanish Tax Agency.

If you filed, but under the wrong tax

Sometimes the problem is not that nothing was filed, but that it was filed as a non-resident when you were resident, or the other way round. In that case the tax that did apply is filed, which may carry a surcharge if the Tax Agency has not acted, and we review whether what was paid under the other tax can be recovered and within what period. It is studied year by year before anything is touched.

If you are resident and have assets outside Spain

A tax resident in Spain must inform the Tax Agency of the accounts, securities and rights, life or disability insurance and annuities, and real estate they hold abroad, on the terms set by the law and its regulations (General Tax Act, eighteenth additional provision). This is done on form 720, approved by Order HAP/72/2013, and each block has its own rules; for accounts, the obligation arises when the balance at 31 December or the average balance for the last quarter, all accounts taken together, exceeds 50,000 euros (article 42 bis of the Regulation approved by Royal Decree 1065/2007). Virtual currencies located abroad, held in custody by a provider that safeguards the private cryptographic keys on behalf of others, do not go on form 720 but on form 721, approved by Order HFP/886/2023. These are information returns: the income those assets produce is declared in personal income tax. If they were not filed when they should have been, they are also brought up to date, and its consequences are studied first in each case.

If you live abroad and own property in Spain

A non-resident individual with an urban property in Spain files a return for it even if it is not let: if it is available for their use, deemed income is attributed to them; if it is let, the rent is taxed. Both go on form 210, which has different deadlines depending on the type of income, and those deadlines are changing; they are in our guide to form 210 for non-residents. If you also sold it, the sale has its own form 210, on which the withholding made by the buyer is deducted: selling property in Spain as a non-resident.

The order in which it is done

Before filing anything we rebuild each open year: where you were, what you earned in each country, what was withheld or paid abroad and what the treaty between the two countries says, if there is one. With that we decide which tax applies each year, which returns need to be filed or corrected and in what order, and how much is payable in total, surcharges and interest included. If the amount cannot be paid at once, the debt can be deferred or paid in instalments, and we first calculate how that affects the surcharge reduction. A year is not filed while a fact that would change it is still missing.

How we handle it

Everything is done remotely: documents arrive by email or WhatsApp, and before the Tax Agency we act under your power of representation, so your digital certificate stays with you. We tell you which years are open, what has to be filed, how much is payable in tax, surcharges and interest and which documents are needed, and we file once you approve. No return is filed until you know its amount and the reasons for it. More on how we work with clients abroad is on our page for non-residents.