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TaxSpain's Beckham law in 2026: what it means for your home in Spain
Published 20 October 2026·7 min read·By The Alveo team
The Beckham law lets people who move to Spain to work be taxed as non-residents for up to six years. If you buy your home when you arrive, that choice also changes how the property is taxed.
Who can use the Beckham law
The regime applies to people who become Spanish tax residents as a result of moving to Spain and who were not tax resident there in the previous five years. Since 2023 it covers:
Applying within six months
You apply on form 149 within six months of starting work in Spain, after uploading the supporting documents (employment contract, posting letter, remote work certificate). Within ten working days, the tax office issues a certificate for your employer's payroll withholding.
The regime covers the year you arrive and the five following years, six years at most. Each year you file form 151 during the income tax campaign. Once you leave or renounce the regime, you cannot opt back in.
How your income is taxed
Employment income is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 and 47% above, including any part paid from abroad. Dividends, interest and capital gains fall under a scale of 19% to 30%.
Your other foreign income, such as rent from a home you keep in the UK or the US, stays outside Spanish tax for the whole period.
Your home in Spain
A property you occupy without letting it creates imputed income: 2% of the cadastral value, or 1.1% where the town's values have been revised. Following a ruling by the Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central on 17 July 2025, the tax office applies this even to the main home of someone under the regime. That income is taxed at 24%.
Example: a flat with a revised cadastral value of €200,000 produces imputed income of €2,200, which means €528 of tax a year.
A decree-law of 6 October 2026 sets a progressive scale of 1.1% to 3% from 2027. Congress still has to approve it.
If you let the property, the rent is taxed at 24%, in principle on the gross amount. The Tribunal Supremo is examining whether people under the regime may deduct expenses.
When you sell, the buyer withholds 3% of the price towards your tax, and the gain falls under the 19% to 30% scale.
Wealth tax and Modelo 720
For wealth tax, someone under the regime pays only on assets located in Spain, with the €700,000 non-resident allowance. The mortgage that financed your home is deducted from its value.
The tax office states that people under the regime do not file Modelo 720, the return for assets held abroad. A resident spouse or child who is not under the regime may have to file it.
Becoming tax resident in Spain
Spain treats you as resident if you spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year, if the centre of your economic interests is there, or if your spouse and minor children live there. Residency applies to the whole year: Spain does not split the year you arrive.
For the regime, the first year is the one in which your time in Spain after the move exceeds 183 days.
When you leave Spain
Spain taxes unrealised gains on shares when someone leaves after at least ten years of residence in the last fifteen, if the shares are worth more than €4,000,000. Years spent under the Beckham law do not count towards those ten years.
When you arrive, our advisers help you find your home with Alveo Search, finance it with Alveo Finance and insure it with Alveo Seguros.
Legal references
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