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TaxModelo 720 in 2026: declaring your assets abroad when you become resident in Spain
Published 20 October 2026·6 min read·By The Alveo team
Once you become tax resident in Spain, you list the accounts, investments and property you keep abroad on Modelo 720. It is an information return: it carries no tax of its own, you file it between 1 January and 31 March, and since 2022 its penalties follow the general rules.
Who files Modelo 720
Spanish tax residents file it: you are resident if you spend more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year, if the centre of your economic interests is there, or if your spouse and minor children live there. The tax agency describes the filers as everyone taxed in Spain on their worldwide income.
People under the Beckham law are taxed on Spanish income only, and the tax agency states that they do not file Modelo 720. A resident spouse or child outside the regime may have to.
For a jointly owned asset, each owner declares the full value with their percentage. Anyone with signing power over a foreign account declares it too.
Three categories, €50,000 each
You check the threshold category by category, and once a category exceeds €50,000, you declare everything in it.
What stays out of Modelo 720
Cryptocurrency held with a foreign custodian goes on a separate return, Modelo 721. Foreign pension plans are not declared until they pay out as an annuity, unless they carry a surrender right similar to life insurance. Works of art, boats, gold, jewellery and cash outside an account are not declared.
When to file
You file online between 1 January and 31 March, for the situation on 31 December of the previous year, with a digital certificate or Cl@ve.
If you become resident in 2026, your first Modelo 720 covers your assets on 31 December 2026 and is due between 1 January and 31 March 2027. An account closed or a property sold before that 31 December does not appear.
The following years
You file again only if a category has grown by more than €20,000 since your last return, or if an asset leaves your hands, through a sale, a closure or a revoked signing power. You then give its value on the date it left.
The comparison is with your last return for that category: a rise of €18,000 one year and €10,000 the next means filing in the second year. For property, currency movements do not count towards the €20,000.
Penalties since 2022
On 27 January 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Spain's former Modelo 720 penalties were disproportionate: fixed fines of €5,000 per item, a 150% fine and assets taxed with no time limit. Ley 5/2022 removed that regime from 11 March 2022.
Modelo 720 now follows the general rules for information returns. A late return costs €20 per item, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €20,000, halved when you file late before any request from the tax agency.
A home you keep abroad
As a Spanish resident, a second home abroad that you neither let nor use as your main home creates imputed income in your Spanish income tax: for 2026, 1.1% of half its purchase price, in proportion to the days it was available. The tax treaty with the country where the home sits may change that result.
If you let it, the rent is taxed as property income in Spain, with relief under the treaty. For wealth tax, residents declare their assets worldwide, the foreign home at its purchase value, with a deduction for wealth tax paid abroad.
Legal references
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