Mobility brief
Spain gives people with income earned abroad a Mediterranean base, with separate visa routes for retirees living on their own income and remote workers employed elsewhere. Qualifying new arrivals can trade progressive worldwide tax for a flat-rate window.
Sources verified 2026-07-12
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The non-lucrative visa admits people who live on income from abroad without working in Spain, at a 2026 floor of EUR 28,800 a year. It suits retirees and passive-income earners who want a Mediterranean base.
For people living on income from abroad who will not work in Spain.
| Income proof | EUR 28,800/yr |
| Per dependent | + EUR 7,200/yr |
| Tax residency trigger | 183 days |
| Days required to renew | More than 183/yr |
The visa does not authorize work in Spain. Renewals run two years.
For remote workers earning from companies based outside Spain.
| Monthly income (200% of SMI) | EUR 2,442/mo, 2026 |
| Qualification | Degree or 3 yrs experience |
| Beckham eligibility | No Spanish tax residence prior 5 yrs |
Beckham applies a flat 24% up to EUR 600,000 and 47% above.
The five-year residence right, then the ten-year path to citizenship.
| Continuous residence | 5 years |
| Naturalisation timeline | 10 years |
| Language and civics exams | DELE A2 + CCSE |
US, Canadian, and British applicants take both exams and follow the ten-year rule.
These are decided by different authorities, under different rules, on different clocks. The one people get wrong is the second.
Granted by the immigration authority. Says nothing about tax.
The non-lucrative and telework visas grant the right to live in Spain. Tax residency is decided separately, by 183 days or by where the base of your economic interests sits, and the second has no day count to manage. A Spanish tax resident declares worldwide income, pensions included. The two rules now point the same way for the non-lucrative permit, because renewing it requires more than 183 days of real residence, the same count that creates tax residency. The permit and the tax test can no longer be separated.
Long-term residence, granting indefinite right to live and work, opens after five continuous years of temporary residence.
Naturalisation by residence takes ten years for US, Canadian, and British citizens under the general rule.
The Beckham regime taxes qualifying new residents at a flat 24% on employment income up to EUR 600,000.
The non-lucrative visa admits people living on income from abroad, with a 2026 income floor of EUR 28,800 a year.
A generic read against Spain's cited thresholds. Your plan weighs all six of your inputs against every destination.
The non-lucrative visa lets people with income from abroad live in Spain without working. For 2026 the IPREM is EUR 600 a month, so the income floor of 400% comes to EUR 28,800 a year, plus EUR 7,200 for each dependent. The visa does not authorize work in Spain.
The telework visa serves remote workers earning from companies outside Spain. Applicants show monthly income of 200% of the Spanish minimum wage, which comes to EUR 2,442 a month once the 2026 wage is applied. Qualification requires a recognized degree or three years of professional experience.
The Beckham regime lets qualifying new residents be taxed as non-residents for the arrival year plus the next five. Eligibility requires no Spanish tax residence in the prior five years. Employment income runs at a flat 24% up to EUR 600,000, and 47% above.
Spain treats a person as tax resident after more than 183 days in the country during a calendar year. Residence also attaches when the main base of a person's economic interests sits in Spain. A resident spouse and minor children create a rebuttable presumption of residence.
Spanish IRPF is a personal, progressive tax on the total income of a resident. It reaches earnings, capital gains, and imputed income, regardless of where the income arose or where the payer sits. This worldwide basis applies to ordinary residents outside the Beckham regime.
Long-term residence lets a person live and work in Spain indefinitely, on the same terms as a Spanish national. It is a right after five continuous years of temporary residence in Spain. Short absences do not break the continuity.
Naturalisation by residence takes ten years as the general rule. US, Canadian, and British citizens fall under that ten-year rule. Two-year and shorter paths exist for Ibero-American nationals and a few other groups, which do not include those three.
Naturalising by residence requires a declaration renouncing the prior nationality. Only nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, and Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin are exempt. US, Canadian, and British citizens are not exempt and must make that declaration.
Naturalisation requires passing two exams from the Instituto Cervantes. The DELE tests Spanish at A2 level or higher, and the CCSE tests constitutional and sociocultural knowledge. Nationals of Spanish-speaking countries skip the DELE, but US, Canadian, and British applicants do not.
A Spanish tax resident declares worldwide income, including a pension from another country. The double-taxation treaty between Spain and the source country governs which side taxes the pension. Where both tax it, the resident applies the international double-taxation deduction.
Renewing the non-lucrative permit requires having lived in Spain, really and effectively, for more than 183 days in the calendar year. That is the same count that makes a person a Spanish tax resident. A renewed permit runs two years.
A renewed work permit runs four years and covers any employed activity anywhere in Spain. That is twice the term the non-lucrative permit gets, so the permit that authorises no work carries twice the renewal paperwork of the one that does.
A renewed family-reunification permit also runs four years, and it authorises employed and self-employed work without limit. Its validity stays tied to the permit held by the family member who sponsored it.
Spain closed the investor residence visa, the golden visa, with effect from 3 April 2025. The article that created it now stands without content. There is no investment figure to meet because the route no longer exists.
Investor permits already valid on 3 April 2025 keep their validity for the term they were issued for. A renewal is decided under the rules in force when the original permit was granted. Spain set no end date for those renewals.
Spain taxes wealth every year, and has since 1991. The state exempts the first EUR 700,000 of net wealth, but each region may set its own figure instead, and several have. The exemption also reaches non-residents who hold Spanish assets.
A main home is exempt from the wealth tax up to EUR 300,000 per owner. Value above that counts. The cap has stood at EUR 300,000 since 2011, so rising house prices pull more of a home into the tax each year.
A second tax reaches net wealth above EUR 3,000,000, at 1.7% to 3.5%, on top of the wealth tax. Spain called it temporary and then extended it until it reviews wealth taxation, which has not happened. No end date is set.
Under the Beckham regime, investment income above EUR 300,000 is taxed at 30%. The band runs 19% to 27% below that. Spain added the 30% step with effect from 1 January 2025, so plans drawn up before then price this part too low.
The Beckham regime admits employees, company directors, recognised entrepreneurs, and highly qualified professionals serving start-ups. The telework visa opens the regime for employed staff by name. A freelancer invoicing foreign clients holds the same visa and does not qualify on that basis.
The wealth tax has its own filing rule. A person files where tax is due, and also where their assets exceed EUR 2,000,000 even when nothing is owed. So a regional exemption can remove the bill without removing the return.
Moving to Spain is four different jobs for four different people, and the order matters more than the choice of any one of them. Here is the sequence, what each person settles, and what to hold them to in writing.
Before you sell anything, move your family, or claim to have left
This is the one whose answer can make the rest of the plan pointless, so it is worth knowing before you spend anything on the rest. A residence permit somewhere else is not the same thing as having stopped being tax-resident where you are.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A written residence and departure-date memo, with the tax on leaving set out asset by asset, and a list of the evidence your position depends on.
Six to twelve months before you intend to move
Routes look interchangeable from outside and are not. Which one you qualify for depends on evidence you may not have gathered yet, and gathering it is often the long pole.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A route recommendation with the eligibility tested against your documents, plus a dated checklist of what is still missing.
Only after the lawyer has frozen the list
Ordering apostilles and translations before the list is settled is the most common way to pay twice. Certified documents also expire, so starting early can be worse than starting late.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. Authenticated originals and accepted translations, tracked so you know where every document physically is.
Once your status is approved
Approval is not the same as a working life. Banking, health cover, and a tenancy each have their own requirements, and several of them want the paperwork from the earlier stages.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A working household: identity documents, an address, cover, banking, and a calendar of what renews when.
A good introduction is not the same as a good engagement. These are worth asking on the first call, whoever made the introduction.
OmniFlag is not a law firm or a tax adviser. Experts are retained independently and their engagement letter defines what they advise on, what they file, and what they deliver.
A note for US citizens and green-card holders. US federal tax follows you wherever you live. A move to Spain does not reduce your US federal tax, and this page makes no such claim.
An ordinary Spanish tax resident declares worldwide income, including foreign capital gains and pensions, at progressive rates. The Beckham regime is a time-limited exception, not the default, so most residents pay on their global income.
Naturalising by residence requires a declaration renouncing the prior nationality. US, Canadian, and British citizens are not exempt, so keeping the current passport is not an option on this path.
The DELE A2 language exam and the CCSE civics exam are run in Spanish and Spanish-speaking nationals are exempt from the DELE, so US, Canadian, and British applicants should budget study time before the naturalisation window closes.
Keeping the non-lucrative permit and staying outside Spanish tax residency is not possible. Renewal requires more than 183 days of real residence in the calendar year, and 183 days is the same line that makes a person a Spanish tax resident. Any plan that splits the year to stay under the tax test loses the permit at renewal.
Electing the Beckham regime does not remove wealth tax exposure. The statute puts a Beckham taxpayer under the wealth tax on Spanish assets alone, which is narrower than a resident's worldwide base but is not nothing, and Spanish property is the asset most new arrivals buy first.
Ten years of legal residence as the general rule. US, Canadian, and British citizens fall under that rule, not the shorter Ibero-American paths.
Generally no. Spain asks those naturalising by residence to renounce their prior nationality, and US, Canadian, and British citizens are not exempt. Ibero-American nationals and a few other groups are exempt.
For ordinary tax residents, yes. Residents declare worldwide income at progressive rates. The Beckham regime is the exception, taxing qualifying new arrivals as non-residents for a fixed window.
A special tax regime for new residents who were not Spanish tax residents in the prior five years. It lets them be taxed as non-residents for the arrival year plus five more, at a flat 24% on employment income up to EUR 600,000.
The non-lucrative visa fits people living on their own income without working in Spain. The telework visa fits remote workers employed by companies outside Spain.
No. Spain closed the investor route on 3 April 2025 and the article behind it now stands without content. Permits already held keep their validity and renew under the rules in force when they were granted, but no new applications are possible.
Yes, and twice. An annual wealth tax exempts the first EUR 700,000 at state level, though each region may set its own figure. A second tax reaches net wealth above EUR 3,000,000 at 1.7% to 3.5%, and it has no end date.
It was announced, not enacted. The prime minister proposed raising the tax on purchases by non-resident non-EU buyers to as much as 100% of the property value in January 2025. No such tax had been passed when this was last checked, on 2026-08-12. Note the scope of what was proposed: it targeted non-residents, so it would not reach someone buying a home to live in.
Southern Europe
Passive-income and remote-work residence, a defined path to a passport, and dual citizenship kept.
Southern Europe
An English-speaking EU base with a remittance basis for foreign income and 10% on remote work.
Southern Europe
A flat 7% on all foreign income for ten years, for a pension moved to a qualifying southern town.
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OmniFlag helps you research and plan. It is not a law firm or tax advisor and does not give legal or tax advice. Licensed experts validate the plan before anything is filed: a cross-border tax adviser where you are leaving, then an immigration lawyer in Spain.