Do I qualify for Beckham Law, and when is Modelo 149 due?
Two questions come before the tax arithmetic. This page answers both: a branching check against the four routes into the Beckham regime, and the six-month Modelo 149 clock with the date it actually runs from.
The regime in four figures
The figures come from LIRPF article 93 and the IRPF Regulation. Central passages are quoted below, and every checker branch links its official source.
- Rate
- 24% up to €600,000 47% on the excess
- Duration
- The year you move + 5 tax periods
- Modelo 149 window
- 6 months maximum RIRPF art. 116.1
- Ordinary freelancing
- Outside the regime RIRPF art. 113.2
Check your route and filing deadline
Choose your situation, answer a few short questions and calculate your Modelo 149 deadline.
Modelo 149 filing deadline
Use the documented start of work or activity. The residency permit approval date is not the starting date.
Full guide
The Beckham Law guide
The guide explains who can apply for the 24% special regime, how the application works and what can disqualify you.
- Who can apply
- Beckham Law vs regular tax rates
- How to apply
- What can disqualify you
Related guides
Core pages for choosing the right Spanish residence route.
The questions this page exists to answer
Including two points that are often stated incorrectly.
If you are an employee, the statute says so by name. LIRPF art. 93.1.b).1.º ends with the sentence that the condition is met “in the case of employees holding the international-telework visa provided for in Law 14/2013”. If you are self-employed and invoicing clients, no. Ordinary freelancing is not one of the four circumstances, and IRPF Regulation art. 113.2 lists the only economic activities permitted inside the regime. Same permit, two entirely different answers.
Not as a general rule. Article 93.1.b).2.º lists acquiring administrator status with no percentage limit. It then adds one condition: where the entity is an entidad patrimonial under Corporate Income Tax Act art. 5.2 — more than half its assets in securities or not used in a business — the administrator may not hold a stake that makes them a related party under art. 18, whose threshold is 25%. Administrator of a company that actually trades: no percentage test.
Art. 116.1.a) gives three places to read one date, not one:
- the activity-start date recorded in the Spanish Social Security alta;
- the date in the documentation allowing you to keep your home-country social security — the operative one if you are posted on an A1 certificate and never register in Spain;
- where registration was not compulsory, the date in the document evidencing the start of the activity.
Paraphrasing all three as “six months from the Social Security alta” is how people on an A1 end up counting from a date that does not exist for them.
No, and this is worth getting right. Family members opting in under LIRPF art. 93.3 have their own communication and their own clock: art. 116.1.b) gives them six months from their entry into Spain, or the main applicant's deadline where that one falls later. Each person files their own Modelo 149.
Non-savings income is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 and 47% above it, under a separate scale from the general progressive one, with savings income on its own 19–30% scale. It applies for the tax period in which residence changes and the five following tax periods. Our Beckham Law calculator compares the two scales at your income.
The option under art. 116.1 is exercised inside that window, so a late Modelo 149 does not open the regime. Before concluding that it was missed, check which of the three trigger dates in art. 116.1.a) applies to you. Someone counting from a Social Security registration when the operative document was an A1 can be months out in either direction.
Where these rules are written
Five central passages are quoted below. The checker links every additional provision it applies.
Employment is one of the listed routes, and the provision expressly names the Law 14/2013 international-telework visa.
Spanish original
«En particular, se entenderá cumplida esta circunstancia en el caso de trabajadores por cuenta ajena que cuenten con el visado para teletrabajo de carácter internacional previsto en la Ley 14/2013, de 27 de septiembre, de apoyo a los emprendedores y su internacionalización.»
In particular, this circumstance shall be treated as met in the case of employees holding the international-telework visa provided for in Law 14/2013 of 27 September on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalisation.
Acquiring administrator status is a listed route with no general percentage limit. A limit arises only where the entity is asset-holding, by reference to the related-party threshold in the Corporate Income Tax Act.
Spanish original
«Como consecuencia de la adquisición de la condición de administrador de una entidad. En caso de que la entidad tenga la consideración de entidad patrimonial en los términos previstos en el artículo 5, apartado 2, de la Ley del Impuesto sobre Sociedades, el administrador no podrá tener una participación en dicha entidad que determine su consideración como entidad vinculada en los términos previstos en el artículo 18 de la Ley 27/2014, de 27 de noviembre, del Impuesto sobre Sociedades.»
As a result of acquiring the status of administrator of an entity. Where the entity is treated as an asset-holding entity within the meaning of article 5(2) of the Corporate Income Tax Act, the administrator may not hold a participation in that entity that would make them a related party within the meaning of article 18 of Law 27/2014 of 27 November on Corporate Income Tax.
The list of economic activities permitted inside the regime is closed, and ordinary freelancing is not on it.
Spanish original
«Conforme a lo dispuesto en la letra c) del apartado 1 del artículo 93 de la Ley del Impuesto, durante los períodos impositivos de aplicación de este régimen especial, las únicas actividades económicas que podrán desarrollar los contribuyentes acogidos al mismo son la actividad económica de carácter emprendedor, la prestación de servicios a empresas emergentes o las actividades de formación, investigación, desarrollo e innovación previstas en los números 3.º y 4.º del artículo 93.1.b) de la Ley del Impuesto.»
Under article 93(1)(c) of the Act, during the tax periods in which this special regime applies, the only economic activities that taxpayers within it may carry on are the entrepreneurial economic activity, the provision of services to start-ups, and the training, research, development and innovation activities provided for in points 3 and 4 of article 93.1.b) of the Act.
Six months maximum, counted from the activity-start date as recorded in one of three documents — not from the Social Security registration alone.
Spanish original
«En el caso del contribuyente a que se refiere el apartado 1 del artículo 93 de la Ley del Impuesto, en el plazo máximo de seis meses desde la fecha de inicio de la actividad que conste en el alta en la Seguridad Social en España o en la documentación que le permita, en su caso, el mantenimiento de la legislación de Seguridad Social de origen o, en caso de que no fuera obligatoria el alta en la Seguridad Social, en el documento justificativo de la fecha de inicio de la actividad.»
In the case of the taxpayer referred to in article 93(1) of the Act, within a maximum period of six months from the activity-start date recorded in the Social Security registration in Spain, or in the documentation allowing, where applicable, the retention of the social security legislation of origin, or — where registration with Social Security was not compulsory — in the document evidencing the date on which the activity began.
Family members joining under art. 93.3 count six months from their own entry into Spain, or take the main applicant's deadline where that falls later.
Spanish original
«En el caso de los contribuyentes a los que se refiere el apartado 3 del artículo 93 de la Ley del Impuesto, en el plazo máximo de seis meses desde la fecha de su entrada en territorio español o en el plazo previsto en la letra a) anterior para el contribuyente a que se refiere el apartado 1 del artículo 93 de la Ley del Impuesto, si fuera mayor.»
In the case of the taxpayers referred to in article 93(3) of the Act, within a maximum period of six months from the date of their entry into Spanish territory, or within the period provided for in point (a) above for the taxpayer referred to in article 93(1) of the Act, if that period is longer.
An indication is not an answer to your case
Bring the contract, the shareholding and the dates, and the open questions on this page close in one conversation.