When Spain can withdraw your residency permit: RETA and tax checks after approval

The Digital Nomad residency permit and the other permits issued by UGE (the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos, written UGE-CE on its documents) assume that you live in Spain. The law requires you to keep the conditions you were approved on for as long as the permit lasts, and it allows UGE to check.

If you have moved here, live here, registered with Spanish social security as self-employed (RETA) on time and pay tax, the risk is low. If you never registered or do not pay tax, there is always some risk. There is no safe way to live in another country and renew the permit without questions.

• At renewal, UGE looks at your RETA registration date and your tax returns.
• Between renewals, UGE runs random checks, and they come in waves.
• If UGE finds a problem, it sends a letter that starts the withdrawal of your permit and gives you 10 working days to answer.

By law, you must keep the conditions of your permit for as long as it lasts. If they change — you switch employer or move from employment to self-employment — you must tell UGE within 30 days. UGE can check at any time. If you no longer meet the conditions, it can withdraw the permit (extinción). It can do so only after hearing you: a letter comes first, and you can answer it.

For the Digital Nomad residency permit, the conditions are: you work remotely for a foreign company or clients, earn at least the income threshold, and pay social security. If you are self-employed (autónomo), you pay it through RETA from the day after your permit is approved. If you are an employee, you show a social security certificate from your home country, such as an A1 in the EU or a US Certificate of Coverage. The RETA rule also applies to the Startup residency permit (the startup visa): UGE expects you to register from the day after approval.

Tax is a separate duty. Self-employed people file the annual tax return (Renta) every year. Employees file it for any year in which they were tax resident in Spain. UGE checks these returns.

Most questions come at renewal. UGE gets data from Spanish social security (Seguridad Social) and sees the date you registered with RETA. A late registration shows up at once.

In practice (our cases, autumn 2026), there is no safe window. We advise registering with RETA within about 15 days of approval. With a gap of more than 2 to 2.5 months, a requerimiento — a request for more documents — often arrives at renewal, and it is hard to answer. With a gap of more than 3 months, it arrives almost every time.

The second thing UGE checks is your tax returns for 2 years. It compares the income in each return with the permit's threshold for that year. If a return is missing or shows income well below the threshold, UGE asks questions and sometimes refuses the renewal. Our Digital Nomad renewal guide explains which returns you need and how the threshold works.

If you registered late, UGE asks you to show RETA registration from the day after approval, which means backdating it (con efectos retroactivos). You do this at Seguridad Social, for the missed months, and pay the contributions for them. Late contributions carry a surcharge (recargo), and Seguridad Social can also fine you.

A backdated registration is allowed. But moving back the date of a registration you already have does not usually work as of autumn 2026: Seguridad Social pauses these requests while it looks into them, and you have only 10 working days to answer UGE. So with a large gap it can be better to apply for a modification to a self-employed permit (cuenta propia) instead of a renewal. This is decided before you apply; see the RETA section of the renewal guide.

The other option is to explain the delay. We write these letters, and UGE sometimes accepts them when the delay has an objective reason: an illness or operation in the family with medical records, arriving in Spain well after the approval date, or a short gap. Every case is different and nobody can predict the answer, but it does happen.

UGE can check you without a renewal. In practice, these checks come in waves: in 2026 we saw them in spring and at the end of summer. Most often, UGE checks the Seguridad Social database to see whether a person is registered with RETA, and from what date.

In the latest wave we also saw requests for the previous year's tax return, to check that the person pays tax in Spain. These requests came together with the letter that starts the withdrawal of the permit.

Notifications arrive in your UGE electronic office, under 'Ver Notificaciones'. Email alerts often do not arrive, so open the office every few days. An unopened notification counts as delivered after 10 calendar days, and your deadline starts running.

The letter is called Comunicación de acuerdo de inicio de procedimiento de extinción de autorización. It is not a decision yet. UGE tells you it has started the procedure, gives the reason — for example, no RETA registration from the day after approval — and lists the documents it expects. This is your hearing (trámite de audiencia): 10 working days to object and send documents.

Working days skip Saturdays, Sundays and Madrid public holidays, and the count starts the day after you open the notification. Our page on answering a UGE requerimiento shows how to work out the date and answer point by point; the deadline is counted the same way.

1. Do not wait. Without an answer, UGE decides on the information it already has.
2. Work out the complaint. RETA, tax, income or work: every point needs a document or an explanation of why it is missing.
3. Collect the documents: your RETA registration, a certificate that you owe nothing to Seguridad Social (certificado de estar al corriente), your tax returns, your rental contract or town hall registration (padrón), and records showing why you were late.
4. Write your answer (alegaciones): facts, dates and a list of attachments. File it through the same UGE electronic office.
5. Short of time? Ask for 5 more working days, but before the first 10 run out. Extensions are not always granted.

If UGE still withdraws the permit, you can appeal: you have 1 month for a recurso de alzada. Our appeal deadline calculator works out the last day. In our experience, overturning a decision is harder than answering the letter, so the 10 days matter most.

• RETA within 2 weeks. If you are self-employed, register soon after approval; do not wait for your TIE card.
• Contributions and Renta every year. Pay social security and file your tax return, even in a year when you earn little.
• Tell UGE about changes within 30 days. A new employer, a move to self-employment, the end of a contract.
• An ordinary life in Spain. A rental contract, a padrón, bills and bank statements are the best evidence that you live here.
• Your UGE electronic office every few days. That way you do not miss a letter or a deadline.

If you already have a gap in RETA, deal with it before you apply to renew, not after a request arrives. The renewal guide explains where to start.