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Your first tax year as a Spanish tax resident

Spain does not split the year you arrive. If you end up resident, your first return covers every month of that calendar year, not only the months you lived here.

Last updated: 25 October 2026

The short answer

If you are a Spanish tax resident for the year you moved, you file the annual income tax return, Modelo 100, for the whole calendar year. That includes income you earned abroad between 1 January and the day you arrived.

Modelo 210, the non-resident return, is for people who are not resident that year. It does not cover the months before you arrived as a resident. How Spain decides whether you are resident is in our guide to the digital nomad visa and tax residency, and this page does not repeat it.

There is no split year

The Agencia Tributaria (AEAT) states the rule directly: "El período impositivo es el año natural, sin que el cambio de residencia suponga la interrupción de dicho período." And the consequence: "Por tanto, una persona física será residente o no residente durante todo el año natural."

Spanish residents are taxed on worldwide income. AEAT's page for residents with foreign income says a resident "debe tributar en España por su renta mundial". Put the two together and a person who arrives in, say, April and is resident for that year reports their January to March income too, wherever it was earned. That last step is our reading of the two rules, not a sentence we could quote from AEAT, so check it with an adviser if the pre-arrival income is large.

The same rule works the other way. Residency is tested over the whole calendar year, so someone who arrives late in the year and meets none of the residency tests is a non-resident for that year, and their first Modelo 100 is for the following year.

Which form, and when

  • Resident: Modelo 100. One annual return. AEAT says the filing periods are "en general, de abril a junio" of the year after, and to check the exact dates each year.
  • Resident and self-employed: also Modelo 130 each quarter. It is an advance payment on the same annual tax. The dates are in our autónomo tax deadlines guide.
  • Not resident: Modelo 210, on Spanish-source income only. Under the non-resident income tax law the general rate is 24%, and 19% for residents of another EU or EEA state that exchanges tax information with Spain.

Why first-year bills surprise people

A Spanish employer withholds tax from every payslip. Income paid from abroad usually has no Spanish withholding, because the payer is not in Spain. That is our practical reading, not an AEAT quotation. If so, nothing is set aside during the year, and the whole bill for that income arrives at once when you file Modelo 100.

If you are self-employed, the quarterly Modelo 130 is the mechanism that spreads that bill across the year. Not filing it does not remove the tax. It only moves the full amount to the annual return.

Tax already paid in another country

AEAT says that where a treaty applies, "siempre es necesario consultar el Convenio concreto". If both countries claim you as resident, the treaty's tie-breaker decides, and that depends on the specific treaty.

Where income was taxed abroad and also counts in Spain, Article 80 of the income tax law (LIRPF) gives a deduction for double taxation. AEAT's manual summarises it as: "se deducirá la menor de las cantidades siguientes". The two amounts are the tax actually paid abroad, and the Spanish tax that income would bear on the average rate. So the deduction cannot exceed the Spanish tax on that income. AEAT also says that with no treaty the income is taxed in Spain and the Article 80 deduction can still be claimed.

Certificate of tax residence. AEAT issues one on request through its online office. For a country that has a treaty with Spain it certifies you are resident "en sentido del Convenio", and for other countries that you are resident in Spain. It is issued in Spanish and English. It is the document a foreign tax office usually asks for when you want it to stop treating you as its resident.

Foreign assets: Modelo 720 and Modelo 721

These are information returns, not tax returns. They report what you hold abroad as at 31 December, and they are filed between 1 January and 31 March of the following year. AEAT lists "las personas físicas residentes en territorio español" among those obliged to file Modelo 720. By the same whole-year logic, a resident of the arrival year can already be caught, which is again our inference.

Modelo 720

  • One form covers three separate duties: accounts, securities, and real estate abroad, each tested on its own. AEAT's FAQ examples apply a limit of 50,000 euros per block ("el saldo no excedería de los 50.000 €").
  • After the first filing, you file again for a block only when its limit rises by more than 20,000 euros, per AEAT: "un incremento del límite conjunto establecido para cada bloque de información superior a 20.000 euros".
  • It does not cover cryptoassets. AEAT: "En el modelo 720 no se informa de monedas virtuales."

Modelo 721

This is the separate return for virtual currencies held abroad, by custodians outside Spain, by Spanish residents. It was first due for 2023, in the same 1 January to 31 March window. We have not confirmed its value limit on an AEAT page, so check the limit on AEAT's Modelo 721 FAQ before deciding you are under it.

Penalties

The penalty regime for Modelo 720 was changed by Ley 5/2022, after the EU Court of Justice judgment of 27 January 2022 (case C-788/19). AEAT says it now follows the general rules in articles 198 and 199 of the General Tax Law, applied "de forma independiente para cada una de las tres obligaciones". Older articles that quote very large fixed fines describe the regime before that change. We give no amounts here.

If you hold the impatriate regime, the 720 treatment is different. See the residency guide.

Sources

Follow these rather than trusting this summary:

Who can do this for you

A first return with foreign income, a treaty question or a 720 is where a tax adviser earns their fee.

  • Accountants: the return, double taxation relief, 720 and 721
  • Gestors: registration, certificates and the filing itself

This page is general information, not tax advice. It was checked against the sources above on the date shown. Your own position depends on facts we do not know: your arrival date, where your income comes from and which treaty applies.