A flat rate for newcomers. If you claim it in time.

It’s Spain’s special tax regime for inbound workers — nicknamed after the footballer who was an early beneficiary. Instead of being taxed as an ordinary resident on your worldwide income at progressive rates, a qualifying newcomer is taxed broadly as a non-resident: a flat rate on Spanish-source employment income, with most foreign-source income falling outside Spanish tax while the regime lasts. For the right profile it’s a substantial saving; for the wrong one it isn’t worth it, which is why the first step is checking rather than assuming.

Under the regime, qualifying employment income is taxed at a flat rate up to a high threshold (with a higher rate on the excess), rather than climbing the normal progressive scale — and, crucially, most of your non-Spanish income generally stays outside Spanish tax while you’re on it. The exact rates, thresholds and what counts as Spanish-source are set by current law and depend on your situation, so we model your specific numbers with the tax specialists before you decide.

In short: someone moving to Spain who has not been Spanish tax-resident in the recent look-back period, and whose move is for a qualifying reason — an employment contract or posting, a directorship, or, since the Startups Law widened it, remote work, the Digital Nomad Visa, entrepreneurs and highly qualified professionals. The trigger is the reason you’re relocating, and the profile has to line up with your immigration route.

There’s a strict window: you must formally elect the regime within a set period of starting your activity or registering with Spanish social security. This is the single most common way people lose it — they hear about Beckham a year after moving, when the window has already shut. If you’re planning the move, the time to line it up is before you arrive, not after.

Broadly, while you’re on the regime most foreign-source income is not taxed in Spain — you’re taxed here mainly on Spanish-source income, with Spanish employment income at the flat rate. That’s the heart of the benefit for people with assets, pensions or investments outside Spain. There are important exceptions and interactions with double-tax treaties, so we map your particular income streams rather than rely on the headline.

Yes — this is one of the most valuable combinations the Startups Law created. A Digital Nomad Visa gives you the legal right to live in Spain while working remotely, and it can open the door to the Beckham regime on the tax side. We plan the two together from the start, because getting the immigration route and the tax election to line up is exactly what makes the saving real rather than theoretical.