Beckham Law in Spain: How to Paw Lower Taxes as a Foreigner in 2025

The Special Regime for Displaced Workers, or Beckham Law, as it has become known, was introduced by Spain in 2004 to attract talent and qualified workers from overseas. 

The law, famously created to bring David Beckham to Real Madrid, has ironically been axed for professional athletes. However, it now helps thousands of foreigners live and work in Spain and legally pay low taxes. 

While often overlooked because of its high taxes, Spain’s continuation of the Beckham Law is particularly enticing for high-net-worth individuals (and those applying for the new digital nomad visa), offering a strategic mix of tax planning and asset protection.

Who qualifies for the Beckham Law in Spain? Is the tax break really worth it? Do you need to register with Spanish tax authorities to officially lower your taxes via this regime?

As a leader in offshore tax planning, global diversification and dual citizenship, Nomad Capitalist is ready to guide you through the nuances of this Spanish tax law. 

This comprehensive guide covers the requirements, benefits and the latest updates to the law to help you learn how to leverage this unique aspect of the Spanish tax system. 

This article is not professional tax advice. It will help you decide if Spain’s Beckham Law is broadly interesting. If you need a detailed tax planning strategy based on your individual needs, you can find out more here. 

What is the Beckham Law in Spain?

The Beckham Law in Spain is a strategic tax framework designed to attract foreign talent to Spanish shores. 

Introduced in 2004 and regulated under section 93 of the Spanish Income Tax Act, this regime allows qualifying expatriates to pay a flat tax rate of 24% solely on their Spanish-sourced income for the first six years of their stay in Spain.

This is in stark contrast to the standard progressive tax rates ranging from 19% to 47% on global income. 

By being taxed as non-residents during their first six years in Spain, foreigners, including high-net-worth individuals and digital nomads, can substantially reduce their tax liabilities. 

To understand why this tax regime is so advantageous, it’s essential to know the general tax regime for immigrants. 

Once you move to Spain and obtain residency, you automatically become a tax resident when you spend more than 183 days per year in the country. 

Under the law, which, as mentioned, applies to income generated in Spain for six years, individuals who move to Spain and become residents can pay a fixed, significantly reduced tax rate.

This offers four main tax advantages:

Income Tax: As a tax non-resident, instead of paying a progressive rate of income tax, you will pay a flat rate of 24% on earnings up to €600,000. You would also not pay taxes for income generated abroad; no regional or state tax is applied to income you generate outside Spain.  

Capital Gains: You only pay tax on capital gains on assets located in Spain. You won’t pay any tax if you sell any asset or receive dividends from assets abroad. The CGT on income from investments within Spain is 19%.

Wealth Tax: You will enjoy better conditions and only pay taxes for properties in Spain. The applicable tax rate is from 0.2% to 3.5%, depending on the property’s value. It doesn’t apply to property owned abroad.   

Property Tax: For foreigners who qualify for Beckham Law, property tax is applicable only to properties located in Spain. This, combined with the wealth tax, makes it very attractive to high-net-worth individuals with properties and other assets around the world.

Has the Beckham Law Changed in 2024?

No, but it did undergo some major updates in 2023. 

Several minor amendments have occurred since the Beckham Law was passed in 2004. Perhaps the most substantial came into effect in 2015. The original law offered the lowest tax rate of 24% regardless of what qualified foreign workers earned. 

This made it attractive to wealthy foreign footballers and others who were not the intended target of the measure. 

In 2010, Spain’s left-wing government imposed a series of restrictions, setting an income limit of €600,000 for those hoping to qualify for the lower tax rate. This did little to disincentive those foreign workers already paying 24%, including soccer players. 

In 2014, the Popular Party, a conservative and Christian-democratic party, bowing to pressure from the left, wholly excluded professional athletes from the scheme, raising their tax rate to 47% on income above €60,000, like all ordinary Spanish taxpayers.

Changes to Spain’s Expat Laws in 2023 included a new digital nomad visa scheme that allows non-EEA freelancers and those who work remotely to live and work in Spain for five years. We will help you make sense of those changes below.

While there is currently no news of changes to Spain’s Beckham Law in 2025, watch this space for official confirmation of future changes.

Who Qualifies for the Beckham Law in Spain?

Starting January 1, 2023, the Beckham Law framework was updated to include individuals who gain tax residency in Spain due to relocation from the latter half of 2022 onwards. 

Currently, to qualify, applicants must not have resided in Spain for the preceding five tax years. Other details of the current Beckham law rules in Spain include:

• Employment, entrepreneurial or specific professional activities can qualify
• Professional athletes no longer qualify for this program
• Income should not originate from a permanent establishment in Spain (with some exceptions)

Eligibility often stems from an employment contract (again, excluding professional athletes) or through remote work, which is particularly beneficial to those holding a digital nomad visa (although freelancers do not qualify for the Beckham Law; instead, you need to be working remotely as an employee).

Additionally, becoming an administrator of a company can qualify you, provided the entity is not predominantly a patrimonial entity as per corporate tax laws, and the administrator does not hold a controlling interest. 

Entrepreneurs engaging in approved economic activities and highly skilled professionals working with emerging companies or in R&D roles can also qualify.

All in all, the Spanish tax authorities want to see that you are working in Spain for a Spanish company and earn most of your money within Spain. While you are allowed to earn income abroad, it can’t account for more than 15% of your total income.

Who Cannot Apply for Spain’s Beckham Law?

Three groups of foreign workers cannot apply for the Beckham Law:

• Freelance and self-employed workers
• Sportspeople and professional athletes 
• Directors of passive holding companies who hold more than 25% of the assets of that company

Note that this has caused a lot of confusion regarding eligibility for those who gain residency in Spain via the digital nomad visa. 

You do not qualify for Beckham Law in Spain if you are a self-employed worker. However, you do not need to be a freelancer or independent contractor to work remotely and qualify for the digital nomad visa.

This means that workers, mostly from the UK, can successfully apply for the Spanish digital nomad visa as full-time workers for UK companies and live in Spain while taking advantage of the 24% tax rate as part of Beckham Law.

If you work remotely as a self-employed individual, however, you can still apply for the digital nomad visa. But, you would not qualify for Beckham Law and therefore must register as an autónomo (freelancer) in Spain, which would make you ineligible for the reduced tax rate under Beckham Law.

How to Apply for the Beckham Law in Spain

What is most important to know about applying for Beckham Law in Spain is that you must submit your application within six months of being employed by the company. 

One of the main advantages is that it can be done entirely online. First, you must download, fill out and submit Form 030. Once you get initial approval from the tax office, you must download and submit Form 149 with all the proper information. 

You must also include your Foreigner Identity Number, your passport, your job contract, the reason for coming to Spain and, finally, your Social Security Number.  

It usually takes one to two months to be processed, and after you receive a positive resolution, you must give it to your company so they can start applying it to your salary and tax base. Lastly, the only legal requirement is submitting a yearly tax return from April to June using Form 151.

Beckham Law in Spain – FAQs

Is the Beckham Law Enough to Entice Foreign Taxpayers?

Under the Beckham Law, you must live in Spain and earn an income from employment there. You will pay 24% in taxes on earned income up to €600,000 annually. 

While 85% of the job must be done within Spain, the good part is that your foreign income is not taxed in Spain, including capital gains and dividends. 

Sounds great, right? Yes, for those who qualify. 

However, Beckham Law in Spain is becoming increasingly hard to qualify for. And while this is a favourable tax rate, you will still pay taxes there.

What about how this compares to other tax schemes for foreigners in other EU countries?

Compared to Portugal’s golden visa, where foreign source dividends are tax-free, but not capital gains, in Spain, you can also avail of tax-free capital gains on income made outside the country. 

So, under the Beckham Law, you could have an extensive portfolio and make a lot of money, in addition to dividends and capital gains, and bring that money into the country. 

Unlike the non-dom program in Ireland, for example, where there is a remittance basis for taxation, and you are taxed on what you bring into the country, in Spain, you can.

In theory, the Beckham Law could be a strategy to diversify your wealth, convert company assets into your personal name, live in a fantastic country for six years and accumulate wealth personally.  

The scheme is, therefore, of considerable potential benefit to high-paid employees who can become tax residents in Spain yet pay significantly reduced income tax on their earnings and avoid tax on non-Spanish investment income.

If most of your wealth comes from worldwide dividends, from a foreign company or foreign-source capital gains, Spain and its Beckham Law could be a good option for you. 

Our Nomad Capitalist philosophy of going where you’re treated best can help you realise the best combination of tax planning, dual citizenship and asset protection strategies. 

If you want to find out how, please get in touch here.