Monday, June 21, 2010

Applying for “beckham-tax” (Royal Decree 687/2005) status

If you’ve lived outside Spain for more than 10 years (even if you are Spanish) and you are moving to Spain for work, you may qualify for the special regime 24% tax rate for 6 years.

You need to act fast, since you only have 6 months from the day you register as a resident to apply, and they are pretty strict about enforcing this.

First thing you need is a letter from new your employer’s HR director stating these four important points:

1a: Que D. MAX MUSTERMANN con NIE numero X0123456 y domicilio en [where you live] está prestando sus servicios en GRAN EMPRESA S.R.L. desde el día 1 de Abril del 2010 como empleado par cuenta ajena con contrato de trabajo ordinario por tiempo indefinido.

2a: Que la dirección del centro de trabajo en el que D. MAX MUSTERMANN presta sus servicios es en [address of your office].

3a: Que el trabajo de D. MAX MUSTERMANN se realiza en territorio español.

4a: Que D. MAX MUSTERMANN está cotizando a la Seguridad Social española siendo la fecha de 1 de Abril del 2010.

Now fill out a Modelo 149 and take this together with your letter, NIE papers and passport to the big tax building in Plaza Doctor Letamendi. Go to the third floor and ask for the extranjero desk. They will take your forms (ask them to look them over to make sure there are no obvious mistakes) and put them in the queue to be processed.

Technically the law says they should get back to you in 10 days, but in reality, it may take as much as 6 months. Ask them which month they are currently processing to get an idea of how long it takes.

If all went well, a letter should arrive about six month later either at your employer or at your home (to us we got one of each). This letter proves your status and you can give a copy to your bank and employer to allow them to give you this special status.

Remember that the status is not tied to your job. If you take another job, you get to keep your status.

Once your six years are over, you might consider moving to Holland, where there’s a 30% tax ruling for expats.

2 comments:

Pueblo girl said...

I wish. Am girding my loins for the annual trial that is declaring my income, put off until the very last possible moment. At least I gathered the papers together today, and they're now sulking on the chair behind me. Tomorrrow I may tackle filling in the form.

Anonymous said...

Seems they've changed the link to the Modelo 149 form, it's now here:

http://www.agenciatributaria.es/AEAT.internet/Inicio_es_ES/_Configuracion_/_Acceda_directamente/_A_un_clic_/Modelos_y_formularios/Declaraciones/Todas_las_declaraciones/Modelos_100_al_199/Modelos_100_al_199/149/149.shtml