Moving to Spain for work: how your salary is taxed

How your salary is taxed

Two things come off a Spanish salary:

• Social security: 6.50% of your pay on a permanent contract (6.55% on a temporary one), up to a maximum of €61,214 a year. Above that a small solidarity contribution applies. Your employer pays about 30.6% on top.
• IRPF (Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas), the income tax, worked out on your yearly income.

For an employee, IRPF is calculated like this:

1. Start from gross pay, subtract social security and a general €2,000 deduction for work expenses.
2. Lower incomes get an extra work income reduction of up to €7,302.
3. Apply the state scale and your region's scale to the result separately and add the two together. The regions set their own rates, so the combined top rate ranges from 45.0% to 53.8%.
4. Subtract the tax on your personal minimum (€5,550 for the state; some regions use more) and on the minimum for each child, so that part of your income is effectively tax-free.

Worked example: €40,000 a year in Madrid

Take-home pay at common salaries

Single employee, permanent contract, standard rules. See every region side by side on the regions page.

Your payslips: 14 payments and withholding

Every employee in Spain has a legal right to two extra payments (pagas extraordinarias) a year. One is paid at Christmas; the timing of the other is set by the collective agreement, and summer is the most common. That is why salaries are quoted as a yearly gross amount paid in 14 parts. A collective agreement can spread the extras across the 12 months instead (prorrateadas). Either way the yearly salary and tax are the same.

Each month your employer withholds IRPF using the national withholding formula, based on the personal details you give your employer on form 145 (it is not sent to the tax agency). That formula does not use the regional scales, so in some regions withholding is slightly too high or too low; the difference is settled in your annual return.

When you become tax resident

You are tax resident in Spain for a calendar year if:

• you spend more than 183 days in Spain during the year (short trips abroad still count unless you prove residence elsewhere), or
• the main centre of your business or economic interests is in Spain.

It is presumed that you are resident if your spouse and minor children live in Spain. Unlike many countries, Spain has no split year: you are resident or non-resident for the whole calendar year. If you arrive late in the year and are not resident that year, Spanish salary is taxed under non-resident income tax instead, generally at 24% of the gross, or 19% if you are resident in another EU or EEA country, unless a tax treaty says otherwise.

The Beckham Law

The special regime for people moving to Spain, known as the Beckham Law, lets you pay a flat 24% on employment income up to €600,000 (47% above it) for the year you become resident and the next five. You qualify if you have not been tax resident in Spain in the previous five years and move for a job, a posting, remote work or certain director and startup roles.

In Madrid it beats the normal rules above about €64,500 a year; on €100,000 it is worth +€6,711 a year. Below that, the normal rules with their personal minimums are cheaper.

First steps after you arrive

1. Get your NIE, the identification number for foreigners that you need for your contract, tax and a bank account. It is only a number: it does not give you the right to live or work in Spain. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens staying more than three months register in person within three months of arriving and receive a registration certificate showing the NIE. Non-EU nationals staying more than six months apply for a TIE card within a month of arriving.
2. Get a social security number. Your employer must request it if you do not have one, or you can request it yourself online through Import@ss with your NIE.
3. Fill in form 145 for your employer with your family situation, so the right amount of IRPF is withheld.
4. Decide on the Beckham Law within six months of your social security registration.
5. Register on the padrón (the local population register) at your town hall, which you need for many other procedures.

Your tax return

The annual return (declaración de la renta) is filed in spring for the previous year: returns for 2025 were filed from 8 April to 30 June 2026. You do not have to file if your only income is a salary of up to €22,000 from one employer. The limit drops to €15,876 if you had two or more employers and the second and later ones paid you more than €1,500 in total, or if your employer did not have to withhold Spanish tax, which can be the case with a foreign employer. Filing often makes sense anyway, because it settles any difference between withholding and your real tax.

What is changing

No 2027 State Budget has been presented, and a general election is due on 29 November 2026, so the 2026 rules are the latest confirmed. A new state deduction for tenants (10% of rent paid, if your taxable income is below €33,007.20) applies from 8 October 2026 under Royal Decree-law 29/2026, but it still needs to be validated by Parliament and is not in our calculator yet. Some regions have also announced changes for 2027; we will add them once they are approved.

Sources

• Ley 35/2006 del IRPF (tax residence: article 9; Beckham Law: article 93)
• Agencia Tributaria: form 149 (Beckham Law)
• Orden PJC/297/2026: social security contributions 2026
• Agencia Tributaria: tax residence
• Agencia Tributaria: non-resident income tax rates
• Agencia Tributaria: who has to file a return
• Agencia Tributaria: form 145
• Workers' Statute, article 31: extra payments
• Real Decreto 240/2007: registration of EU citizens
• Real Decreto-ley 29/2026: tenant deduction
• Our methodology and the full list of sources for the calculator

Frequently asked questions

This guide explains the general rules for employees and is not personal tax advice. Rules change and individual situations differ, so check with the tax authority or a tax adviser before making decisions. Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected].