Date Published: 01/03/2023
The Spanish Digital Nomad Visa: Are you eligible to work remotely from Spain?
A new law has been passed to allow employees of foreign companies to work remotely from Spain
The new Spanish Digital Nomad Visa allows non-EU residents to work remotely from Spain for companies in their country, and to reside legally in Spain on a permanent basis, as long as the amounts they receive from Spanish companies are less than 20% of their total income.
The main features of the new visa are:
- The visa authorises any non-EU national to work in Spain remotely for any foreign company in which they have been employed for at least 3 months, and with a contract of at least 1 year, where teleworking is allowed. The contracting company must have been operating for at least 1 year.
- The visa is granted to the applicant and his/her family for an initial period of 1 year, followed by two 2-year extensions, for a maximum of 5 years. After the 5 years it is possible to apply for long-term residence to live and work in Spain.
The visa application can be submitted in Spain or at the Spanish consulates in the country of origin, for which we recommend that you
engage the services of recognised professionals, and you will need to provide the following documents and meet the following requirements:
- The applicant must be a graduate of an official university or business school or be able to accredit professional experience of at least three years
- The applicant must have a bank certificate from any bank showing an account balance of at least 26,000 euros
- A clean criminal record certificate with a maximum validity of 90 days is required
- The applicant must have private Insurance
It should be noted that the Digital Nomad Visa scheme
can be combined with the so-called Beckham Law (technically called the Special Regime for workers posted to Spanish territory in the
IRPF Law), which is a special tax regime that offers better taxation for those who move their residence to Spain because of a job, who can obtain a tax benefit.
Under this regime, which is optional, the person moving to Spain on the Digital Nomad Visa would be taxed in Spain on the income obtained in Spain, as well as on all income from work and economic activities, and in addition, such income would be taxed at a flat rate of 24% up to 600,000 euros (47% above that amount). If approved, the regime will apply for 6 years, although it can also be cancelled earlier.
It is important to note that, although the taxpayer can decide whether or not to take advantage of the Beckham Law, if he or she wishes to do so, certain requirements must be met, so it is advisable to seek the advice of tax experts.
Undoubtedly, the application of this law has interesting advantages and some disadvantages, so it must be analysed on a case-by-case basis. This analysis will help to determine, firstly, whether the requirements are met and, secondly, whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
If the requirements are met and if it has been concluded that it may be beneficial, the next step would be to prepare an application to apply the Beckham Law. Such an application requires the submission of a number of documents, and these must be submitted correctly in order for the Inland Revenue to accept the application, because if the application is rejected, it cannot be re-applied for.
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