The Beckham Law for Germans: A1 postings, the Abmeldung, exit tax and the flat you keep

For a German citizen the Spanish side is straightforward: no permit, registration within three months, and the same regime as everyone else. The complications are German. Germany does not let go of its residents easily, it has two rules written for exactly the situation of a citizen moving to a low-tax regime, and the most common route for Germans, the A1 posting, starts the Spanish deadline on a date many people do not notice.

Arriving: registration, not a visa

As an EU citizen you register as a Union citizen at the police within three months of arrival and receive your NIE with the certificate. Register at the town hall (empadronamiento) too; it is asked for everywhere. None of this starts the tax clock. Your Social Security registration or your A1 does.

The routes Germans use most:

• Posted by the employer with an A1. Common at German groups with Spanish subsidiaries and at companies sending someone to open a market. You keep your German contract and stay in the German social security system for up to 24 months under Regulation 883/2004. The A1’s date is the one that starts your six months.
• Spanish contract. Hired locally by a Spanish company or transferred to the German group’s Spanish entity. The Social Security registration starts the clock.
• Remote for a German employer. No permit is needed. The employer either registers with Spanish Social Security as a foreign employer or keeps you on an A1 where the conditions allow. Evidence of remote work (a letter, a contract clause) replaces the nomad permit non-EU citizens use.
• Own GmbH. As managing director paid by your own company, the director route or the remote route can apply. The larger risk is to the company: a GmbH managed from Spain can acquire a Spanish place of management or permanent establishment. Review that before the personal regime.

Leaving Germany properly

Unlimited German tax liability ends when you have neither a Wohnsitz nor your habitual abode in Germany. The Abmeldung at the registration office is the formal step, but it is not enough on its own. A Wohnsitz in German tax law is a home that is available to you. If you keep your flat, furnished, with a key, Germany can treat you as still resident and tax your worldwide income, including your Spanish salary. Rent it out on a proper lease or give it up. The Germany–Spain treaty tie-breaker would normally settle a dual-residence conflict, but people in the regime are taxed in Spain as non-residents and, as a rule, cannot obtain the Spanish residence certificate the treaty claim needs. Do not plan on the treaty to rescue a flat you kept.

Church tax ends with the Abmeldung. Tell your bank and broker that you are no longer resident; it changes the withholding treatment below.

Two German rules that follow you

Extended limited tax liability (§2 AStG). For German nationals who were unlimited taxable in at least five of the last ten years and move to a jurisdiction with low taxation or where they enjoy a preferential regime, while keeping substantial economic interests in Germany, Germany can tax more than it normally taxes non-residents, for ten years after the move. Spain is not a low-tax country in general, but the regime is a preferential taxation for the person who holds it, and German advisers treat it as such. The rule bites only if the German interests are substantial (a business, a large share of income or assets in Germany). If that is you, have a German adviser look at it before you file Modelo 149, not after.

Exit tax (§6 AStG). If you hold or held in the last five years at least 1% of a corporation, German or foreign, moving abroad is treated as a sale of those shares at market value. Since 2022 moving within the EU no longer gives an interest-free, indefinite deferral; you can apply to pay in seven annual instalments, and a return within seven years (extendable to twelve) can unwind it. Founders, employees with GmbH shares and people holding a family company are the usual cases. Fund and ETF holdings in a private portfolio are not affected. Valuations and the instalment application take time; start early.

What you keep in Germany

Under the regime, income from outside Spain that is not employment income is outside Spanish tax. That decides most of the German side.

A rented flat. Germany taxes non-residents on German rental income (limited tax liability, a German return each year). Spain does not tax it while you are in the regime. No double tax, no Spanish deductions.

Dividends and interest. German dividends carry 25% withholding plus solidarity surcharge. The treaty would reduce that to 15%, but the refund claim needs a Spanish residence certificate, which the regime generally does not give you. Expect the full withholding to stick during the regime. Spain does not tax the dividend while you are in the regime, so the withholding is the total cost. Gains on shares sold while non-resident are, as a rule, not German-taxed and not Spanish-taxed under the regime.

Pension. Contributions to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung are preserved; EU coordination adds your Spanish periods later. Riester contracts no longer suffer a clawback for a move inside the EU. Pension income drawn during the regime is outside Spanish tax; Germany taxes German pensions paid to non-residents.

Reporting. No Modelo 720 while in the regime.

The deadline that runs regardless

Modelo 149 is due within six months of your Spanish Social Security registration or, for posted workers, of the A1’s date. The A1 case is the one to watch: the certificate is often issued weeks before you actually move, and the six months count from the certificate.

What German movers most often get wrong

• Keeping the flat in Germany available “just in case”, and staying unlimited taxable there.
• Not noticing that the A1 date started the Spanish clock.
• Discovering the exit tax on the day the tax office asks about the GmbH shares.
• Expecting the treaty rate on German dividends without the residence certificate.
• Letting the GmbH be managed from Spain without checking the company’s own position.

Read next

• German remote employee in Barcelona, step by step
• Does it pay off with a salary under €60,000?