Beckham Law with a US LLC or S-corp: four setups compared

If you are an American who earns through your own company, the Beckham Law question is not “do I qualify?” but “which structure lets me qualify?”. The answer depends almost entirely on how the money reaches you. Below are the four structures people actually use, what the Spanish regime sees in each, and a worked example that shows why the salary level matters more than the entity. For the legal background, see how to get paid through a US LLC or S-corp without losing the regime.

This article is general information, not tax advice.

What the regime rewards

The Beckham regime (article 93 of the Spanish income tax law) taxes employment income at 24% up to €600,000 and 47% above. Most other income is taxed as if you were a non-resident, which in broad terms means only Spanish-source income. Three rules decide whether a company owner gets in:

• Self-employment is excluded. Income from an economic activity you carry on yourself does not get the regime.
• A permanent establishment in Spain rules it out. Income earned through one invalidates the regime (the Startup Law’s entrepreneur and qualified-professional routes aside).
• The cause of the move must be on the list. For a company owner the realistic ones are remote work for a foreign employer and becoming a company director.

Everything that follows is those three rules applied to real structures.

Structure 1: keep the single-member LLC

For US purposes a single-member LLC is usually disregarded: its profit is your profit, reported on Schedule C and subject to self-employment tax. Spain tends to see the same thing: a person running a business from Spain. That is the excluded case.

There is a second, well-known risk. When the only person managing and doing the work of the company lives in Spain, the Spanish Tax Agency may consider that the company has its place of effective management or a permanent establishment in Spain. It is the first point the professional reviews.

Verdict: does not work as it is.

Structure 2: S-corp paying you a real salary

An S-corp owner who works in the business is an employee. The IRS requires reasonable compensation as W-2 wages before any distribution. That salary, paid by a foreign company while you work remotely from Spain, is what can connect you to the remote-work route, which is presumed satisfied if you hold the digital nomad visa.

What makes it fragile is that the employer is you. The review focuses on three things:

• Substance: real clients and contracts in the company’s name, not a wrapper around your freelancing.
• Salary level: a salary consistent with the market for your role, not a token amount with the rest paid out as distributions.
• A genuine employment relationship: written contract, defined duties, regular payroll.

Verdict: can work, with more scrutiny than an ordinary employee.

Structure 3: Spanish SL and a directorship

Becoming a director of a Spanish SL is an express route in article 93. Since 2023 there is no shareholding limit for directors, except in asset-holding entities, where a stake of 25% or more closes the route. You avoid the argument about whether you are “really” an employee.

The price is a Spanish company with Spanish accounting, corporate tax and filings. And on the US side, a US person with a significant stake in a foreign corporation has an information return to file, Form 5471; your US tax preparer handles it.

Verdict: works legally; the cost is running two tax systems for one business.

Structure 4: an unrelated employer

The cleanest route is the least exciting: work as an employee for a company you do not own, a client that hires you or a US employer that lets you work from Spain. With the nomad visa, that is the standard remote-work case. It only works if the arrangement is genuinely employment and the employer has no presence in Spain.

Verdict: the most straightforward, if it fits your business.

An illustrative case

The numbers below are round and invented, for illustration only.

Mark is a US citizen with an S-corp consultancy that makes €150,000 a year before his pay. He moves to Barcelona on the digital nomad visa. Two versions of the same year:

• Version A: salary of €120,000. The savings calculator puts the general regime at about €41,500 on a €120,000 salary in Catalonia (single taxpayer, employment income only), against €28,800 under Beckham. About €12,700 a year on the salary.
• Version B: salary of €60,000 and €90,000 in distributions. On €60,000 the calculator shows a Beckham saving of only about €580 a year. The distributions are not employment income, so the 24% does not reach them. How Spain characterises them depends on the case, which is exactly why the diagnosis does not offer Guided filing here: confirm it with the professional. A low salary also weakens the argument that the employment relationship is real.

The takeaway is not a number. It is that the regime rewards salary, and a structure built to minimise salary for US purposes can work against you in Spain.

Summary

Social Security and the deadline

Whatever the structure, the US–Spain totalization agreement decides where you contribute, and the date of your Spanish Social Security registration or certificate of coverage starts the 6-month window to file Modelo 149. It runs date to date and there is no extension. Restructuring after that date does not reopen it, so decide the structure first. The deadline calculator gives you the exact day.

The US side

• Single-member LLC: the IRS treats the profit as yours and self-employment tax applies. Totalization agreements are what prevent paying Social Security in both countries.
• S-corp: reasonable compensation is an IRS rule, not a Spanish one, but the two pull in the same direction.
• Foreign Tax Credit or FEIE: Spanish tax on your salary can generally be credited against US tax on the same income; see FEIE vs Foreign Tax Credit under Beckham.
• Reporting: FBAR and FATCA continue, and with a Spanish company there is the Form 5471 information return, which your US tax preparer handles.

Where to start

The free diagnosis asks who pays you. If the answer is your own company, it will say so plainly: Guided filing is not offered and the next step is a professional review, because the structure must be checked before anything is filed. The guide to the regime and Beckham Law for US citizens cover the rest. If you already know you have an LLC or S-corp in the middle, you can ask for a review: we will look for a registered lawyer or tax advisor to take the case, with a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

Sources

• Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax, art. 93 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Law 28/2022 on start-ups (BOE)
• Royal Decree 1155/2024, Regulation of the Foreigners Act (BOE)
• Order HFP/1338/2023 approving Modelo 149 and Modelo 151 (BOE)
• IRS: Single member limited liability companies
• IRS: S corporation compensation and medical insurance issues
• IRS: About Form 5471
• IRS: Totalization agreements
• IRS: Foreign Tax Credit
• IRS: U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad