RSUs, stock options and bonuses under the Beckham Law: what nobody tells you

For a tech employee, salary is only part of the package: RSUs, stock options and bonuses can be half the compensation. And that is exactly where the Beckham Law can shine, or produce five-figure surprises if the timing isn’t planned. For a practical comparison with worked numbers, see Beckham Law and stock options / RSUs: 24% vs the general scale.

The general rule: equity is salary

Under the regime, employment income is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 per year and 47% on the excess. RSUs are taxed as employment income at vesting; options at exercise (on the spread between value and strike). Illustrative, round numbers: in our savings calculator, a €150,000 salary in Catalonia pays about €19,500 less under Beckham than under the general regime; add a €200,000 vest in the same year (€350,000 in total) and the difference is about €67,900 (single taxpayer, employment income only). Run your own figures.

Trap 1: vesting that crosses borders

RSUs vest over years. If part of the vesting period corresponds to work performed in another country before the move, that country may claim its share (the US, UK and Germany do so systematically), and Spain’s treatment of the “imported” part requires careful treaty and source-rule analysis.

Practical advice: before moving, map your vesting calendar, which tranches vest when, and which period of work they correspond to. Sometimes shifting the relocation a few months radically changes the combined bill.

Trap 2: the bonus year

Last year’s bonus usually pays out in March. If you move in January and receive, in March, a bonus earned for work performed abroad the previous year, its treatment depends on the treaty and where the work was done. Badly planned, you can end up double-withheld and spend months clawing it back.

Trap 3: the €600,000 threshold

The 47% on the excess turns “accumulation years” into a problem: when one tax year concentrates salary + bonus + a large vest + an option exercise, crossing the threshold is easy. Spreading option exercises across tax years, or coordinating sales and vests, can keep each year under it.

Trap 4: selling the shares

The 24% is for employment income. When you sell vested shares, the gain is a capital gain:

• Foreign-source (shares of your US parent, held abroad): generally not taxed in Spain under the regime, one of Beckham’s great quiet advantages. Caveat: the source country may have its own rule.
• Spanish-source: taxed on the savings scale.

This makes the regime’s 6 years a strategic window for realising gains that would later, as an ordinary resident taxed on worldwide income, cost up to 30%.

What to do before signing your relocation

1. Full inventory: granted RSUs, vesting calendar, options and strike prices, ESPP.
2. A year-by-year simulation of the regime’s 6 tax years, flagging the years that brush €600,000.
3. Coordination with your origin country for the “mixed” vesting tranches.
4. A sales plan: what to realise during the regime, and what after.

If your package includes equity, this planning is worth doing before you file Modelo 149. The free diagnosis flags equity and does not offer Guided filing in that case; you can ask for a review: we will look for a registered lawyer or tax advisor to take it, with a fixed quote before you commit. This article is general information, not tax advice.