Beckham Law and family: spouse and children, and the family allowances you lose

When a family moves to Spain, the Beckham Law question has two halves. The first is who in the family can join the regime. The second, which people often skip, is what the family gives up: the general Spanish income tax is built with allowances and deductions for children, spouses and dependants, and the Beckham regime has none of them. This article covers both halves.

This article is general information, not tax advice.

Who can join

Since the Startup Law (Law 28/2022), article 93 of the Spanish income tax law extends the regime to the family of the person who qualifies:

• Your spouse.
• Your children under 25, or of any age if they have a disability.
• The other parent of your children, if you are not married.

Each family member must meet their own conditions. The main ones are (art. 93.3, which refers back to conditions a) and c) of art. 93.1 for the first and the last):

• No Spanish tax residence in the previous 5 tax years, checked for each person.
• Moving to Spain with you, or within the timing the law allows; confirm the exact window with the professional.
• A lower combined taxable base than yours. The family members’ taxable bases, added together, must stay below yours.
• No income through a permanent establishment in Spain.

And each of them files their own Modelo 149. Opting in is not automatic because you got the regime.

What a family member gains

A spouse or a child in the regime is taxed in Spain in broadly the same way as you: employment income at the regime’s rate, and most other income only when it has a Spanish source. For a family member without a salary, the practical effects are on the rest of their situation: in general, investment income from abroad stays outside Spanish tax, the Modelo 720 foreign-assets declaration does not apply to them, and wealth tax reaches only their Spanish assets. The professional confirms it for your case.

For a spouse who works in Spain, the combined-base condition matters: their income cannot outgrow yours. Whether it pays for them to opt in depends on both incomes, so run it for each person.

What the family loses

This is the half that changes the decision. The general regime (IRPF) adjusts the tax to the family through several mechanisms. Under the Beckham Law, none of them apply:

• The personal allowance of the taxpayer.
• The allowances for children, larger for younger children and for each additional child, and for dependent parents and disability.
• Joint filing, with its reduction for families.
• Family deductions: the state ones for working mothers of young children and large families, and the regional family deductions some communities add (births, childcare, school costs).

Our savings calculator compares both regimes for a single taxpayer with employment income only. It includes the personal allowance but not the family allowances or deductions. With children or a dependent spouse, the general regime is cheaper than the calculator shows, so the real saving is smaller than the figure you see.

An illustrative case

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

Ana moves to Madrid on a Spanish contract with a salary of €80,000. Her husband does not work, and they have two children, aged 2 and 5.

• The calculator’s figure: about €22,150 under the general regime against €19,200 under Beckham, for a single taxpayer. About €2,950 a year less.
• What the figure leaves out: the allowances for two children (one of them under 3), joint filing with a non-working spouse, and the state and Madrid family deductions. All of them lower the general-regime figure, and the Beckham figure stays where it is.
• The result: a margin of about €2,950 can shrink a lot or disappear. With the family’s real data, the general regime may be cheaper. Ask the professional to run both.

Change the facts and it shifts. The same €80,000 in Valencia, a steeper scale, shows about €4,700 a year in the calculator, a wider margin to absorb the family allowances. At €70,000 in Madrid the calculator shows only about €1,070, before any of them.

Summary

Three traps for families

1. Filing only for yourself. The family’s elections are separate, each with its own deadline. Write each date down; the deadline calculator helps with your own.
2. Deciding on a single-person comparison. For a family, the calculator figure is the most your salary can save, not what it will save.
3. The family arriving first. If your spouse and minor children live in Spain before you do, Spain can presume that you are resident too, which can move your first tax year.

Remember as well that the option is not a trial: renouncing the regime is possible, but it cannot be undone, so the family comparison belongs before Modelo 149.

Where to start

The free diagnosis asks whether a spouse or children are moving with you and want the regime, and lists the family documents in your checklist. The guide to the regime covers the requirements. If you have children and a moderate salary, the comparison with the general regime is worth doing carefully: you can ask for a review, and we will look for a registered lawyer or tax advisor to run both regimes with your family’s figures, with a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

Sources

• Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax, art. 93 and the personal and family allowances (consolidated text, BOE)
• Law 28/2022 on start-ups (BOE)
• Royal Decree 439/2007, Personal Income Tax Regulation, arts. 113 to 120 (BOE)
• Royal Decree 1155/2024, Regulation of the Foreigners Act (BOE)
• Order HFP/1338/2023 approving Modelo 149 and Modelo 151 (BOE)