The Beckham regime for the spouse and children: when the whole family can hold it, and when it backfires

For most of the regime’s history the Beckham Law was a one-person affair. The person with the job got the 24% rate, and the spouse who followed them to Spain, the trailing spouse in expat language, stayed in the general Spanish income tax with worldwide income, the Modelo 720 and wealth tax on everything they owned.

Since 2023 that has changed: the whole family can hold the regime. What most explanations stop short of is the condition that comes attached. It is one sentence in the law, it has to be met every year, and it can take the entire family out of the regime in a year when nobody did anything wrong.

This article is general information, not tax advice.

Who in the family can opt in

The Startup Law (Law 28/2022) added a third paragraph to article 93 of the Spanish income tax law (LIRPF). Alongside the person who qualifies, whom the regulation calls the main taxpayer, the following can opt in as associated taxpayers:

• The spouse.
• Children under 25, or of any age if they have a disability.
• The other parent of those children, when the couple is not married.

That list is closed. Parents, siblings and an unmarried partner without children in common are not on it. Relationship, age and disability are assessed on the day each person files their election, so a child who is 24 when they opt in is in.

Divorce does not break it: the regulation says expressly that the requirements are not considered breached because a marriage ends in divorce or annulment (art. 118.4 of the regulation, RIRPF).

The four conditions each person must meet

Each family member qualifies or fails on their own. There is no family package. The conditions are in art. 93.3 LIRPF:

1. The timing of the move. They can arrive with you, before you or after you. If they arrive before, they must not become tax resident in Spain before your first year under the regime. If they arrive after, they must do so before your first year under the regime has ended (art. 113.3 RIRPF).
2. They become tax resident in Spain.
3. No Spanish tax residence in the previous five tax years, checked person by person, and no income through a permanent establishment in Spain.
4. The combined-base rule, which gets its own section below.

Condition 1 is the one people miss. If your regime starts in 2026 and your spouse stays behind to let the children finish the school year, arriving in January 2027 is too late: your first regime year has already ended. The five-year rule catches returning Spaniards: a Spanish spouse who came back after three years abroad cannot opt in, even if you can.

There is a second timing trap, and it runs the other way. Under art. 9.1 LIRPF, Spain presumes you are resident if your spouse (not legally separated) and your dependent minor children live here habitually. A family that settles months ahead of you can pull your residence into an earlier year, before your job starts, which can move your first year or even put you outside the regime. Plan the order of arrival as carefully as the dates.

Each person files their own Modelo 149

Your election does not carry anyone with it. Each family member files their own Modelo 149, and the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) requires the main taxpayer’s election to be filed first: the associated taxpayer’s form identifies yours and states the relationship, with a document that proves it (art. 119.3 RIRPF).

Their window is the later of two dates (art. 116.1.b RIRPF):

• Six months from their own entry into Spain, or
• Your own window, six months from the start date on your Social Security registration.

From then on, each person files their own Modelo 151 every year, and the regime lasts for them as long as it lasts for you (art. 115 RIRPF). If you renounce the regime or are excluded from it, the whole family goes out with you.

The catch nobody mentions: the combined-base rule

This is the sentence that matters, art. 93.3.d LIRPF: in each tax year of the regime, the sum of the taxable bases of the associated taxpayers must be lower than the taxable base of the main taxpayer.

Under the regime, a taxable base is not total income. It is what the regime taxes: all employment income, wherever the work is done, plus income with a Spanish source, such as a rental in Spain, Spanish dividends or a gain on Spanish shares. Foreign investment income is not in it. That has two consequences:

• A spouse with no salary, or whose only income is a US brokerage account, has a base close to zero. The rule is easy to meet.
• A spouse with a salary has a base equal to that salary, and it is compared with yours, every year, for six years.

Here is why it bites. If the rule fails in any year, all the associated taxpayers are excluded together, with effect from the start of that tax year (art. 118.4 RIRPF). And art. 118.5 adds that anyone excluded can never opt in again. One year is enough. You, the main taxpayer, keep your regime; your family loses theirs for the rest of the six years.

Nobody needs to make a mistake for this to happen. What moves the comparison is ordinary life:

• Your income drops. Unpaid leave, a sabbatical, a gap between jobs, a switch to part-time, a year with no bonus.
• Their income rises. A promotion, a new job, a large bonus in one year.
• A one-off Spanish gain. Selling a flat in Spain or shares in a Spanish company puts the gain into their base for that year.
• The children start earning. Every associated taxpayer counts towards the sum, including a 22-year-old with a Spanish job.

And you only find out at the end of the year, when it is too late to fix. If the family’s incomes are anywhere near each other, look at the numbers in the autumn, while there is still time to act.

A spouse with their own income changes the answer

The right answer depends almost entirely on what the spouse earns, and where.

A spouse with no income, or only foreign investments. This is where opting in clearly helps. Their foreign dividends, interest and gains generally stay outside Spanish tax, they do not file the Modelo 720 on their foreign assets, and wealth tax reaches only what they own in Spain. Their base is close to zero, so the combined-base rule is not a worry. A family member who does not opt in and lives here is an ordinary resident: worldwide income and the Modelo 720 apply to them.

A spouse with a moderate Spanish salary. Opting in is often a loss. The regime taxes their salary at a flat 24% with no personal allowance, no deductions and no joint filing. Our savings calculator puts a salary of €40,000 in Madrid at about €7,240 under the general regime against €9,600 under Beckham, for a single taxpayer: about €2,360 a year more inside the regime. On top of that, their salary now counts against yours every year.

A spouse who qualifies in their own right. If your spouse moves to Spain because of their own employment contract, a posting or a remote job, they meet art. 93.1 by themselves. They can opt in as a main taxpayer, with their own six-month window from their own Social Security registration and no combined-base rule tying them to you. Two main taxpayers, each with their own regime. Whether a spouse who only finds a job after arriving can still opt in as a main taxpayer depends on the facts; check it with the professional.

A spouse who is self-employed in Spain. Self-employment in Spain usually means income through a permanent establishment, which the regime excludes (art. 93.1.c, which also applies to family members). A spouse who becomes self-employed after opting in is excluded individually: the rest of the family keeps the regime (art. 118.4 RIRPF).

A spouse with shares or equity. Foreign shares sit outside the base; shares in a Spanish company, or stock options from a Spanish employer, do not. A large vest or sale in one year can tip the comparison.

An illustrative case

The numbers below are round and invented, for illustration only. Tax figures come from our calculator, for a single taxpayer with employment income only.

Daniel moves to Madrid on a Spanish contract at €110,000. His wife Claire gets a Spanish job at €70,000, and they have two children with no income. All four opt in, with Daniel as the main taxpayer.

• Years 1 and 2. Claire’s €70,000 is below Daniel’s €110,000. The rule holds. In the calculator, the regime saves Daniel about €8,640 a year and Claire about €1,070.
• Year 3. Daniel takes six months of unpaid leave. His base falls to about €55,000, now below Claire’s €70,000. Claire and both children are out of the regime from 1 January of year 3, for good. Claire’s salary goes back to the general scale for the whole year, after a year of withholding at 24%: the difference arrives with her annual return. Her US brokerage account becomes taxable in Spain, and by 31 March of the following year she has a Modelo 720 to file if her foreign assets cross the thresholds.

Now change one fact. If Claire’s job had been what brought her to Spain, she could have opted in as a main taxpayer in her own right, with the children associated to Daniel. Daniel’s unpaid leave would have cost the children nothing, because they have no income, and Claire’s regime would not depend on his salary at all.

Summary

Before anyone files a Modelo 149

1. Who qualifies under art. 93.1 by themselves? If both of you do, compare two main taxpayers with a main taxpayer plus an associate.
2. Who has the higher and steadier base for six years? Not this year’s salary: the one least likely to fall.
3. Does the spouse’s income come from Spain, or from investments abroad? That decides whether opting in helps them or costs them.
4. When does each person arrive? Check the timing condition and the family presumption before booking flights.
5. What does the family give up? The regime has no family allowances. Read Beckham Law and family: the allowances you lose before deciding.

The election cannot be tested and undone: renouncing the regime is possible, but it is final, and so is an exclusion.

Where to start

The free diagnosis asks whether a spouse or children are moving with you and adds the family documents to your checklist. The deadline calculator gives you your own Modelo 149 date, which also sets the latest date for your family. If your spouse has their own income, or both of you could qualify, you can ask for a review: we will look for a registered lawyer or tax advisor to run the options with your family’s figures, with a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

Sources

• Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax, arts. 9 and 93 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Royal Decree 439/2007, Personal Income Tax Regulation, arts. 113 to 120, as amended by Royal Decree 1008/2023 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Royal Decree 1008/2023 amending the Personal Income Tax Regulation (BOE)
• Law 28/2022 on start-ups (BOE)
• Order HFP/1338/2023 approving Modelo 149 and Modelo 151 (BOE)
• AEAT: instructions for completing Modelo 149
• Cuatrecasas: legal flash on the new regulation for impatriates (in Spanish), 11 December 2023