Modelo 151 explained: your annual return under the Beckham regime

The Beckham Law has two forms. Modelo 149 is the one everyone talks about: the election, with its 6-month deadline. Modelo 151 is the one you live with: the annual income tax return you file every year you are in the regime. This article explains what goes into it and what does not.

This article is general information, not tax advice.

What Modelo 151 is

Modelo 151 is the special income tax return for people taxed under the regime of article 93 of the Spanish income tax law. It replaces the ordinary Modelo 100 for as long as the regime applies. The current version was approved, together with Modelo 149, by Order HFP/1338/2023.

The regime covers the tax year in which you become Spanish tax resident and the following five, so a full regime means six Modelo 151 returns.

Who files it and when

• Everyone in the regime, every year. The Tax Agency states that taxpayers who opt for the regime are obliged to file Modelo 151. There is no income threshold below which you are excused.
• Each person separately. There is no joint filing. A spouse or child who joined the regime files their own Modelo 151.
• In the general income tax period. It is filed where and when the ordinary return is filed: normally from early April to 30 June of the following year. Dates change slightly each year, so check the Tax Agency’s calendar.
• Electronically, with a digital certificate or Cl@ve.

What goes in

• All your employment income earned while in the regime: salary, bonuses, benefits in kind and equity, wherever the work was done. It is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 and 47% above. That €600,000 line applies to your whole general base, not just the salary.
• Spanish-source savings income: interest from Spanish banks, dividends from Spanish companies and gains on Spanish assets, taxed on the savings scale.
• Spanish property: rental income from a property in Spain, taxed on the gross amount, and the imputed income for a Spanish property that is not rented. Whether imputed income also applies to your main home is disputed between the Tax Agency’s administrative tribunal and the courts; confirm how to handle it with the professional.
• Withholding already deducted, which is credited against the result.

What stays out

• Foreign non-employment income: in general, dividends, interest, gains, rentals and private pensions from outside Spain are not declared on Modelo 151.
• Allowances and most deductions: the personal and family allowances, joint filing, the pension-plan reduction and the regional deductions all disappear.
• Losses: income is taxed without offsetting one item against another, so a loss does not reduce a gain.

What remains available is limited: the deduction for donations and a deduction for double taxation on employment income earned abroad, with a cap.

Modelo 151 and Modelo 100 side by side

An illustrative case

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

Priya has been in the regime since last year. Her Spanish salary is €100,000, she has a savings account at a Spanish bank, and she rents out her flat in Bristol.

• Salary: it goes on Modelo 151 at 24%. Our savings calculator puts the Beckham tax on €100,000 at €24,000.
• Spanish bank interest: it goes in, on the savings scale.
• The Bristol rent: foreign rental income, in general not declared in Spain under the regime. The UK may tax it.
• Withholding: her employer only started withholding at 24% in March, when she handed over the Tax Agency’s certificate; January and February were withheld on the general scale. The difference is settled on Modelo 151.

Her return is simple because her income is simple. Add a Spanish rental property, Spanish shares, a second payer or a year with a large vest, and it is not.

When the regime ends

• After the sixth tax year the regime ends on its own, with no filing. From the seventh you file Modelo 100 on worldwide income, report foreign assets on Modelo 720 when they cross the thresholds, and pay wealth tax on worldwide assets where your region charges it.
• If you renounce (a Modelo 149 filed in November or December), you leave the regime from the following year, for good.
• If you breach a requirement, you are excluded from that tax year, and have one month to report it with Modelo 149.
• If you leave Spain, you report the end of the posting with Modelo 149 within one month.

The years before the exit are the ones to plan, see what happens when the Beckham Law ends.

Summary

Filing it yourself, or not

If your only income is one salary and, at most, bank interest, Annual filing is designed for that case: data collection through a form, a review, and a guided filing of Modelo 151 with your own credentials. It is described on the Guided filing page. With rentals, dividends, gains or more than one payer, you can ask for a review: we will look for a registered lawyer or tax advisor to prepare your return, with a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

Sources

• Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax, art. 93 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Royal Decree 439/2007, Personal Income Tax Regulation, arts. 113 to 120 (BOE)
• Order HFP/1338/2023 approving Modelo 149 and Modelo 151 (BOE)
• Spanish Tax Agency: special return model for the regime (practical income tax manual)
• Spanish Tax Agency: Modelo 151 procedure