When the Beckham Law ends: what happens after the 6 years

The Beckham Law is not forever: it covers the year you become a tax resident plus the 5 following tax years. The day it ends, your tax life changes completely — and the difference between preparing two years ahead or discovering it at your first ordinary tax return can be worth tens of thousands of euros.

What exactly changes when you exit

Item	Under Beckham	After (ordinary income tax)
Employment income	24% flat (47% > €600,000)	Progressive scale, up to ~47%
Foreign income (dividends, gains, rent)	Generally not taxed in Spain	Worldwide taxation
Foreign assets	No Form 720	Form 720 mandatory
Wealth / large-fortunes tax	Spanish assets only	Worldwide assets
Personal allowances and deductions	Not available	Available

The sharpest change is usually not the salary rate but worldwide taxation: brokerage accounts, dividends from your old employer, the rented-out flat back home, funds… everything enters the Spanish return. And with it, Form 720 (the informational return on foreign assets) with its €50,000 thresholds per asset class.

The final-2-years window

The last two years of the regime are when the decisions get made, because you’re still playing under Beckham rules:

• Realise foreign gains. Latent gains on foreign-source shares or funds that are untaxed in Spain under the regime can be crystallised before the switch; afterwards they’d cost up to ~30%. (Always check the source country’s rule.)
• Pull deferred pay forward. Deferred bonuses, accelerable vests or option exercises can be concentrated into the 24% years.
• Reorganise the portfolio. Investment structures that are neutral for a non-resident can be tax-hostile for an ordinary resident (non-harmonised funds, some non-EU ETFs, foreign holding entities). Restructuring is cheaper before.
• Prepare Form 720. Inventorying accounts, securities and property in advance avoids filing late a return whose penalty history is infamous.

Stay or leave?

When the regime ends there are three paths:

1. Stay as an ordinary resident. The majority case for people with a life built here. The key is entering the general system with your assets already in order.
2. Leave Spain. Some high-mobility profiles relocate to another jurisdiction. Watch the exit tax (on latent gains in significant shareholdings, applicable once you’ve been resident 10 of the last 15 years — Beckham years count for this) and the timing of a mid-year departure.
3. Waive early. In specific cases (an income drop, strong family deductions) the general regime can beat Beckham. The waiver is filed in November–December and is irrevocable.

The most expensive mistake: doing nothing

Every year we see the same case: someone whose regime ended in December discovers in May that their US dividends are now taxable, that three accounts and a flat must go on Form 720, and that they sold shares in January — one month too late — paying 30% on something that would have been 0%. All avoidable with an exit plan.

That’s why our service includes a 6-year tax plan: the regime is enjoyed from day one, but it’s won or lost in how you leave it.