This is not tax advice. Cross-border outcomes turn on facts this page cannot know: your visa category, your income mix, where your employer is incorporated, what you own and when you bought it. Use this to ask a qualified cross-border accountant better questions, and verify every figure against Spain's tax authority and, for the US side, the IRS guidance for citizens abroad.
Your position in Spain
Cross 183 days in a calendar year and Spain taxes your worldwide income. The same follows if the main base of your economic interests is in Spain, and residence is presumed if your spouse and minor children live there. Rates are progressive and split between a state scale topping out at 24.5% above 300,000 euros and a regional scale set by each autonomous community. The quoted 47% top rate is the state scale plus the reference regional scale; the real top rate runs from about 45% in Madrid to roughly 54% in Valencia.
The main relief for arriving professionals is article 93, the Beckham regime. It taxes employment income at a flat 24% up to 600,000 euros, and 47% above, for the year you move plus five more. Since 2023 it covers remote workers, entrepreneurs and qualified professionals, so most nomad permit holders can elect it on Modelo 149 within six months of registering with social security.
You still file a US return every year. The 2026 foreign earned income exclusion is $132,900, but because Spanish effective rates usually exceed US rates, the foreign tax credit on Form 1116 is often the better tool, and the two interact badly together. The 1990 treaty and its 2013 protocol prevent double taxation, and the social security agreement in force since 1 April 1988 keeps you out of double contributions. Add FBAR, FATCA and Modelo 720, and budget for a cross-border accountant.
The United States does not stop taxing you
The US taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Moving to Spain adds a second tax system; it does not remove the first one. Most Americans abroad end up owing little or nothing to the IRS, but that outcome is produced by filing correctly, not by leaving.
Two mechanisms produce that result. The foreign earned income exclusion removes foreign wages and self-employment profit up to an annually indexed cap, but reaches earned income only and does nothing about self-employment tax. The foreign tax credit offsets US tax dollar-for-dollar with income tax actually paid to Spain, reaches passive income the exclusion cannot, and can leave credits to carry forward. You cannot apply both to the same dollar. Separately, FBAR and FATCA reporting is triggered by account balances rather than by tax owed, and carries penalties out of all proportion to the tax at stake.
The full mechanics are the same wherever you move, so they live in one place: US taxes when you live abroad covers the exclusion tests, the credit, treaties and the saving clause, FBAR and FATCA thresholds, self-employment tax and state residency. The rest of this page is what Spain specifically changes.
Which mechanism fits Spain
Spain's top rate of 47% sits at or above the US federal top rate of 37%. Local tax is doing the heavy lifting, so the foreign tax credit is the mechanism worth modelling first: it usually eliminates the US liability outright and leaves excess credits to carry forward.
Self-employment in Spain
A totalization agreement covers Spain, so a self-employed American here can normally be assigned to one social security system and exempted from the other, evidenced by a certificate of coverage. Arrange it at the start of the engagement, not at filing time.
US-side official references: FEIE ·Foreign tax credit ·FBAR ·FATCA reporting ·Totalization agreements
Which relief mechanism reaches which income
The most common planning error is assuming the exclusion covers everything. It covers one category. This table maps each kind of income against the mechanisms available to you, with the last column set to Spain's recorded agreement status.
| Income type | Foreign earned income exclusion | Foreign tax credit | Treaty position for Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wages earned while living in Spain | Yes, up to the annual cap, if you pass the residence or presence test | Yes, on anything above the cap or not excluded | The employment income article assigns the primary taxing right |
| Self-employment profit | Income tax only. Self-employment tax survives the exclusion | Yes, against income tax on the same profit | Totalization decides which social security system you pay into |
| Dividends and interest | No. It reaches earned income only | Yes, for foreign tax actually paid on it | Dividend and interest articles usually cap withholding |
| Capital gains on investments | No | Yes, where a foreign tax is paid on the same gain | A gains article assigns the taxing right by asset type |
| Rental income from property | No | Yes, for foreign tax charged on foreign property | Immovable property is normally taxed where it sits |
| Pensions and retirement account withdrawals | No | Yes, where foreign tax is charged on the withdrawal | The pension article decides. Read it before you draw |
| US Social Security benefits | No | Depends which country is entitled to tax them | Many treaties assign them to one country only |
Read the rows against your own income mix. Someone on a local salary and nothing else uses one row of this table. Someone with a brokerage account, a rental at home and vesting equity uses five, and each one can land in a different country.
What Spain's agreements with the US actually change
The general mechanics above apply to every American abroad. What differs country by country is which of them Spain has an agreement to soften. Of the 15 countries covered on this site, 15 have a US income tax treaty, 12 have a totalization agreement and 12 have both. Spain is the case below.
| Issue | Status for Spain | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Double tax on employment income | Treaty in force | A US–Spain income tax treaty exists, so each type of income has an assigned taxing country and there is a defined route to relief rather than an argument. You still file both returns; the treaty decides who taxes what first. |
| Being treated as resident by both countries | Tie-breaker available | Treaties carry a residence tie-breaker: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality. It gives you a defensible answer in the year you move, when both countries can plausibly claim you. |
| Social security and payroll contributions | Totalization in force | A totalization agreement covers the US and Spain, so the same earnings are not charged to both social security systems. It also lets contribution periods in each country count toward qualifying for a benefit in the other. |
| Self-employment and freelancing | Certificate of coverage route | Where an agreement applies, a certificate of coverage from the system you do pay into is what you show the other one. Get it before the first invoice, not after the first assessment. |
| Pensions, retirement accounts and investment income | Treaty articles apply | Treaty articles usually address pensions, dividends, interest and capital gains separately from wages. Read the specific articles: a treaty that solves your salary can leave your brokerage account taxed in a way you did not expect. |
Treaty and totalization status is recorded from the sources listed at the foot of this page. Agreements are amended and protocols enter force on their own timetable, so check the current text before taking a position on a return.
Two numbers worth running before you move
Consumption tax, which nobody models
Income tax gets the attention. Consumption tax takes its slice every month without appearing on any return. A US household spending the national average net salary of $4,230 a month would need roughly $2,961 a month in Spain for the same basket, at Spain's overall price level. Of that, the VAT embedded in the prices is up to about $514 a month, against roughly $295 in embedded sales tax at home.
| Measure | United States | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| Headline consumption tax rate | 7.5% | 21% |
| Equivalent monthly basket | $4,230 | $2,961 |
| Tax inside that basket, per month | $295 | $514 |
| Per year | $3,540 | $6,168 |
A ceiling, not a bill. It assumes the whole net salary is spent, and in practice rent sits outside VAT in most systems while food, medicine, books and transport often carry reduced or zero rates, so real exposure lands below this line. The direction of the gap is the useful part: about $219 more per month than at home, before any reduced rate applies.
Marginal rate, read honestly
Spain's top personal rate is 47% against a US federal top rate of 37%, a gap of +10 points. That comparison is weaker than it looks in both directions. The US figure excludes state income tax, which can add several points on top. The Spanish figure bites at its own threshold, which may be far lower or far higher in income terms than the US bracket it is being compared to. Top rates tell you the shape of a system, not your bill. Model your actual income against the brackets on the official site before you decide anything.
How Spain compares on tax across our dataset
Spain ranks 7 of 15 on headline top personal rate, lowest first, with 8 countries charging a higher top rate. Every row links to that country's own tax page.
| Country | Top rate | VAT | US treaty | Totalization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States (baseline) | 37% | 7.5% | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Mexico | 35% | 16% | Yes | No |
| Thailand | 35% | 7% | Yes | No |
| New Zealand | 39% | 15% | Yes | No |
| Italy | 43% | 22% | Yes | Yes |
| Australia | 45% | 10% | Yes | Yes |
| United Kingdom | 45% | 20% | Yes | Yes |
| Spain · this page | 47% | 21% | Yes | Yes |
| Norway | 47.4% | 25% | Yes | Yes |
| Germany | 47.5% | 19% | Yes | Yes |
| Portugal | 48% | 23% | Yes | Yes |
| Netherlands | 49.5% | 21% | Yes | Yes |
| Ireland | 52% | 23% | Yes | Yes |
| Sweden | 52.4% | 25% | Yes | Yes |
| Canada | 53.5% | 5% | Yes | Yes |
| Japan | 55.9% | 10% | Yes | Yes |
Headline rates only. They ignore social contributions, local surtaxes, wealth and inheritance taxes, and the very different incomes at which each top rate starts. A country with a high top rate that begins at a high threshold can cost a middle earner less than one with a lower rate that begins early.
The sequence of tax events in your move year
The move year is the messy one: part-year residence in two systems, two calendars, and deadlines that do not line up. This is the order things generally happen in.
- Before you leaveFix the date you stop being a US state resident and the date you land, because almost every later question is answered by those two dates. Take a snapshot of account balances, unrealised gains and any equity vesting schedule. Selling before you become Spain tax resident is a different transaction from selling after.
- The day you arriveRecord the arrival date against something durable, such as a boarding pass, a lease or a registration receipt, because you may have to evidence it years later. It is the day the clock starts on the rule that decides your Spanish tax residency: You are a Spanish tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year (sporadic absences count unless you prove tax residence elsewhere), or if the main base of your economic activities or interests is in Spain. Residence is also presumed if your non-separated spouse and minor children habitually live in Spain. Residents are taxed on worldwide income.
- Weeks 1 to 8: register locallyA local tax number is usually a precondition for a bank account, a lease and a payroll run, so it happens early whether or not you feel like a taxpayer yet. Registering does not by itself make you resident; the residency rule above does.
- First local filingYour first Spanish return covers only the part of the year you were resident, in most systems, and it is the return where split-year treatment is claimed if the country offers it. Deadlines rarely match the US calendar.
- First US filing from abroadTaxpayers whose tax home is abroad get an automatic extension beyond the April deadline, and a further extension on request. The extension is for filing, not for paying: interest runs from the original date.
- The same season: information returnsThe FBAR and, above higher thresholds, Form 8938 are filed on their own schedules and carry their own penalties. They report balances, not income, so people who owe nothing still miss them and still get penalised.
- Month 12 onwardThe bona fide residence test needs an uninterrupted tax year abroad, so the first full calendar year is often the first year you can use it. Until then the physical presence test, 330 full days abroad in a 12-month window, is usually the only route to the exclusion.
State residency: the bill people do not expect
Federal filing is the obligation everyone knows about. The one that catches people is the state they left. States set their own residency rules, and several test domicile, meaning your permanent home in intent, rather than where you physically are. Under a domicile test you can spend a full year in Spain and still be assessed as a resident of your old state, on your worldwide income, with none of the federal relief above available against it. The FEIE and the foreign tax credit are federal mechanisms, and a state is not required to follow them.
What severing residency usually rests on, and what to be able to evidence:
- Ending the lease or selling the home, rather than keeping it available to you.
- Surrendering the state driver's licence and voter registration.
- Moving vehicle registration, professional licences and mailing address out of state.
- Where dependants live and where school-age children are enrolled.
- Day counts, kept contemporaneously. A calendar reconstructed three years later convinces nobody.
- Filing a final part-year return for the state, which is what formally closes the file.
Check your specific state's rule before you leave, not after. It is easier to establish that you left cleanly on the way out than to argue it from Madrid two years later.
What to keep, from day one
- A day-count log with arrival and departure dates for every trip, including trips back to the US. Both the physical presence test and Spain's own residency rule are decided on days.
- Local payslips and the annual Spanish tax assessment, which is the evidence of foreign tax paid that a credit claim rests on.
- Year-end statements for every non-US account, plus the maximum balance during the year, which is what the FBAR asks for and what banks rarely show by default.
- Cost basis and acquisition dates for anything you owned before you moved, in USD at the time.
- Your certificate of coverage, if a totalization agreement applies to you.
- The exchange rates you used, and the source of them, applied consistently across the year.
Tax questions about Spain
Will I pay tax twice if I move to Spain?
No, but you will file twice. Once you spend more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year you become a Spanish tax resident on worldwide income. You still file a US return as a citizen. The 1990 US-Spain treaty and its 2013 protocol, plus the 2026 foreign earned income exclusion of $132,900 and the foreign tax credit, prevent actual double taxation. Because Spanish rates typically exceed US rates, most people rely on the credit rather than the exclusion.
Do I lose US Social Security or have to pay into two systems?
No. The US-Spain social security agreement, signed in 1986 and in force since 1 April 1988, assigns you to one system at a time. A certificate of coverage keeps a temporarily posted employee or a self-employed American paying into US Social Security and out of Spanish contributions, or vice versa. The agreement also lets you combine non-overlapping US and Spanish contribution periods to qualify for a pension in either country. Your US benefits are payable in Spain.
What is the Beckham law and can I use it?
It is the special impatriate regime under article 93 of Spain's income tax law. It taxes employment income at a flat 24% up to 600,000 euros a year, and 47% above, for the year you become resident plus the following five, instead of the progressive scale that tops out near 47% to 54%. Since 2023 it covers remote workers, entrepreneurs and qualified professionals as well as posted employees, so most digital nomad permit holders qualify. You elect it on Modelo 149 within six months of social security registration.
Sources and review
The Spain-specific figures on this page, meaning the residency rule, treaty and totalization status, rates and notes, come from the sources below. The general US mechanics are described from published IRS, FinCEN and SSA guidance, linked inline above.
What these numbers are. The headline figures were re-derived from primary sources during review. Some category indices could not be matched to a published statistic and are reasoned estimates, marked as such in the list below. Where a source entry says a value is derived, estimated or crowd-sourced, that is exactly what it is: no international body publishes a like-for-like index for every category, and private insurance premiums are not published at all in most countries. Rent figures are national market averages, so a capital city will run above them. How the dataset is built.
- Eurostat, Purchasing power parities and price level indices based on COICOP 2018 (prc_ppp_ind_1), reference year 2025, dataset updated 9 July 2026: price level index for household final consumption expenditure (E011) with EU27=100 is 91.6 for Spain and 133.3 for the United States, putting Spain at 68.7% of the US level at 2025 average exchange rates. The 2025 PLIs embed the ECB 2025 annual average of $1.12998 per euro; restated at the 4 September 2026 reference rate of $1.1622 the ratio is about 70.7, which is the basis for the headline col_index_vs_us of 70. On the same dataset for 2024 the values were Spain 91.3 and United States 143.3, a ratio of 63.7, so the narrowing of the gap is an exchange-rate effect — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, price level indices by analytical category (prc_ppp_ind_1), 2025, Spain against EU27=100: food and non-alcoholic beverages 95.3, food 94.9, restaurants and accommodation services 85.4, transport 88.1, passenger transport services 82.5, fuels and lubricants for personal transport 92.3, electricity, gas and other fuels 93.0, health 94.2, clothing and footwear 89.4. These are Spain-versus-Europe figures. Eurostat carries the United States only at the aggregate level (2025: household final consumption 133.3, actual individual consumption 143.4); every per-category cell for the US is empty, so no published statistic gives a Spain-versus-US index for a single category. groceries_index_vs_us 88, dining_index_vs_us 70 and transport_index_vs_us 100 are therefore editorial estimates, not derived numbers, and they are deliberately not a mechanical rescaling of the Eurostat category positions by the overall Spain/US ratio. That arithmetic would give roughly 74 for groceries, 66 for dining and 68 for transport, and it fails in a predictable direction because it assumes the US sits at 133.3 in every category: US food and US motoring are cheap relative to the US overall price level, while US restaurant service, which adds a tip on top of the menu price, is expensive relative to it. The published estimates move each category away from the mechanical figure accordingly. Treat them as informed judgement with an error band of several points, which is a large part of why data_confidence on this page is medium rather than high. The directly sourced numbers on this page are the overall index, net pay, utilities, the tax rates and the visa thresholds, with rent taken from published listing indices rather than an official statistic — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Comparative price levels of consumer goods and services (Statistics Explained), reference year 2025, published 17 June 2026: methodology and country ranking for the price level indices used above. Note that this article covers 36 European countries and does not include the United States; the US comparison comes from the prc_ppp_ind_1 database entries cited above — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Annual net earnings (earn_nt_net), Spain 2025: single person without children at 100% of average earnings, gross 35,076 euros and net 27,040.72 euros a year, which is 2,253 euros a month or about $2,620 at $1.1622 per euro — accessed September 4, 2026
- European Central Bank, euro reference exchange rate US dollar: 1.1622 on 4 September 2026, the rate used for every currency conversion on this page; 2024 annual average 1.08238 — accessed September 4, 2026
- idealista rental price report, August 2026: Spain 15.1 euros per square metre per month, Madrid 23.3, Barcelona 20.2, Palma 19.3, Malaga 16.5, Valencia 16.3, Bilbao 15.7. Derivation for a 55 square metre one-bedroom: rent_1bed_center_usd uses the mean of Madrid and Barcelona, 21.75 euros per square metre, giving 1,196 euros or $1,390; rent_1bed_outside_usd uses the national average of 15.1 euros per square metre, giving 831 euros or $965. These are advertised asking prices aggregated across each municipality rather than central districts only, so the central figure is a conservative floor for a genuinely central Madrid or Barcelona flat — accessed September 4, 2026
- Zumper National Rent Report, updated 25 August 2026: US national median one-bedroom rent $1,515, used as the US baseline for the rent index. rent_index_vs_us of 77 is the mean of the two Spanish one-bedroom figures on this page, $1,390 central and $965 outside the centre, divided by that $1,515 median, which gives 77.7. Zumper aggregates its own listing inventory rather than surveying households, so this is market listing data, not an official statistic; no permitted official source publishes a comparable US median asking rent for a one-bedroom unit — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Estadistica Continua de Poblacion, 1 April 2026 provisional: Spain's resident population 49,687,120 — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Real Decreto 126/2026 fixing the 2026 Spanish minimum wage at 40.70 euros a day, 1,221 euros a month and 17,094 euros a year, the basis for the digital nomad visa income threshold — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Persona fisica residente en Espana: the 183-day rule, centre of economic interests test and family presumption for Spanish tax residence — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Gravamen estatal (IRPF 2025 manual): state general scale, 24.5% above 300,000 euros, which combined with the reference regional scale gives the 47% headline top rate — accessed September 4, 2026
- Agencia Tributaria, Regimen especial de impatriados (art. 93 LIRPF): flat 24% on employment income up to 600,000 euros and 47% above, for the year of arrival plus five tax periods — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Ley 37/1992 del Impuesto sobre el Valor Anadido, consolidated text in force in 2026, article 90.Uno: 'El Impuesto se exigira al tipo del 21 por ciento', with reduced rates of 10% and 4% under article 91. Link is to the consolidated version; the 15% and 6% rates quoted in the 1992 preamble are the original 1993 rates and are long superseded — accessed September 4, 2026
- IRS, tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026: foreign earned income exclusion $132,900, up from $130,000 for 2025 — accessed September 4, 2026
- IRS, Spain tax treaty documents: the 1990 income tax convention, its technical explanation, and the 2013 protocol amending it — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Convenio sobre Seguridad Social entre Espana y los Estados Unidos de America, signed in Madrid on 30 September 1986 and in force since 1 April 1988 (the US-Spain totalization agreement) — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Sanidad, Convenio especial de prestacion de asistencia sanitaria: 60 euros a month under 65 and 157 euros a month at 65 or over, requiring one year of prior residence and municipal padron registration, excluding the pharmacy benefit — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Seguridad Social y Migraciones (Unidad de Grandes Empresas), International teleworkers: the official digital nomad residence authorisation page — accessed September 4, 2026
- Consulate General of Spain in Washington DC, non-lucrative residence visa: 400% of IPREM financial requirement, $140 visa fee for US citizens plus a $13 residence permit fee from 1 January 2026, three-month legal decision period — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion (UGE), Highly qualified professionals authorisation under Law 14/2013: job offer plus degree or three years of comparable experience — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion (UGE), Entrepreneurs authorisation under Law 14/2013: ENISA assessment of an innovative project of special economic interest, with no minimum investment or job creation threshold — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Autorizacion de estancia por estudios: duration matched to the course, 100% of IPREM per month in financial means, and up to 30 hours a week of permitted work — accessed September 4, 2026
- Ministerio de Inclusion, Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union: five-year card for family members of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, fee set at the level Spaniards pay for a national ID card — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, Electricity prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_204): Spain 0.2669 euros per kWh including all taxes and levies, band DC, second half of 2025, which is about $0.310 — accessed September 4, 2026
- US EIA, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.3: US average residential electricity price 18.16 cents per kWh year to date 2026 — accessed September 4, 2026
- US EIA FAQ: in 2022 the average US residential electric utility customer used 10,791 kWh a year, about 899 kWh a month. At 18.16 cents per kWh that is about $163 a month. Quoted as the US electricity-only comparison; the US side of utilities_index_vs_us is the four-item basket in the BLS entry below — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat complete energy balances (nrg_bal_c): Spanish household final electricity consumption 75,158 GWh in 2024, divided by 19,504,800 Spanish private households (Eurostat lfst_hhnhtych, 2024), gives 3,853 kWh per household per year. At 0.2669 euros per kWh that is 1,028 euros a year, about 86 euros or $100 a month. This is used on the page only to explain why Spanish bills are lower than the Spanish unit price implies; it is not the basis for utilities_index_vs_us, which is derived from the INE household budget survey entry below — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2025 (published 25 June 2026), table 'Gasto por codigos de gasto (5 digitos COICOP 2018)', gasto medio por hogar: electricidad 868.92 euros a year, gas natural por redes 235.36, hidrocarburos licuados 45.51, combustibles liquidos 86.23, carbon 1.65, madera y pellets 16.68, carbon vegetal 0.18, giving the published subgroup 04.5 (electricidad, gas y otros combustibles) total of 1,254.63 euros; suministro de agua por red 234.20, recogida de basuras 49.89 and recogida de aguas residuales 63.45, a water-sewerage-refuse total of 347.54 euros. Combined that is 1,602.17 euros a year, 133.51 euros or $155.17 a month at the ECB rate of $1.1622, and $155.17 divided by the $210 US baseline gives utilities_index_vs_us of 74. The consumption assumption is the actual national average Spanish household (about 2.5 people, all dwelling types and tenures, EPF survey-reported spending, not a modelled apartment). Deliberately excluded: subgroup 04.4.4.1 gastos comunitarios, 602.07 euros a year, the Spanish community charge, because it is the analogue of a US HOA fee rather than a utility. Where a building has calefaccion central the heating and the common water are billed inside that community charge instead, so for those households the like-for-like total is higher than 133.51 euros and this index understates their bill — accessed September 4, 2026
- INE, Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2025, table 'Gasto por subgrupos de gasto (3 digitos COICOP 2018/EPF)': cross-check on the five-digit detail above. Gasto medio por hogar for subgroup 04.4 (suministro de agua y otros servicios relacionados con la vivienda) is 952.47 euros a year and for 04.5 (electricidad, gas y otros combustibles) 1,254.63 euros, against a total group 04 of 11,664.65 euros of which 7,779.22 is imputed rent. The 04.4 figure is larger than the 347.54 euros used because it also contains the excluded community charge — accessed September 4, 2026
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys 2024, Table 2500 (all consumer units, annual expenditure means): natural gas $492.57, electricity $1,832.89, fuel oil and other fuels $125.32 and water and other public services $826.03, a like-for-like four-item total of $3,276.81 a year or $273.07 a month (telephone services, $1,459.68, are excluded from the basket). The utilities index on this site uses a common US baseline of $210 a month for every country so the cross-country ranking is comparable; that baseline is conservative against this BLS measurement, so the Spanish index of 74 understates rather than overstates the saving relative to a real US household — accessed September 4, 2026
- Eurostat, private households by household composition (lfst_hhnhtych): Spain 19,504,800 private households in 2024, rising to 19,736,500 in 2025, used as the denominator for per-household electricity consumption — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Ley 14/2013 consolidated text, article 63 (visado de residencia para inversores): the article is shown as left without content with effect from 3 April 2025 by disposicion final 21.1 of Ley Organica 1/2025, de 2 de enero (BOE-A-2025-76). This is the primary confirmation that the 500,000 euro property golden visa is closed to new applicants. Article 76 of the same law sets a twenty-day resolution deadline for Unidad de Grandes Empresas authorisations, with approval by administrative silence, and renewals in two-year periods. Articles 68 to 70 (emprendedores), 71 to 72 (profesionales altamente cualificados) and 74 bis to 74 quinquies (teletrabajo de caracter internacional) remain in force. Checked directly against the consolidated text on 4 September 2026: article 71, as rewritten by disposicion final 5.5 of Ley 28/2022 and amended by article 32.5 of Ley 11/2023, now sets only two modalities, the EU Blue Card and the national highly qualified professional authorisation, and turns entirely on the applicant's qualification. The employer-size thresholds of the original 2013 text are gone; the strings '250 trabajadores', '50 millones' and '43 millones' no longer appear anywhere in the law. Article 71.3 gives three years of validity, or contract length plus three months if shorter, renewable for two years. Article 74 bis confirms that an employee teleworker may work only for companies based outside Spain while a self-employed holder may take up to 20% of professional activity from a Spanish company, article 74 ter the one year of prior company activity and three months of prior relationship, article 74 quater the one-year visa and article 74 quinquies the three-year authorisation renewable in two-year periods — accessed September 4, 2026
- BOE, Real Decreto 1155/2024 approving the Reglamento of the immigration law (in force 20 May 2025): student stay holders may work no more than thirty hours a week, and exceeding that limit is grounds for termination of the authorisation — accessed September 4, 2026
- UNESPA, Social Report of Insurance 2025 (Memoria Social del Seguro 2025, English edition, PDF): 'Health insurance looks after 12.8 million people in Spain' and 'One in four Spaniards has health insurance', with a 2025 breakdown by age and autonomous community. The report publishes no average premium anywhere, so typical_private_insurance_usd_month of $90 (roughly 900 euros a year) is an editorial estimate for a healthy adult individual policy based on market premium levels, not an official statistic. It is the least well evidenced number on this page, it rises steeply with age, and it is a reason data_confidence is medium — accessed September 4, 2026
Your New Country publishes reference information, not tax advice. Tax positions are fact-specific and the penalties for getting a cross-border position wrong are heavier than the fees for getting it checked. Before you file, take advice from an accountant who works both systems, and confirm everything against Spain's tax authority and the IRS, which administers the US rules described here.