To Be or Not To Be - Spanish Residency

Residency status is one of the main questions that we get asked about at LingoMar. Essentially, the answer of whether to became a Spanish resident or not is based on 2 factors. Firstly, do you intend to spend more than 6 months (183 days) living and/or working in Spain. Secondly, where do you want to/intend to pay your main taxes.

Being a non-resident (this usually means that you own a property here in Spain, you have a NIE document and you spend less that 6 months in a year here) means that it is not necessary to pay income tax here in Spain. However, you are liable to pay an annual non-resident tax which is to be paid before 31st December. This tax is based on the value of your property and any income which is acquired through renting your property in Spain.

Being resident implies that you are living and working here on a more permanent basis (you spend more than 6 months a year here). It is possible that you are not working but you are living off your assets or are retired. In any of these cases, you are expected to file a Spanish tax return between April and June to cover the previous year.

To summarise, if you use your Spanish property to come on holiday, you spend less than 6 months a year here and you principally live and/or work in the UK or other E.U. country then your status should be non-resident. If however, you spend the majority of your time here (more than 6 months per year), you work here or are retired here then being resident is for you.

We have to recognised the myriad of different backgrounds and circumstances that affect the status of European residents and non-residents. Therefore, most cases are looked at on an individual basis. The team at LingoMar can connect you with a tax or immigration specialist to analyse and advise on how to proceed.

For more information regarding this and many other common questions which are relevant to International residents in Spain, contact us at LingoMar for a chat.