You live in Spain. Your father or mother lives in another country and sends you money: one large transfer to help with a flat, or several over a few months. In Spain it is a gift, in Spanish a donación, and if you are resident here you are the one who has to declare it and pay Spanish gift tax on it, within a short deadline.
In the Comunitat Valenciana, for example, the 99% bonus only applies if the gift is put in a public deed signed before a notary within the filing period and the deed explains where the money came from.
This article sets out what the law, the Spanish tax authorities and the courts say about that situation. I am a Spanish lawyer and tax adviser, and I wrote Paga menos por tu herencia (Sepín), a book on Spanish inheritance tax, which is the same tax that covers gifts.
Do I pay tax in Spain on money my parents send me from abroad?
Yes, if you are resident in Spain. The Spanish tax is the Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (ISD), which covers both inheritances and gifts. Under article 3.1.b) of the ISD Act (Ley 29/1987), receiving money as a gift is a taxable event, and under article 5.b) the person who receives the gift (the donee) is the taxpayer, not the parent who gives it.
Article 6 of the same Act taxes residents of Spain on everything they receive, wherever the assets are. It does not matter that your parent lives abroad, or that the money left a foreign bank account. The Directorate-General for Taxes (Dirección General de Tributos, DGT) applied exactly this in binding ruling V5441-26 of 6 August 2026, about a son resident in Spain who was going to receive regular transfers from his parents, with the money coming from abroad.
If your parent’s country also taxed the gift, article 23 of the Act allows you to deduct the foreign tax paid, up to a limit: you deduct the lower of the amount actually paid abroad and the Spanish tax that corresponds to that gift at your average rate.
Which Spanish region’s gift tax rules apply to me?
The ISD has been handed over to the regions, and each one sets its own reductions and bonuses. For a gift of money, which is movable property, article 32.2.c) of Ley 22/2009 gives the tax to the region where the donee is habitually resident on the date of the gift.
Habitual residence here has a specific meaning. Under articles 28.1.1.º b) and 32.5 of Ley 22/2009, you are resident in the region where you have spent the most days during the five years before the day of the gift, counted from date to date. If you moved from Madrid to Valencia two years ago, the region whose rules apply may still be Madrid.
The DGT applied this rule in binding ruling V2435-23, about a student who had spent most of five years in Valencia for her studies but went back to her parents’ home in Teruel in the holidays. The DGT treated her time in Valencia as a temporary absence and pointed to Aragón as her region of residence.
If you are not resident in Spain, the rules are different. The second additional provision of the ISD Act, introduced after the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 3 September 2014 (case C-127/12), lets non-residents apply regional rules in certain cases. In binding ruling V2965-20 the DGT accepted that this also covers residents of countries outside the European Union. That is the situation I explain in inheriting property in Spain as a non-resident. This article is about you living in Spain.
What is the deadline to declare a gift of money in Spain?
Thirty working days. Article 24.2 of the ISD Act says the tax arises on the day the gift is made, and article 67.1.b) of the ISD Regulations (Real Decreto 1629/1991) gives you thirty working days, counted from the day after, to file. Under the general rule for deadlines counted in days (article 30.2 of Ley 39/2015), Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are left out, so it comes to roughly six weeks.
You file the self-assessment on form 651 (modelo 651), the gift tax form. If you live in the Comunitat Valenciana, it goes to the Agència Tributària Valenciana (ATV), the regional tax agency.
When the money arrives in several transfers, each one counts. In ruling V5441-26 the DGT said that the donee must file a self-assessment for each gift received, within thirty working days of each one. Under article 30 of the Act, gifts from the same parent to the same child within three years are added together to work out the tax rate, so splitting a large amount into small transfers does not lower the rate.
What does the Comunitat Valenciana require to keep the 99% bonus on a gift?
The Valencian rules are in Ley 13/1997 of the Generalitat Valenciana. For a gift from a parent to a child they give two benefits. Article 10 bis.2.a) gives a reduction of €100,000 for children aged 21 or over (more for younger children), counting all gifts from the same parent over the previous five years. Article 12 bis.1.b) then gives a 99% bonus on the tax due.
Both depend on formal requirements. Article 12 bis.4, in the wording in force since 11 August 2026, says:
«En las adquisiciones inter vivos, para la aplicación de las anteriores bonificaciones se exigirá, además, que la adquisición se efectúe en documento público, o que se formalice de este modo dentro del plazo de declaración del impuesto.»
[Unofficial translation: For gifts, the above bonuses also require the acquisition to be made in a public document, or to be formalised in that way within the filing period for the tax.]
A public document (documento público) for a gift of money normally means a deed (escritura pública) signed before a Spanish notary. Article 10 bis.2 sets the same requirement for the reduction.
Since Ley 5/2026 of 31 July, in force from 11 August 2026, there is one exception. For gifts of money between the same parent and child that add up to no more than €4,000 over three years, a document signed with a qualified electronic signature, as defined in the EU eIDAS Regulation (910/2014), can replace the deed.
The second requirement concerns the money itself. The same article says that for gifts of cash the bonus only applies if the origin of the funds is properly justified, the document states where the funds came from, and it identifies how the money was actually handed over (for example, the bank transfers).
The High Court of Justice of the Comunitat Valenciana has upheld the deed requirement. In judgment 180/2020 of 29 January (ECLI:ES:TSJCV:2020:413) it confirmed an assessment on a son who had received €34,000 from his mother under a private document, and explained that the law imposes the deed «por motivos de fijeza y seguridad jurídica» (for reasons of certainty and legal security).
I tell a Valencian case where the tax had been paid but form 651 had never been submitted in this article (in Spanish).
Do other Spanish regions require a deed for a cash gift?
These are two examples next to Valencia, from the texts in force in October 2026.
| Region | When a public document is needed for the bonus | Time limit | Origin of the money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comunitat Valenciana (arts. 10 bis and 12 bis, Ley 13/1997) | Always, except gifts from the same parent of up to €4,000 over three years, where a qualified electronic signature is enough | Within the filing period | Must be justified and stated in the document, with the means of delivery |
| Madrid (art. 25.2.b, Decreto Legislativo 1/2010) | When the taxable amount exceeds €10,000, counting three years of gifts from the same parent | No bonus if a private document is raised to a public one after the voluntary filing period | Must be justified and stated in the document |
| Andalucía (art. 40, Ley 5/2021) | When the taxable amount exceeds €5,000, counting three years of gifts from the same parent | For cash, within one month of the handover of the money | Must be justified and stated in the public document |
The Andalusian deadline for the deed is shorter than the thirty working days for filing. Andalucía also says that if the gift is a total amount paid in instalments, all the instalments must go in a single deed. In Madrid, the High Court of Justice confirmed in judgment 489/2024 of 5 July (ECLI:ES:TSJM:2024:9339) that without the public document the 99% bonus does not apply.
Does my parent need a Spanish NIE to give me money?
If the gift goes into a deed, yes, your parent needs a Spanish tax identification number. Article 23 of the Notaries Act (Ley del Notariado) says that in deeds for acts or contracts with tax significance (trascendencia tributaria), the people signing must show the notary their tax identification numbers, and the deed records them. Article 156.5 of the Notarial Regulations says the same. A gift of money is taxed, so the deed is one of those.
For a foreign national, that number is the NIE (número de identidad de extranjero, the identification number for foreigners). Article 20 of Real Decreto 1065/2007 says that the NIE is a foreigner’s tax number, and that foreigners who do not have one must ask the Spanish tax agency for a tax number beginning with the letter M before carrying out operations with tax significance. If your parent is Spanish and lives abroad, the number is their DNI.
The Notarial Regulations also say what happens if someone refuses or is unable to show the number: the notary records that in the deed.
Could my parent lend me the money instead of giving it?
A loan between relatives is a different transaction from a gift. The DGT rulings below set out what the tax authorities look at.
A loan between private individuals is subject to transfer tax but exempt (articles 7.1.B and 45.I.B.15 of the transfer tax act, Real Decreto Legislativo 1/1993). Being exempt does not remove the obligation to file: in binding ruling V0743-14 the DGT said the loan must still be declared in a transfer tax self-assessment (modelo 600), with nothing to pay.
In binding ruling V1705-12 the DGT added that a family link between lender and borrower does not, by itself, turn a loan into a hidden gift, provided the loan is declared and the repayment agreed in the document is proved. In V0743-14 and V1120-21 it said that the connection of the loan, its purpose and the repayments must be shown, and that the date of a private document only counts against third parties under the conditions of article 1227 of the Civil Code.
There is also an income tax angle. For a lender resident in Spain, article 6.5 of the Income Tax Act (Ley 35/2006) presumes that a loan earns interest unless the contrary is proved, and article 40 values that interest at the legal rate.
I have written at length, in Spanish, on the cases decided by the courts in interest-free loans, hidden gifts and unexplained increases in wealth.
What happens if Hacienda sees transfers that were never declared?
Hacienda is the usual name for the Spanish tax authorities. Under article 93 of the General Tax Act (Ley 58/2003), banks must give the tax authorities the data with tax significance that they hold about their customers’ accounts and movements, and bank secrecy is not a valid reason to refuse.
If money appears in your account and you have not declared it, two problems arise. The first is the gift tax itself, assessed by the region, and the bonus may be lost if its formalities were not met in time. The second is income tax. Article 39 of the Income Tax Act treats assets that do not match your declared income or wealth as an unexplained capital gain (ganancia patrimonial no justificada), taxed at the general income tax rates in the year in which it is discovered.
The Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC) has set out repeated doctrine on transfers received in a bank account without proof that they come from a loan, a gift or an inheritance (resolution 00/02931/2018 of 25 January 2022). The burden of proof is on you, and showing only the account the money came from is not enough if the authorities cannot see the real reason for the payment.
For every combination of residence and asset location, with the binding ruling behind each one, see the tax map of Spanish gift tax for non-residents.
Frequently asked questions
Is it my parent or me who pays Spanish gift tax?
You, as the person who receives the gift (article 5.b of the ISD Act). In binding ruling V0856-15 the DGT added that if someone else pays the tax for you, the payment is valid, but it may itself be a new gift subject to the tax.
Does splitting the money into small transfers avoid the tax?
No. Each transfer is a gift with its own thirty-working-day deadline (DGT V5441-26), and gifts from the same parent within three years are added together to set the tax rate (article 30 of the ISD Act). In the Comunitat Valenciana, the €100,000 reduction also counts every gift from the same parent over the previous five years.
I moved to Spain recently. Which region’s rules apply to me?
The region where you have spent the most days in the five years before the gift, counted from date to date (articles 28 and 32 of Ley 22/2009). If you have lived in Spain for less than that, the calculation depends on where you spent your time.
If I already paid gift tax in my parent’s country, do I pay twice?
Article 23 of the ISD Act allows a deduction for tax paid abroad on the same gift. You deduct the lower of the foreign tax actually paid and the Spanish tax that corresponds to that gift at your average rate.
Which form do I file, and where?
Form 651, within thirty working days of each gift, filed with the tax agency of your region of residence. In the Comunitat Valenciana that is the Agència Tributària Valenciana.