This is a short reading of art. 9.1 of the Spanish income tax law. There are three factors that can make you tax resident in Spain: time, economic interests and family. Any one of them is enough. To be non-resident, none of them can apply.
- Time (art. 9.1.a). You spend more than 183 days in Spain in the calendar year. Sporadic absences count as days in Spain, unless you prove you are tax resident in another country.
- Economic interests (art. 9.1.b). The main centre or base of your business or economic interests is in Spain, directly or indirectly. Look at where you own property, hold bank accounts, work, run a business or hold shares in a company.
- Family (art. 9.1, last paragraph). Your spouse, not legally separated, and the minor children who depend on them habitually live in Spain. This one is a presumption: you can prove otherwise.
If any of the three applies
You are a taxpayer for Spanish income tax (IRPF) and you pay it on your worldwide income, wherever it arises and wherever the payer is resident, subject to any double tax treaty that applies. Residence is worked out for each tax year, which is the calendar year (binding ruling V1389-21).
Selling your home: IRPF or IRNR
If you are tax resident in Spain in the year of the sale, you pay IRPF on the gain, in bands from 19% to 30%. If you are not, you pay non-resident income tax (IRNR) at 19%, and the buyer withholds 3% of the price as a payment on account (art. 25 of the non-resident income tax law). You can work out both figures with my capital gains tax calculator.
If two countries treat you as resident
If you are resident in Spain under art. 9 and another country also treats you as resident under its own law, there is a conflict of residence. The double tax treaty between the two countries resolves it (binding ruling V1389-21). In the treaty with the United Kingdom, the first test is where you have a permanent home available to you (binding ruling V3511-16).
How to prove where you are resident
To rely on a treaty you need a tax residence certificate issued by the tax authority of the other country. It must say expressly that you are resident for the purposes of the treaty, and it is valid for one year from the date it is issued (binding ruling V3511-16).
The burden of proof falls on you. Art. 105.1 of the Spanish General Tax Law says that in tax procedures whoever asserts a right must prove the facts on which it is based.
Read more: inheriting property in Spain as a non-resident.