If you move to Spain in autumn, your first Beckham Law year is not simply decided by the date you arrive, but by a rule in Article 115 of the Personal Income Tax Regulations: it is “the first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, the stay in Spanish territory exceeds 183 days”. If the move takes place in autumn, there are no longer enough days left in the year to exceed that figure. Applying that article, in binding ruling V1953-25, of 16 October 2025, the DGT concludes that, for a taxpayer who would move in the last months of 2025, the regime would apply in 2026, the period in which they would acquire tax residence, and in the following five. The deadline for communicating the option, however, does not wait for that first year: it is counted from the start date of the activity shown in your Social Security registration.
Key points
- The first year of the regime is the first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, your stay in Spain exceeds 183 days (Article 115 of the Personal Income Tax Regulations, as worded by Royal Decree 1008/2023).
- In V1953-25, for a taxpayer who would move in the last months of 2025, the regime would apply in 2026 and in the following five tax periods.
- In V2983-21, if the taxpayer acquires residence in 2022, the regime covers 2022 to 2027, barring waiver or exclusion.
- In V2201-19, the AEAT certificate said 2018 to 2023, but the taxpayer was not tax resident in 2018 and the DGT concludes that the regime does not apply to them for that year nor, since they did not acquire residence in 2018 as a result of that move, from 2019 onwards.
- The six-month deadline for communicating the option is counted from the start date of the activity shown in the Social Security registration, not from the first year of the regime (Article 116.1.a) of the Regulations).
The rule: the first calendar year with more than 183 days
Article 93.1 of the Personal Income Tax Law says that the regime applies “during the tax period in which the change of residence takes place and during the following five tax periods”. Which period that is is specified by Article 115 of the Regulations. In its current wording, that of Royal Decree 1008/2023, transcribed in ruling V1953-25, it says:
“This special regime shall apply during the tax period in which the taxpayer acquires their tax residence in Spain, and during the following five tax periods […], without prejudice to the provisions of articles 117 and 118 of these regulations. For these purposes, the tax period in which residence is acquired shall be deemed to be the first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, the stay in Spanish territory exceeds 183 days”.Art. 115 RIRPF, transcribed in binding ruling V1953-25
The last sentence is identical in the earlier wording transcribed in rulings V2983-21 and V2201-19. V2983-21 sums up the reference to articles 117 and 118 with a short formula: “barring waiver or exclusion”.
It is not the same rule as the residence rule
There are two different rules that mention 183 days, and it is worth not mixing them up. Article 9.1 of the Personal Income Tax Law, transcribed in V1953-25 and V2983-21 when analysing the requirement in letter a) of Article 93.1, defines when you are tax resident in Spain, and any one of these circumstances is enough: that you stay in Spanish territory for more than 183 days during the calendar year, or that the main centre or base of your activities or economic interests is in Spain, directly or indirectly. In addition, it presumes, unless proven otherwise, that you are resident if your spouse who is not legally separated and your minor children who depend on you habitually reside in Spain. Article 115 of the Regulations, on the other hand, sets which is the first period of the regime, and it does so with a single criterion: a stay in Spain of more than 183 days in the calendar year, once the move has taken place. That is why a rule of the type “if you arrive after such and such a month, you start the following year” does not work: what you have to look at is in which calendar year you exceed 183 days of stay.
Three specific DGT cases
The three rulings answer the facts of whoever submitted them, and they should be read that way.
V1953-25: moving in the last months of 2025
The taxpayer, a Spanish national, had been living in the Dominican Republic for 15 years, employed by a Dominican company. They were going to move their residence to Spain in the last months of 2025 and continue doing the same work remotely. They asked whether they could opt into the regime and whether the first year of application would be 2026. The DGT answers that, in that case, “the special regime would apply during the tax period in which they would acquire tax residence in Spain (2026) and the following five tax periods”.
That answer assumes that the taxpayer can opt in, and the DGT makes it conditional: to the extent that the employment relationship with the entity exists, “a matter outside the scope of competence of this Directorate”, and that the activity can be carried out remotely through the exclusive use of computer, telematic and telecommunication means and systems, if they acquire their tax residence in Spain as a consequence of that move and also meet letters a) and c) of Article 93.1.
V2983-21: residence in 2022, regime from 2022 to 2027
A Finnish national was going to be appointed director of a Spanish company and to move to Spain in the last quarter of 2021 or at the beginning of 2022, while their family remained in Finland until May 2022. They asked whether the regime would apply to them in 2022 and in the following five years. The DGT answers that, if they acquire their tax residence in Spain in the 2022 tax period, the duration of the regime, “barring waiver or exclusion”, would cover the periods 2022 to 2027. The DGT makes the possibility of opting in conditional on their acquiring residence in 2022 as a consequence of their move due to their appointment as director of the Spanish company, with a condition regarding their shareholding in it, and on their meeting letters a) and c) of Article 93.1. The ruling applies the wording of Article 93 prior to 2023.
V2201-19: the certificate does not settle the matter
The taxpayer started working for a Spanish company in November 2017, moved their residence to Spain and opted into the regime. According to the certificate issued by the Tax Agency, their option covered, barring waiver or exclusion, the periods 2018 to 2023. In June 2018, the Spanish company itself assigned them to a project in South Korea, which started on 1 July 2018, so in 2018 they spent more than 183 days outside Spain and were not considered resident.
The DGT concludes that the regime “applies to workers with tax residence in Spanish territory who are personal income tax (IRPF) taxpayers” and that, as they were not tax resident in 2018, it did not apply to them that year: they would be taxed under Non-Resident Income Tax only on Spanish source income subject to tax under its rules. To the question of whether the regime would apply to them from 2019 if that year they exceeded 183 days in Spain, it answers that it will not apply to them, as they did not acquire their tax residence in 2018 as a consequence of their move of November 2017. And it adds that they could opt in again if they acquired tax residence in 2019, or in a later period, as a consequence of a new move for any of the circumstances in Article 93.1.b) and met letters a) and c).
The taxpayer arrived in November 2017 and left halfway through the following year, and the case was resolved under the wording prior to 2023. What it shows is this: if in the year that should have been the first year of the regime you are not tax resident in Spain, the regime does not apply to you that year even if the AEAT certificate includes it, and the DGT concluded that it did not apply in the following years either; the only way back would be to opt again after a new move. We do not simply carry that conclusion over to the current wording.
The window for the move
The current wording of Article 93.1, transcribed in V1953-25, contains two specifications that matter if you arrive at the end of the year. Letter b) requires the move to take place, “either in the first year of application of the regime or in the previous year”, as a consequence of one of the circumstances it lists. And letter a) requires not having been resident in Spain “during the five tax periods prior to the one in which their move to Spanish territory takes place”. V2983-21 and V2201-19 apply the earlier wording, which required ten periods and did not include that window.
The window is not enough on its own: the move has to take place as a consequence of one of the circumstances in letter b). In binding ruling V0456-26, of 27 February 2026, on someone who moved to Spain in September 2024, the DGT makes its answer conditional on their having acquired tax residence in 2025 as a consequence of their move due to their appointment as director, among other conditions, and requires a causal link between the move and that appointment, which is a question of fact that it does not assess itself. We explain it in the article on having moved before you had the role.
How long it lasts and until when
The period in which you acquire residence and the following five: six tax periods in total, as in V2983-21, from 2022 to 2027. All of this without prejudice to the provisions of articles 117 and 118 of the Regulations, to which Article 115 refers, or, as V2983-21 puts it, “barring waiver or exclusion”. If what concerns you is what happens to the regime when your situation changes within that period, we have an article on leaving your job to run your own company.
The deadline for communicating the option runs separately
Article 116.1.a) of the Regulations, in the wording transcribed in V1953-25, sets “a maximum period of six months from the start date of the activity shown in the registration with Social Security in Spain or in the documentation that allows, where applicable, the continued application of the Social Security legislation of origin or, where registration with Social Security is not mandatory, in the document evidencing the start date of the activity”. The option is exercised with Modelo 149.
These are two separate rules: Article 115 decides which is your first year and Article 116 decides until when you can communicate the option. None of the three rulings combines them, and we attribute no conclusion on this to the DGT. What the wording of Article 116.1.a) does say is that the six months are counted from the start date of the activity, with no reference to the first year of the regime. According to that wording, if the start date of the activity shown in your registration is in November, the six months start running then, even if your first year of the regime is the following one. We cover this in detail in the article on the six-month deadline, and the step-by-step guide walks through the whole procedure.
If you arrive this autumn: what to check
- The start date of the activity shown in your registration. The six months of Article 116.1.a) run from that date.
- Your days in Spain the following year. Article 115 takes as the first year the first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, you exceed 183 days of stay. If you are going to spend a lot of time abroad, bear in mind what V2201-19 decided: the taxpayer was not tax resident in Spain in the year that should have been the first one, and the DGT concluded that the regime did not apply to them either that year or from the following year; they could only opt again after a new move.
- What is not resolved under the current rules. Among the rulings cited, the closest case is V2201-19: arrival in November 2017 and more than 183 days outside Spain in 2018, with the result that the regime applied neither in 2018 nor from 2019. It was resolved under the wording prior to 2023, which did not include the window of the “previous year”, and none of the rulings cited resolves that case under the current wording. If that could be your case, it is worth reviewing it before communicating the option.
- The year of arrival. None of the three rulings analyses how you are taxed in the year you arrive, before the first year of the regime, and this article does not go into it either.
- The certificate. In V2201-19, the AEAT certificate said 2018 to 2023 and the DGT concluded that 2018 fell outside because that year the taxpayer was not tax resident in Spain, and that the regime would not apply to them from 2019 either.
Summary
| Question | What the source says |
|---|---|
| First year of the regime | The first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, the stay in Spanish territory exceeds 183 days (Article 115 of the Personal Income Tax Regulations) |
| Move in the last months of 2025 (V1953-25) | Regime in 2026, the period in which they would acquire tax residence, and in the following five tax periods |
| Residence acquired in 2022 (V2983-21) | From the 2022 period to 2027, barring waiver or exclusion |
| AEAT certificate for 2018 to 2023, but more than 183 days outside Spain in 2018 (V2201-19) | Without tax residence in 2018, the regime does not apply to them that year or from 2019, unless they opt again after a new move; in 2018 they would be taxed under Non-Resident Income Tax only on their Spanish source income subject to tax under its rules |
| Deadline for communicating the option | Six months from the start date of the activity shown in the registration with Social Security in Spain, or in the documentation that allows the Social Security of origin to be maintained, or, if registration is not mandatory, in the document evidencing the start date of the activity (Article 116.1.a) of the Personal Income Tax Regulations) |
Frequently asked questions
If I arrive in Spain in October, is my first Beckham Law year this one or the next?
Under Article 115 of the Personal Income Tax Regulations, the first year of the regime is the first calendar year in which, once the move has taken place, your stay in Spanish territory exceeds 183 days. In binding ruling V1953-25, of 16 October 2025, the DGT concludes that, for a taxpayer who would move in the last months of 2025, the regime would apply in 2026 and in the following five periods. It is the answer to a specific case, and it presupposes that the requirements for opting in are met.
How many years does the Beckham Law last?
The period in which you acquire tax residence in Spain and the following five tax periods, without prejudice to the provisions of articles 117 and 118 of the Regulations. In ruling V2983-21, if the taxpayer acquires residence in 2022, the regime covers 2022 to 2027, barring waiver or exclusion.
Is the six-month deadline to opt in counted from my first year of the regime?
Article 116.1.a) of the Regulations counts it from the start date of the activity shown in the registration with Social Security in Spain, or in the documentation that allows the Social Security of origin to be maintained, or, if registration is not mandatory, in the document evidencing the start date of the activity. It makes no reference to the first year of the regime. None of the rulings cited combines this rule with that of Article 115.
What happens if in one year I am not tax resident in Spain?
In ruling V2201-19, the taxpayer had an AEAT certificate for 2018 to 2023, but in 2018 they spent more than 183 days outside Spain and were not resident. The DGT concludes that the regime did not apply to them in 2018, that for that year they would be taxed under Non-Resident Income Tax only on their Spanish source income subject to tax under its rules, and that, since they did not acquire tax residence in 2018 as a result of their move, the regime would not apply to them from 2019 either. They could only opt again if they acquired residence as a result of a new move. It is a specific case, resolved under the wording prior to 2023.
Is the 183-day residence rule the same as the rule for the first year of the regime?
No. Article 9.1 of the Personal Income Tax Law defines tax residence with several criteria: more than 183 days in the calendar year, the main centre or base of your activities or economic interests in Spain, directly or indirectly, or, unless proven otherwise, your spouse who is not legally separated and your minor children who depend on you habitually residing in Spain. Article 115 of the Regulations sets the first period of the regime with a single criterion: a stay in Spain of more than 183 days in the calendar year, once the move has taken place.
Before the six months run out
If you have just arrived or are going to arrive in the coming months, what is worth reviewing is your specific case: the start date of the activity shown in your registration, in which year you will exceed 183 days of stay and whether you meet the other requirements. DPLL Tax & Legal, an AEAT Social Collaborator firm based in Barcelona, reviews these situations one by one. A free 10 minute call is enough to see where to start.