One of the most persistent worries we hear from founders planning a move to Spain is a simple one: if you helped create the company, can you still qualify for the Beckham Law, or does owning part of the business rule you out? It is a fair concern. The regime was built around the idea of an employee being hired or sent to Spain, and founders sit in an awkward spot between employee and owner. A binding ruling from Spain's Directorate General for Taxes, DGT consulta vinculante V0578-26 (11 March 2026), gives founders a clear and encouraging answer.
The person who asked was a Swedish national and tax resident in Sweden, and a co-founder of a Spanish company that builds AI driven software to help sports clubs and associations manage their memberships. Three details shaped the answer: the company offered him an ordinary, indefinite, full time employment contract; his indirect stake in the company was below 25%; and accepting the offer meant physically relocating to Spain to carry out his role in person.
Key takeaways
- Being a founder does not disqualify you. What matters is how your relationship with the company is structured.
- The cleanest route in is a genuine, ordinary employment contract with the Spanish company, matched by a real causal link between that job and your move to Spain.
- You must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the previous five years (Article 93.1.a LIRPF).
- You must not obtain income that would count as earned through a permanent establishment in Spain (Article 93.1.c). This is the condition founders should study most closely.
- The sub 25% stake helped show this was employment, not a disguised business activity run through Spain.
The scenario: a co-founder hired by his own Spanish company
The company develops innovative technology based on artificial intelligence and other advanced digital tools, aimed at optimising how clubs, associations and other organisations manage their memberships, together with consultancy, software development and data analysis. Its founders are all Swedish nationals, and the other partners are tax resident in Sweden, Ireland and Spain. The consultant's participation in the company is indirect and below 25%.
The employment offered to him is an ordinary relationship, indefinite and full time. Accepting it means moving to Spain to perform his duties actively and in person. On those facts, he asked the DGT a single question: would the special regime of Article 93 of the Personal Income Tax Law (LIRPF) apply to him?
What the DGT ruled
The answer was yes, he can opt into the regime, provided the usual conditions are met. The DGT walked through the ones that mattered here.
A genuine employment relationship, and a causal link. Article 93 requires that the move to Spain happens because of an employment contract. The DGT stressed two things: there must be a real employment relationship with the Spanish company, and a genuine causal link between starting that job and relocating to Spain. You move because of the role, not the other way around. It added a caveat worth remembering: whether an employment relationship genuinely exists is a labour law question that falls outside the tax authority's remit, and is assessed on the substance of the arrangement.
No tax residence in Spain in the previous five years. This is the standard entry condition of Article 93.1.a, read together with the general residence rules of Article 9 LIRPF. Being a founder changes nothing here.
No income through a permanent establishment in Spain. Under Article 93.1.c, the applicant must not earn income that would qualify as obtained through a permanent establishment in Spain. This is the condition founders should study most closely, because an active business role can create problems if the structure is wrong. Meet these, and the founder can be taxed under the regime for the year of the move and the following five years.
Why the sub 25% stake and the employee test matter
The Beckham Law was widened by the 2022 Startups Law (Law 28/2022), effective from 1 January 2023, precisely to welcome entrepreneurs and investors, not only transferred employees. But the route this founder took still runs through employment. What made his case clean was the combination of an ordinary employment contract and an indirect holding below 25%.
That figure is not a magic threshold written into Article 93 itself, but it signals something the regime cares about: that the person is coming to Spain to work as an employee, not to run what is effectively their own business through a Spanish permanent establishment. A founder with a controlling stake and an active management role has a harder argument, because their income may start to look like the fruit of a business activity rather than employment. Structure, in short, is everything.
The founder label does not cost you the Beckham Law. What decides eligibility is how your role and your holding are set up before you arrive: a real employment contract, a genuine reason to move, a modest stake, and no income flowing through a permanent establishment in Spain. , DPLL Tax & Legal · Editorial commentary, July 2026
What this means in practice
For founders weighing a move to Spain, the ruling clears away a frequent worry and sharpens the questions that actually matter. The points below summarise where things stand after V0578-26:
- The founder label does not disqualify you. What matters is how your relationship with the company is structured, not the mere fact of ownership.
- A real, ordinary employment contract is the cleanest path in. It must be matched by a genuine causal link between the job and your relocation to Spain.
- Watch the permanent establishment line. Keep a clear separation between your role as an employee and any income that could be characterised as flowing through a permanent establishment in Spain.
- A modest stake helps. In V0578-26 an indirect holding below 25% supported the conclusion that this was employment, not a disguised business activity.
- Plan before you sign. The conditions are assessed on substance, and they are far easier to meet by design than to fix after the fact.
Why the distinction matters
The ruling is a useful reminder that the Beckham Law is granted to a person on the basis of how they arrive in Spain, not on their job title. A founder who arrives as a genuine employee of the Spanish company, without a controlling stake and without income through a permanent establishment, is exactly the kind of case the regime, as widened by the Startups Law, was meant to reach. The difference between qualifying and not often comes down to decisions made before the move, which is why the analysis is worth doing early.
If you are a founder considering a move to Spain, specialist advice helps you confirm that your employment structure, your holding and your income streams all sit on the right side of these conditions before you sign or restructure anything. Once you are within the regime, your annual return is filed on Modelo 151 annual return rather than the standard Modelo 100. For a personalised analysis of your specific situation, we recommend seeking specialist advice from a qualified Spanish tax practitioner.