The Modelo 151 is the annual income-tax return filed by people taxed under Spain's special impatriate regime, the well-known Beckham Law. It is not a complicated form, but it is completed differently from an ordinary resident's return, and that is where the problem lies: most mistakes come from applying, out of habit or poor advice, the rules of the ordinary tax return.
These are the mistakes we see most often, with what the AEAT says and how to avoid them. If you have already filed and think you made one, the last section explains how to fix it.
In one box
- Modelo 151 is NOT Modelo 100. Filing the wrong one is the most common mistake.
- The regime leaves almost all your foreign income out. Declaring it means overpaying.
- Resident deductions generally do not apply under the regime.
- The deadline is the ordinary one: 1 April to 30 June. Late filing carries a surcharge.
Mistake 1: filing Modelo 100 instead of 151
By far the most frequent. Many tax-software packages and firms that do not handle the regime day to day default to Modelo 100, the ordinary resident's return. Filing the 100 while under the Beckham Law is not just the wrong form: it undermines the very election of the regime and can trigger a review of the whole file.
If you are in the regime, your return is the 151 and only the 151. Check the form number before you sign. You can see the mechanics in detail in our Modelo 151 instructions.
Mistake 2: declaring foreign income the regime leaves out
The great advantage of the regime is that, apart from your employment income, your foreign-source income stays outside Spanish taxation for the duration. Foreign investment income, foreign rents and foreign capital gains are not declared here.
The mistake, almost always out of over-caution, is to include them anyway. The result is that you pay tax on income the law does not tax in Spain. Before you enter a figure in the 151, ask whether that income is Spanish-source or whether the regime leaves it out.
Mistake 3: claiming resident deductions and reliefs
Under the regime, most of the ordinary resident's deductions and reliefs do not apply: there is no personal and family allowance in the same terms, and much of the usual state or regional deductions do not either. Claiming them out of habit is a mistake that, beyond being wrong, invites the tax office to look at the rest of the return.
The flat rate is the benefit of the regime; giving up those deductions is its price. You cannot have one without the other.
Mistake 4: getting the rate and withholding wrong
Employment income is taxed at a flat 24% up to 600,000 euros and 47% above that, with no progressive scale in between. Two common mistakes: one, your employer withheld at ordinary rates instead of the regime's, leaving a gap you must reconcile in the return; two, misapplying the jump at the 600,000-euro threshold. Check that the withholding matches the regime before you file.
Mistake 5: missing the filing deadline
Modelo 151 follows the ordinary tax-return calendar: 1 April to 30 June. Filing late carries surcharges, and interest if there is tax to pay. Do not confuse this deadline with the six months for Modelo 149, which is the election into the regime and runs on a different clock.
I already made a mistake: how to fix it
If you spot an error after filing, do not let it slide. If you over-declared or overpaid, the route is a request to rectify the self-assessment to recover the excess. If you under-declared, a supplementary return regularises the difference; the sooner, the smaller the surcharge. In both cases document the reason well, because the impatriate regime gets more attention than an ordinary return does.
If you are not sure which mistake you made or how to fix it, our eligibility test is a good starting point to order your situation, and from there we can help with the correction.