Income tax in Spain 2026: IRPF State scale, 183 days and the family presumption

Article 9 of Law 35/2006 sets two criteria, and one is enough. Your habitual residence is in Spain if you stay there for more than 183 days during the calendar year, or if the main core or base of your activities or economic interests is there, directly or indirectly. The first criterion holds a surprise: occasional absences count as presence, unless you prove tax residence in another country. A month's holiday outside Spain does not necessarily take a month off the total. The law adds a rebuttable presumption: if your spouse who is not legally separated and your dependent minor children habitually live in Spain, you are presumed to live there too, unless shown otherwise. And since a change of residence does not interrupt the tax period, the Agencia Tributaria treats you as resident or non-resident for the whole calendar year. There is no year cut in two here.

Two scales that add up: the State and the community

State scale only (art. 63 of Law 35/2006), on the general taxable base. Each autonomous community adds its own (art. 74): these rates are not the total rate.

This is the point that a lone figure hides. Article 63 gives only half of the tax. Article 74 provides for a regional scale, the one "approved by the autonomous community", with no rate at all in the national law. Madrid, Catalonia or Andalusia therefore decide their share, and we have not collected those regional scales: the total rate for your income is not on this page, only the State share.

The calculation is written in those same articles. The scale applies to the general taxable base, then you subtract the result of the same scale applied to the personal and family minimum. That minimum is €5,550 a year for a taxpayer (article 57), raised by €1,150 over age 65 and by a further €1,400 over 75. Descendants add €2,400 for the first, €2,700 for the second, €4,000 for the third and €4,500 after that (article 58). So the allowance runs through the scale and is not simply taken off the base.

Savings have their own scale

Interest, dividends and gains in the savings base do not follow that table. Articles 66 and 76 each apply the same scale, for the State and for the community:

Non-residents in Spain: a flat rate

Without residence, a different tax applies, the non-resident income tax. Article 25 of its consolidated text sets a general rate of 24%, reduced to 19% for residents of another EU or EEA state with an effective exchange of tax information. Certain kinds of income have rules of their own, including a scale for pensions, which we do not reproduce here. Crossing 183 days therefore changes the whole calculation, not just its size.

Leaving Spain or moving in: the three cases that cost money

Tax havens. A Spanish national who sets up new residence in a listed territory stays a taxpayer for personal income tax in the year of the change and the next four, according to the Agencia Tributaria. Since 11 July 2021, references to tax havens read as references to non-cooperative jurisdictions. The authority may also demand proof of 183 days spent there.

Unrealised gains on departure. Article 95 bis treats as a gain the gap between market value and acquisition value of your shares or units, if you were a taxpayer for at least ten of the last fifteen periods, and if their value goes over €4,000,000, or €1,000,000 with a holding of more than 25% in one entity. That gain goes into the savings base of your last return.

Inbound workers' regime. Article 93 lets someone who became resident by moving to Spain opt for non-resident tax rules in the year of the move and the next five, if not resident in the five previous periods. The move has to come from an employment contract, remote work included under conditions, a director's post, or certain entrepreneurial and highly qualified activities. The base, excluding dividends, interest and gains, is taxed at 24% up to €600,000 and 47% above. The detail runs to several paragraphs, so read the whole article before opting.

Why your trips are entered one by one

The Spanish count follows the calendar year: 1 January to 31 December, with no rolling window, unlike neighbouring Portugal. The limit is "more than 183": 183 days are not enough, 184 are, and our engine is tested on both sides. The sample dates above give a spring and an autumn in Spain: see what is still possible before 31 December. What the engine cannot do is decide whether an absence is occasional, so if you cannot prove residence elsewhere, join your trips abroad into a single stay by hand to see the effect. The proof the Agencia Tributaria refers to is a tax residence certificate from the other country's authority, valid for one year, and a residence permit is not enough. That certificate is worth requesting before you need it.

Filing, and settling it with another country

An employee need not file if income comes only from employment up to €22,000 a year, a limit cut to €15,876 in some cases, such as several payers with over €1,500 from the later ones (article 96). Self-employed people registered at any point in the year must file in every case. If another state also treats you as resident, the treaties signed by Spain generally follow this order, according to the Agencia Tributaria: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, then agreement between the authorities. See dual tax residency and the country table. To keep track of days across the year, the Taxlag app does that trip by trip.