Moving to Spain from the UK: the 2026/27 tax guide

You are taxed in the UK on your worldwide income for as long as you are UK tax resident, and residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test (SRT), not by where you happen to be living. Booking a one-way flight to Malaga changes nothing on its own. You have to break enough UK ties, spend few enough days in the UK, and meet the SRT conditions before HMRC treats you as non-resident.

The SRT works through three stages. The automatic overseas tests can make you non-resident immediately (for example, fewer than 16 UK days in the year, or full-time work abroad with limited UK days). The automatic UK tests can make you resident (for example, 183 or more UK days, or your only home being in the UK). If neither set is conclusive, the sufficient ties test weighs your UK connections (family, accommodation, work, days and, for leavers, the 90-day and country ties) against the days you spend here.

The practical point for a move to Spain is that the test counts whole UK tax years (6 April to 5 April), so a move part-way through a year creates a split position that the next section deals with. Our SRT calculator and our dedicated guide walk through the day counts and ties in detail before you commit to a leaving date, because a few days either side of a threshold can flip the answer.

If you move mid-year, split-year treatment lets HMRC tax you as UK resident only for the UK part of the year and as non-resident for the overseas part. Without it, you would technically remain UK resident for the whole tax year of departure and your new Spanish salary could fall inside UK tax. With it, income arising in the overseas part is broadly outside UK income tax.

Split-year treatment is not optional or self-selected. You have to fall within one of the statutory cases, most commonly the case for people who start full-time work overseas, the case for someone whose only home becomes overseas, or the partner-following case. Each has its own conditions about when your UK life ends and your Spanish life begins, and the split date is set by the rules, not by your preference.

Because the date drives everything, plan it. A worked, hypothetical example: imagine someone leaves on 30 September 2026 and qualifies for split-year treatment. Their UK salary to that date stays UK-taxable, their Spanish employment income from October is outside UK income tax, and they have one clean handover rather than a year of overlap. Our split-year treatment guide sets out the cases, and our relocation tool helps you model the timing alongside the Spanish side.

Tell HMRC you have left by filing a form P85, or by reporting your departure through Self Assessment if you already file a return (for example, because you have rental income). The P85 lets HMRC review your PAYE position, close off the right tax codes and release any in-year refund where too much tax was deducted before you left.

Be clear on one thing: the P85 does not make you non-resident. Residence is settled separately under the SRT. The P85 is the administrative notification, not the legal test. If you are within Self Assessment, you usually report the year of departure on the residence pages of the return (the SA109) rather than filing a standalone P85, and the split-year position is claimed there. Note that HMRC's normal online service cannot be used to tell them you are leaving, so the SA109 residence pages are filed on paper or through commercial software.

Keep filing UK returns for as long as you have UK-source income or UK reporting duties. Leaving the country does not end a Self Assessment record on its own, and HMRC will keep expecting returns until told otherwise.

Becoming non-resident does not switch off UK tax on income that has a UK source. The clearest example is rental income from a UK property, which stays within UK tax however long you live in Spain. If you keep your old home and let it out, register under the Non-resident Landlord Scheme using form NRL1 so your letting agent or tenant can pay the rent to you gross instead of deducting tax. Receiving it gross does not exempt it. You still report the profit to HMRC, and from April 2026 some landlords are drawn into Making Tax Digital depending on gross rents.

Pensions are more subtle and depend on the treaty (covered below). UK private and occupational pensions, and the UK State Pension, are generally taxed only in your country of residence under the treaty once you are Spanish resident, so they typically become a Spanish, not a UK, matter. UK government-service pensions are the main exception and usually stay taxable in the UK. Getting your pension provider and HMRC to apply the right treatment, often via a treaty relief claim on the DT-Spain Individual form, avoids tax being deducted in the wrong country.

Other UK-source income (some interest, certain trading or director's income) can also retain a UK exposure, and disregarded-income rules can limit the UK tax a non-resident pays on UK savings and dividends. This is exactly the kind of detail worth checking before you leave rather than after.

If you keep a UK property and later sell it while non-resident, the UK still taxes the gain. Non-Resident Capital Gains Tax (NRCGT) brings disposals of UK residential property within UK CGT for non-residents, and you must file an NRCGT return within 60 days of completion, even when no tax is due or a loss arises. Miss the 60 days and penalties follow, so this is a deadline to diarise the moment a sale is agreed. The annual exempt amount for 2026/27 is GBP 3,000, and residential gains above it are taxed at 18% or 24% depending on your other UK income.

The gain is usually measured from the property's value rather than its original cost for periods after the rules came in, which softens the bill for long-held homes, and Private Residence Relief may still cover the years it was genuinely your main home. Selling in the overseas part of a split year does not get you off the hook, because NRCGT specifically catches disposals in the overseas part.

Watch the temporary non-residence trap too. If you were UK resident in at least four of the seven tax years before leaving, then leave, realise gains while abroad and return to the UK within fewer than five complete tax years, those gains can be pulled back into UK tax in the year you return. Anyone treating Spain as a medium-term stay rather than a permanent move should plan disposals with this in mind. Our CGT property tool gives an indicative figure, but a non-resident sale should be modelled properly.

Spain taxes you as a resident if you spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year, or if your centre of economic interests or your family base is in Spain. Note the mismatch: Spain runs on the calendar year while the UK runs to 5 April, so the two residence clocks do not line up and a move can briefly engage both systems. As a normal Spanish resident you are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates of roughly 19% up to 47%, with regional variation, while savings income (interest, dividends, capital gains) is taxed separately on a scale from about 19% to 30%, with the top 30% band applying above EUR 300,000. These figures need confirming locally and vary by autonomous community.

The alternative is the special expatriate regime, widely called the Beckham Law. For qualifying new arrivals it applies a flat 24% to Spanish employment income up to EUR 600,000 (with income above that taxed at 47%), and it generally keeps most foreign income outside Spanish tax while you are inside it. It runs for the year of arrival plus the following five years. Broadly you must not have been Spanish tax resident in the previous several years and must be moving for a qualifying reason such as an employment contract, a directorship or certain entrepreneurial or highly skilled activity. Crucially, you apply within six months of registering with Spanish social security, and missing that window forfeits the benefit. All of this must be confirmed with a Spanish adviser, as eligibility is fact-specific and the rules have been refined.

The headline trade-off is simple to state and easy to get wrong: the Beckham Law can be excellent for a high earner on a Spanish salary with significant foreign income to shelter, but less attractive for a retiree living off UK pensions, where normal residence and the treaty may give a better result. A further plus for qualifying arrivals is that Beckham Law beneficiaries are generally outside the Modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting obligation while in the regime, though that point should be confirmed locally. Our Tax Atlas lets you compare Spain against other destinations at a glance before you commit.

The UK-Spain double tax treaty is what stops the same income being taxed twice. Its first job is to decide residence when both countries could claim you, which is common in a move year. Article 4 sets a tie-breaker hierarchy: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality. Working out which country wins the tie-break decides who has the primary taxing right and is one of the most important early questions in any move.

On pensions, the treaty draws a line. Article 17 generally gives the residence state the right to tax private, occupational and state pensions, so a UK pension typically becomes taxable in Spain once you are Spanish resident. Article 18 keeps government-service pensions (for example, certain civil service pensions) taxable at source in the UK. Other income types (employment, property, dividends, gains) each have their own article allocating the taxing rights, and relief for any overlap is given so you are not taxed twice on the same amount.

Two practical consequences. First, you often need to make treaty relief claims, such as the DT-Spain Individual form with a Spanish certificate of residence, so income is taxed in the right country from the start rather than being reclaimed later. Second, the answer changes the day your residence flips, which is why the leaving date, split-year claim and Article 4 position have to be looked at together rather than in isolation.

Spain has reporting and wealth charges that have no UK equivalent, and UK arrivals routinely overlook them. The Modelo 720 is an informative declaration of assets held outside Spain (broadly bank accounts, investments and pensions, and real estate) where a category exceeds EUR 50,000, reported on assets held at 31 December and filed by the following 31 March. The Modelo 721 is the parallel declaration for crypto-assets held abroad above a similar threshold. They are information returns, not tax bills, but failure to file carries penalties, so a normal-resident UK mover with UK accounts, ISAs, pensions or a retained property needs them on the checklist. Beckham Law beneficiaries are generally outside the Modelo 720 obligation while they remain in the regime, but the precise position should be confirmed with a Spanish adviser.

Spain also levies wealth tax on residents' worldwide net assets, with a general allowance of around EUR 700,000 plus a separate main-home allowance that lift the effective threshold, and regional treatment varies enormously: some communities give full relief while others apply the tax in full. On top sits the national solidarity tax on large fortunes, aimed at net wealth above roughly EUR 3,000,000, designed as a top-up so high-net-worth residents pay a minimum regardless of regional reliefs. These thresholds, exemptions and rates differ by region and must be confirmed with a Spanish adviser, but the existence of a wealth-tax layer is a genuine difference from the UK that can influence both whether and where in Spain you settle.

Pulling the two sides together, a tidy move tends to follow the same order. Pin down your leaving date against the SRT and confirm which split-year case applies. Decide what happens to UK assets (sell, let or hold) and set up the NRL1 if you are letting. File the P85 or report departure through Self Assessment, and diarise any NRCGT 60-day deadline if a UK property sale is on the cards.

On arrival, register in Spain, and if the Beckham Law looks right, apply inside the six-month window. Work out your Article 4 position so pensions and other income are taxed in the correct country from day one, and line up any Modelo 720 and 721 declarations for the first year you are resident under normal rules. None of these steps is hard on its own. The cost comes from doing them in the wrong order or missing a deadline, which is where a fixed-fee review before you go pays for itself.

• Confirm UK non-residence and the split-year case under the SRT.
• Decide and document what happens to UK property and other UK-source income.
• File the P85 or report departure via Self Assessment, and watch any 60-day NRCGT deadline.
• Apply for the Beckham Law within six months of Spanish social security registration if it fits.
• Settle the Article 4 residence position and make any treaty relief claims for pensions and other income.
• Schedule any Spanish Modelo 720 and 721 foreign-asset declarations for your first resident year, unless the Beckham Law exemption applies.