Visa holders · From Spain
Spain lets you switch between funds without tax, a relief you lose by moving to the US from Spain. Taxes can then fall on each switch as if you had sold.
A traspaso moves money between Spanish funds free of Spanish tax, keeping the old cost and purchase date. The US has no such rule, and Spanish funds usually count as passive foreign investment companies (PFICs). Without a PFIC election, a switch that counts as a sale spreads the gain over the years you held the fund. The share that falls in your earlier years as a US resident is taxed at the top rate, plus interest.
Updated · Sources
What Spain still claims as you leave
- Jan. 1
- of the next year is the earliest your Spanish residence ends if you stayed over 183 days in the year you leave.
- Over €4M
- of shares and fund units brings an exit tax as you leave, after 10 of your last 15 years in Spain.
- €700,000
- of assets in Spain is the state’s wealth tax exemption for a non-resident. Spanish holdings above it can still be taxed every year.
A non-resident may follow the wealth tax rules of the region where their Spanish assets are worth the most. Spain’s solidarity tax on large fortunes still reaches net Spanish assets above €3 million, whatever the region.
What can keep Spain taxing you after you leave?
More than 183 days in Spain that year
Spain has no split year. Over 183 days in Spain in the year you leave make you resident all year, so Spain can tax your US pay too. Time briefly abroad still counts toward the 183 days, unless you prove tax residence elsewhere. Leave early, with no more than 183 days in Spain and your main interests elsewhere, and you can be non-resident from January 1.
A spouse and children who stay in Spain
With your spouse and dependent minor children still in Spain, Spanish law presumes you are still resident, unless you prove otherwise. Keeping your main business or investments in Spain can also keep you resident. If both countries then claim you, Article 4 of the treaty settles which one counts for treaty purposes.
A large portfolio or a 25% stake
Spain’s exit tax falls on the unrealized gain in your shares and fund units as your residence ends. A stake above 25% of one company, worth over €1 million, triggers it even when your total is €4 million or less. Only that stake is then taxed.
Modelo 030 within three months
Tell the Agencia Tributaria, Spain’s tax agency, that you have left, on modelo 030 within three months, giving the date your non-residence starts. If the income tax return due after your move comes first, you report the change there instead.
A permanent move to the US gets no deferral of Spain’s exit tax. A temporary move can defer it, on request, with interest and a guarantee. Returning within five years without selling cancels the tax and the interest. Your US cost stays what you paid, so gain built up before the move is taxed when you sell.
Letting your flat in Spain costs 24% of the gross rent, because a US resident deducts no costs there.
Spain’s non-resident income tax reaches a flat you keep there every year, even a year it earns you nothing.
Kept empty, or for your own visits
€480
A deemed rent of 2% of the cadastral value, €2,000, is taxed at 24%.
Let all year for €12,000
€2,880
Tax falls on the whole €12,000.
Sold for €320,000
€22,800
Spain taxes the €120,000 gain. The buyer withholds €9,600, 3% of the price, toward it, and modelo 210 settles the rest.
Spain taxes a US resident’s gains at 19%. Where new cadastral values took effect in your town in the last ten years, the deemed rent is 1.1%, a €264 tax. The sale assumes no buying or selling costs, and a flat never let. For each year you let it, Spain cuts a set depreciation from its cost, even if you never deducted it. In the US, you report the rent too, after costs, and claim Spain’s tax as a credit within its limits. A former main home may qualify for the US exclusion of up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 on a joint return. Spain still charges its 19%.
Both countries can tax your Spanish state pension under the US-Spain tax treaty, while private and workplace pensions are taxed only in the US.
The Spain column applies once you show Spain Form 6166, the IRS certificate of US residency, and each certificate is good for one year.
| Spain | US | |
|---|---|---|
| Your Spanish Social Security retirement pension | Taxed Article 20(1)(b) allows it, at Spain’s 8% to 40% | Taxed As a foreign annuity, with a credit for Spain’s tax |
| A pension from a past employer | Not taxed Article 20(1)(a) | Taxed |
| Payouts from a plan de pensiones or a PPA (an insured pension plan) | Not taxed Once you prove US residence | Taxed Whether the US taxes growth before payout is unsettled |
| A Spanish government service pension | Taxed Unless you are a US citizen, Article 21(2) | Exempt without a green card A green card or US citizenship lets the US tax it |
Your Spanish state pension stays off Form 8938. A plan de pensiones goes in its Part VI once your foreign assets pass the form’s thresholds.
Which Spanish assumptions stop holding once you live in the US?
Assuming a fondo de inversión is not a company
Spanish law gives a fondo de inversión no legal personality, but US rules usually treat it as a company, as they do a SICAV. That usually makes it a PFIC, and each one generally needs its own Form 8621 every year.
Paying into your plan de pensiones from the US
Contributions you make as a US resident earn no deduction in either country. The treaty has no article for them, and Spain’s non-resident tax lets you subtract nothing for them. The plan may also miss the Form 3520 relief in Rev. Proc. 2020-17, because Spain lets you withdraw ten-year-old contributions without penalty.
Overlooking the wealth tax on what stays in Spain
Even with no wealth tax due, a non-resident must file a wealth tax return once Spanish assets, a home included, top €2 million. The income tax treaty does not cover wealth tax, so it offers no relief.
Falling short of Spain’s 15 years, or leaving its system on a posting
A Spanish retirement pension needs at least 15 years of contributions, two of them in the 15 years before you claim it. The US-Spain totalization agreement, in force since April 1, 1988, lets Spain count your US work toward that minimum. On a posting from a Spanish employer, within the agreement’s time limit, you can stay in Spain’s system instead of US Social Security. Your employer asks the TGSS, Spain’s social security treasury, for form E/USA 1 to prove it.
Expecting your parents to pay the gift tax on Spanish property
As a non-resident, you pay Spanish gift tax yourself, but only on property in Spain, such as a flat there. For a flat or other real estate, you may use the gift rules of the region where it is. Madrid’s rules cut a child’s tax by 99% when their conditions are met. Your parents in Spain also owe Spanish income tax on any gain in what they give. The gift goes on modelo 651 within 30 working days, through a representative who lives in Spain.
We check the US tax on a traspaso before you switch, and report your Spanish funds every year.
Every US return Valim prepares for you reports each fondo and plan de pensiones you keep in Spain.
- We prepare your first US return, often a dual-status one, and every federal and state return after it.
- Selling a fondo gets the same check as a switch: we show you the US tax on each choice before you act.
- We decide which fondos need a Form 8621 each year and file them, with your FBAR and any Form 8938. Where a Spanish company calls for Form 5471, we file that too. The instant quote prices every account, every fund and any company in which you own more than 20%.
- We claim Spain’s tax on your rent or state pension as a credit on Form 1116, and set quarterly estimated payments for that income.
- Any Spanish gift tax stays with your gestor, the adviser who files for you in Spain. We file Form 3520 for each year family gifts pass $100,000.
- We reply at no extra charge to an IRS or state notice about a return we prepared, including one on a traspaso.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
How Spanish and US tax rules fit together after the move.
Does Spain have a tax treaty with the US?
Yes, the US-Spain tax treaty is in force. It was signed at Madrid on February 22, 1990. A protocol signed in 2013 has been in force since November 27, 2019. Once you live in the US, Spain may tax your Spanish dividends at no more than 15%, and your Spanish interest not at all. Spain keeps its right to tax Spanish real estate and Spanish social security pensions. Its saving clause, in Article 1(3), binds both countries. Each may tax its own residents and citizens as if the treaty did not exist, apart from the articles it lists.
Do I have to pay US taxes if I move abroad?
A US citizen owes US tax on worldwide income wherever they live, Spain included. A green card keeps you US tax resident abroad until it is rescinded or you formally abandon it, such as with Form I-407. If day count alone made you resident, you owe US tax only on US-source income once you stop meeting the substantial presence test.
What is the exit tax in Spain?
Spain’s income tax law, in article 95 bis, taxes the built-up gain in your shares and fund units when your residence ends. It reaches only people resident for at least 10 of their last 15 years. Their shares and fund units must be worth over €4 million in total, or one stake above 25% must be worth over €1 million. The gain counts as savings income of your last resident year, taxed at 19% to 30%. Real estate, bank deposits and pension plans are outside it.
Are taxes higher in Spain or the USA?
Neither country is higher for everyone: Spain’s national rates on general income run from 9.5% to 24.5% before your region’s rates are added. In Spain, interest, dividends and gains are taxed at 19% to 30% in total. In 2026, $100,000 of US wages costs a single filer $13,170 of federal income tax and $7,650 in payroll tax, before any state tax. As a US resident, you pay US tax on worldwide income, with a credit for Spanish tax on Spanish income.
What happens to my Spanish pension plan when I move to the US?
It stays in place, since leaving Spain is not one of the events that let you cash in a plan de pensiones. Early access is limited to serious illness, long-term unemployment and contributions at least ten years old. An employment plan releases ten-year-old contributions only if its terms allow it. Once you live in the US, the treaty leaves any payout to the US alone. Whether the US taxes the plan’s growth before then is unsettled. Article 20(5) defers that tax, but the saving clause can override it.
Sources
- US-Spain income tax convention (1990)
- Protocol to the US-Spain convention (2013)
- IRS, Spain tax treaty documents
- Spain, Ley 35/2006 del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (personal income tax law)
- Spain, Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004, Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes (non-resident income tax law)
- Agencia Tributaria, Modelo 030 instructions (change of tax address and residence)
- Agencia Tributaria, Imputed income on a home a non-resident keeps for own use
- Agencia Tributaria, Gains when a non-resident sells property in Spain
- Spain, Ley 35/2003 de Instituciones de Inversión Colectiva (investment funds law)
- Spain, Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2002, Ley de Regulación de los Planes y Fondos de Pensiones (pension plans law)
- Spain, Ley 19/1991 del Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (wealth tax)
- Spain, Ley 38/2022, article 3 (solidarity tax on large fortunes)
- Spain, Ley 29/1987 del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (inheritance and gift tax law)
- Agencia Tributaria, Inheritance and gift tax for non-residents: general questions
- Comunidad de Madrid, Decreto Legislativo 1/2010 (regional tax rules, gift and inheritance tax)
- Social Security Administration, Totalization Agreement with Spain
- IRS, Form 6166, Certification of U.S. Tax Residency
- IRS, Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- IRS, Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits
- IRS, Rev. Proc. 2020-17 (exemption for tax-favored foreign trusts)
- IRS, Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments)
- 26 C.F.R. § 301.7701-2, Business entities; definitions
- 26 C.F.R. § 301.7701-3, Classification of certain business entities
- 26 U.S.C. § 1297, Passive foreign investment company
- 26 U.S.C. § 1291, Interest on tax deferral
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8621 (Rev. December 2025)
- 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350, Reports of foreign financial accounts
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8938
- IRS, Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. December 2025)
- 26 U.S.C. § 1012, Basis of property: cost
- 26 U.S.C. § 121, Exclusion of gain from sale of principal residence
- 26 U.S.C. § 901, Taxes of foreign countries and of possessions of United States
- 26 U.S.C. § 904, Limitation on credit
- 26 U.S.C. § 3101, Rate of tax (Social Security and Medicare)
Reviewed and updated October 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.