Leaving Spain for Good: the Ordered Checklist
Arriving in Spain has a well-worn path. Leaving does not, and the mistakes are expensive: a tax year you did not mean to be resident for, a self-employed quota that kept running, a flat taxed as if you still lived in it. This is the order to do things in.
The most important decision is when you stop being a Spanish tax resident, because as a rule Spain does not apply split-year treatment when residency changes. Under article 9 of the IRPF Law, spending more than 183 days in Spanish territory in a calendar year is one of the criteria that can make you resident for that entire tax year, with the consequent worldwide-income taxation.
Everything else on this page hinges on that date: the address change, exit tax, how your Spanish flat is taxed and what happens to your residence permit. The checklist follows the order deadlines fall in, not the order people usually think about them.
Written for foreign residents in Valencia leaving Spain for good, whether returning home or moving to a third country. General guidance for 2026; the expat tax guide for Spain covers the rules while you are here, and our legal partner can run your own numbers.
The six things to settle before you go
Each one has a form, a deadline or a trap. Work through them in this order.
Your last tax year
Count the days. Leave before you reach 183 and can prove residence elsewhere, and the year is a non-resident year; leave after, and you owe a full Spanish return the following spring.
The address change
Individuals tell the tax agency of the new domicile on Modelo 030 within three months. Self-employed and business owners use the Modelo 036 instead, which also closes the activity.
The exit-tax check
Only for people who were resident ten of the last fifteen years and hold shares worth over 4 million EUR, or over 25% of a company worth over 1 million EUR. Most people are outside it; check anyway.
The flat
Sold, let or kept empty, a property you leave behind is taxed under non-resident income tax from the year you stop being resident. Decide before you go, not after.
Pension and social security
A Spanish contributory pension follows you abroad, with a yearly proof of life. Contribution years move under EU coordination or a bilateral agreement; a private Spanish pension plan generally does not.
Padr贸n, consulate and TIE
Deregister from the padr贸n, close your entry at your own country's consulate, and understand what your residence permit does once you have gone.
Tax residence: the date, the form and the certificate
Spain counts presence by calendar year and treats sporadic absences as days in Spain unless you can prove tax residence in another country. So the clean exit is to leave, register for tax where you land, and obtain that country's tax residence certificate for the year in question. Without it, a departure in September still leaves you Spanish resident until 31 December.
Once you have gone, individuals who are not on the business census file Modelo 030 to move their fiscal domicile abroad, within three months of the change. If you were self-employed, the Modelo 036 does both jobs at once: it deregisters the activity and records the new address. The simplified Modelo 037 no longer exists; it was withdrawn in February 2025 and everything now goes through the 036.
Your last Spanish return is filed the following spring as normal. If you were on the Beckham regime, leaving ends it; if you had foreign assets declared on the Modelo 720, no further filing is due once you are non-resident. Keep the tax residence certificate from your new country with your Spanish papers for at least four years, the period the tax agency can reopen.
The exit tax, and why most people can ignore it
The Spanish exit tax (article 95 bis of the IRPF Law) charges the latent gain on shares and fund units when a long-term resident leaves. It only applies if you meet two conditions at once: having been a Spanish tax resident in at least 10 of the last 15 tax periods, and clearing one of these thresholds: holdings worth more than 4 million EUR in total, or more than 25% of a company valued above 1 million EUR.
Years under the Beckham Law do not count towards that ten, so most incoming professionals fall outside the regime. If you move within the EU or the EEA the payment is deferred, and only becomes due if within the next ten years you sell the shares, leave the EU/EEA, or stop reporting your situation to the tax agency.
The trap is the founder or senior employee with a large stake in a single company, not the diversified portfolio. Timing and destination country matter: a move to Switzerland, the UK or the US makes the bill payable straight away.
Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0
The deposit
Under the tenancy law the landlord must return the deposit at the end of the lease, and any balance unpaid one month after you hand back the keys earns legal interest. Take dated photographs and a signed inventory at the handover, and leave a Spanish bank account open to receive it.
Closing the aut贸nomo, the flat and the pension
Self-employed workers, the aut贸nomos (), deregister from the RETA through the Seguridad Social's Import@ss portal. You can schedule the baja up to 60 days ahead; if you have already stopped, you have six calendar days. The tax baja on Modelo 036 is a separate step, and you need both.
A flat you keep becomes non-resident property. The non-resident tax guide covers every case; the summary is:
A Spanish public pension is paid abroad by transfer; overseas pensioners prove they are alive each year, in the first quarter, via the VIVESS app, a consulate, or a local-authority certificate. UK-linked pensions have their own rules. A private Spanish pension plan stays in Spain and is paid from here.
| Situation | Tax treatment |
|---|---|
| Rented to EU/EEA residents | 19% on rental income, deductible expenses allowed (Modelo 210) |
| Rented to non-EU/EEA tenants | 24% flat on gross rent, no deductions (Modelo 210) |
| Left vacant | Imputed income on the cadastral value |
| Sold as non-resident | Buyer withholds 3% of the price on account of your gain |
Padr贸n, consulate, TIE and the flat you rented
Write to the Ajuntament to say you have left, with the date and destination country, so your padr贸n entry is closed rather than left dormant. Non-EU residents without long-term residence must renew every two years anyway under article 16 of the Local Government Bases Act; a dormant entry can complicate a later return or a tax check.
The baja consular () is the mirror step at your own country's consulate (each country has its own version or none). Do it once you have a new address, because your consulate is where your tax authority and pension provider will look for you.
The TIE is not returned, but the underlying permit does not survive a definitive move. The 2024 Immigration Regulation removed the old automatic loss of temporary residence after six months out and now weighs absences at renewal; long-term residence lapses after twelve consecutive months outside the EU. If you are leaving for good, do not renew from abroad: clean exit, and a fresh application if you come back.
Where departures go wrong
Leaving in the second half of the year without a certificate
184 days in Spain is a full resident year. Without a tax residence certificate from the new country, the tax agency will treat the autumn abroad as a sporadic absence and expect a worldwide return.
Forgetting the RETA baja
The quota is charged monthly until the baja is filed, and a late baja is dated from the filing, not from the day you stopped. Six calendar days is the window.
Closing the Spanish bank account first
The deposit, a final electricity refund, a tax rebate and the 3% withholding reclaim all pay into a Spanish IBAN. Keep the account open for a year.
Letting the empty flat drift
An empty property still owes deemed income tax every year on the Modelo 210, and IBI to the Ajuntament. Appoint a fiscal representative or a gestor before you leave, not when the first letter arrives.
The checklist in order
- 1
Fix the departure date against the 183-day rule
Decide which year you want to be your last resident year and count backwards. If the move is flexible, a first-half departure with a tax residence certificate from the new country is the cleanest outcome.
- 2
Close the activity and file the address change
RETA baja through Import@ss within six calendar days of stopping, Modelo 036 for the census baja and the foreign address, or Modelo 030 within three months if you were not self-employed. Ask a gestor to confirm nothing quarterly is still pending.
- 3
Decide the flat, then the utilities
Sell, let or keep, and appoint someone in Spain to file the Modelo 210. Give notice on electricity, gas, water and internet with the meter readings, and check any minimum-term penalty on the internet contract.
- 4
Padr贸n, consulate and social security
Write to the Ajuntament with the departure date and destination, close your consular registration, and ask the Seguridad Social for your contribution record and, if you are drawing a pension, the payment-abroad form.
- 5
Make the will and the residence card match the new life
A Spanish will that chose Spanish law because you lived here may now need a new choice; and if you might come back within a year, understand what your residence permit still allows before you let it lapse.
Going home versus going somewhere new
Returning to your own country is the simpler case. Your home tax office already knows you, the consulate is closing rather than opening a file, and any tax treaty between Spain and home decides which country taxes the final year. What changes is the direction of the paperwork, not its nature.
Moving to a third country adds one question: whether it has a tax treaty and a social security agreement with Spain. Inside the EU and EEA both are automatic; outside, a Spanish pension is still paid but contribution years may not combine, and the exit tax cannot be deferred.
Either way, a departure is the one moment when a single conversation with a lawyer and a gestor pays for itself. The forms are simple; it is the order and the dates that catch people, and those are what our partner firm checks in a single review.
Official sources
- Ley 35/2006 del IRPF, article 9, tax residence and the 183-day rule (BOE)
- Agencia Tributaria: communicating a change of fiscal domicile, Modelo 030
- Agencia Tributaria: special regime for capital gains on change of residence (exit tax), IRPF manual
- Orden HAC/1526/2024, withdrawal of Modelo 037 and the new Modelo 036 (BOE)
- Seguridad Social Import@ss: baja en trabajo aut贸nomo
- Ministerio de Inclusi贸n: pensioners abroad prove they are alive each year
- Ley 7/1985 de Bases del R茅gimen Local, article 16, two-year padr贸n renewal (BOE)
- Real Decreto 1155/2024, immigration regulation, articles 200 and 201 (BOE)
- Ley 29/1994 de Arrendamientos Urbanos, article 36, return of the deposit (BOE)
Resident in Valencia since 2016. Founder of BeTranslated. 25+ years in translation, interpretation and multilingual SEO.
Reviewed 4 September 2026 by Michael Bastin