Beckham's Law

[oliverson]

I'm sure this has been asked before but searching the forums only turns up results for Beckham the footballer, not the law named after him!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckham_law

My question is this. I currently work off site 60% of my time and I'd like to spend that time in Spain. To take advantage of Beckham's law I'm wondering whether I could set up a company in Spain and become the sole employee. The Spanish company invoices my UK Limited company, who has the contract with the UK client, pretty much the entire amount. Consequently there'd be no UK corporation tax to pay and if I took the entire amount as Salary from the Spanish company, nothing to pay there either aside from the 24.75% flat rate for me on income tax.

Thoughts?

[BlasterBates]

If you work 40% of the time in the UK and 60% of the time in Spain, you need to apportion the income accordingly as laid out in the double taxation treaty.

I would speak to a UK accountant and a Spanish accountant, this does look complicated and indeed I think you can make use of the "Beckham" law. However the law does state that the Spanish tax authorities expect you to be habitually resident in the UK, in which case the UK tax authorities would also come to the same conclusion and hence tax you on your Spanish income. They would take into account tax paid in Spain.

You will probably also need proof of being habitually resident in the UK and that will include proof of travel, that you own property or a rental agreement and that your family are based in the UK. If you intend to have your home in Spain I think it would be inadvisable to assume you can take advantage of the rule, and make sure that you are not mainly resident in the UK. In the end you will have to prove to either the UK or Spanish tax authorities you are not mainly resident. They will both assume until proven otherwise that you are taxable on world wide income, and you will be expected to declare all your income.