An Italian founder planning to run the company from Spain came to us for the Beckham Law. We found an earlier Spanish residence never closed, a regime that would save little, and an Italian company at risk of being treated as Spanish. The form is the easy part. Plan before you land.
The client
The founder and sole owner of an Italian travel company with a seven-figure turnover, planning to move to Spain and run the business from there. He had lived in Spain some years earlier.
What the client thought
The move was a tax question: apply for the Beckham Law, pay 24% in Spain, done.
What we found
Three things he had not considered.
- His earlier Spanish period had never been formally closed: no deregistration, no final filings. The five-year non-residence requirement had to be proven with the data the Spanish administration holds on him, not reconstructed from memory.
- On his expected salary, the Beckham Law was almost neutral. On his Italian-source income it could be worse, because a taxpayer under the regime may not be treated as resident for tax treaty purposes.
- The real risk was elsewhere. With the founder running it from Spain, the Italian company could be challenged as effectively managed from Spain. And an office he was already using in Spain was an exposure today, before any move.
What we are doing
- First, prove the past: residence certificates for every year and the Spanish records.
- Second, build an Italian management that is real, with people who take and document their own decisions.
- Third, sequence the Spanish registrations only after that.
- Whether to exercise the Beckham option will be decided with the numbers, during the design, not before.
- Until then, one instruction: change nothing. No Spanish tax address, no new roles, no new contracts.
How it ends, done in this order
He moves with an Italian company that stays Italian, a Spanish position that matches what he actually does, and a Beckham decision based on figures, not on hearsay.
The regime is requested with one form. Everything around it decides whether the move works.
If you are planning a move to Spain with the Beckham Law in mind, plan before you land: tell us about your situation and we will review it with you.
