New resident in 2026? The foreign-assets declaration you will file by 31 March 2027 (Modelo 720/721)

If 2026 is the year you became a tax resident of Spain, the first thing you owe the tax office about your life before Fuerteventura is not a payment. It is a list. Between 1 January and 31 March 2027 you will file the Modelo 720, the information return on accounts, investments, insurance and property held abroad, and, if you keep crypto on a foreign exchange, its sibling the Modelo 721. Nothing is paid with either form. What they carry is a photograph of what you own outside Spain on 31 December, block by block, above a €50,000 line per block. This piece reads the rule as it stands in September 2026: the eighteenth additional provision of the General Tax Act as rewritten in March 2022 after the Court of Justice struck down the old penalties, the three regulation articles that set the blocks and the thresholds, the order that approves the form, the tax office's own list of questions updated in February 2025, and the judgment itself. Then it files the return for a couple who moved to the island this year, line by line.

Who files it, and why the year matters more than the arrival date

The obligation sits in the General Tax Act, whose eighteenth additional provision says that Los obligados tributarios deberán suministrar a la Administración Tributaria, conforme a lo dispuesto en los artículos 29 y 93 de esta ley y en los términos que reglamentariamente se establezcan, la siguiente información, taxpayers must supply the tax administration with the following information, and then lists four things: accounts abroad, securities and rights and insurance and annuities abroad, property abroad, and virtual currencies abroad. The regulation that fills in the terms is the Real Decreto 1065/2007, whose articles 42 bis, 42 ter, 42 quater and 54 bis each open with the same sentence on who is bound: Las personas físicas y jurídicas residentes en territorio español, los establecimientos permanentes en dicho territorio de personas o entidades no residentes y las entidades a que se refiere el artículo 35.4 de la Ley 58/2003, natural and legal persons resident in Spain, Spanish permanent establishments of non-residents, and entities without legal personality such as estates and communities. The duty reaches beyond the formal owner: the provision se extenderán a quienes tengan la consideración de titulares reales de acuerdo con lo previsto en el apartado 2 del artículo 4 de la Ley 10/2010, extends to beneficial owners as defined by the anti-money-laundering law, and, for accounts, to anyone who is a representative, an authorised signatory or a beneficiary, or who simply holds a power of disposal.

Residence is measured for the year the return describes, not for the day you file. The tax office's questions put it in one line, La residencia fiscal se refiere al ejercicio al que se refiere la declaración informativa, tax residence refers to the year the return refers to, and give the example of someone who was non-resident in one year and resident the next: no return for the first year, a return in the year after the second. So a person who is resident for 2026 files the 720 for 2026 between January and March 2027; a person who arrived too late in 2026 to be resident under the 183-day rule and its two other tests files nothing in 2027 and starts with the 2027 return in 2028. The return follows residence, and residence is a question of days and interests, not of the date on the padrón.

One group of new residents is expressly outside: those taxed under the Beckham regime. The tax office's list asks whether a person under article 93 of the income-tax law must file the 720 and whether the spouse and children must, and answers the first question with a single word, «No». The reasoning follows in the next paragraph: the consequences of not filing were written for taxpayers taxed on their whole income, a circumstance que no concurre para las personas físicas acogidas al mencionado régimen fiscal previsto en el artículo 93 de la Ley de IRPF, por lo que no resultan obligados a cumplimentar la nueva declaración informativa, that does not apply to persons under the article 93 regime, who are therefore not obliged to complete the return. The exemption does not travel with the family: the regime no resulta extensible al resto de miembros de la unidad familiar, los cuales podrán estar sujetas a la obligación de información sobre bienes y derechos situados en el extranjero en la medida en la que sean residentes fiscales en España, does not extend to the other members of the family unit, who may be subject to the obligation to the extent that they are tax resident in Spain. We wrote up who qualifies for the regime and what 24 % really covers in the previous piece; a spouse who has not opted, or who cannot, files a full 720 on the assets in their own name and on their half of anything held jointly.

The three blocks, the €50,000 line and what counts as «abroad»

The tax office describes the form as one model for three separate information obligations, and the distinction matters twice: the €50,000 threshold is tested block by block, and, since 2022, so are the penalties. The blocks, and the fourth that now lives in its own form, are these.

For accounts the rule is article 42 bis of the regulation. The return carries Los saldos de las cuentas a 31 de diciembre y el saldo medio correspondiente al último trimestre del año, the balances on 31 December and the average balance of the last quarter of the year, and the threshold reads: No existirá obligación de informar sobre ninguna cuenta cuando los saldos a 31 de diciembre a los que se refiere el apartado 2.d) no superen, conjuntamente, los 50.000 euros, y la misma circunstancia concurra en relación con los saldos medios a que se refiere el mismo apartado. En caso de superarse cualquiera de dichos límites conjuntos deberá informarse sobre todas las cuentas, there is no duty to report any account when the joint 31 December balances do not exceed €50,000 and the same is true of the average balances; if either joint limit is exceeded, every account must be reported. A balance that spiked during the year and fell back by December does not count: the tax office's example of an account that reached €67,000 in April and closed the year at €45,650 with a fourth-quarter average of €46,200.45 ends with the words la cuenta no debe ser objeto de declaración ya que, aunque a lo largo del ejercicio se han superado los 50.000 €, ni el saldo medio del último trimestre ni el saldo a 31 de diciembre superan esa cantidad, the account need not be declared because, although €50,000 was exceeded during the year, neither the fourth-quarter average nor the 31 December balance exceeds it. Overdrawn accounts are netted against the others: Para determinar si se supera dicho umbral, se han de netear los saldos negativos con los positivos, to determine whether the threshold is exceeded, negative balances are netted against positive ones.

For the second block, article 42 ter, the threshold is joint across everything in it: no superen, conjuntamente, el importe de 50.000 euros. En caso de superarse dicho límite conjunto deberá informarse sobre todos los títulos, activos, valores, derechos, seguros o rentas, and if the joint limit is exceeded every security, asset, right, insurance and annuity is reported. Life insurance goes in con indicación de su valor de rescate a dicha fecha, with its surrender value on 31 December, and pure term cover stays out: the rule no se aplicará a los seguros temporales que únicamente incluyan prestaciones en caso de fallecimiento o invalidez u otras garantías complementarias de riesgo, does not apply to term policies that only pay on death or disability or other risk covers. Property, article 54 bis, is tested on acquisition values: No existirá obligación de informar sobre ningún inmueble o derecho sobre bien inmueble cuando los valores a que se refieren los apartados 2.d), 3 y 4 no superasen, conjuntamente, los 50.000 euros, no duty to report any property or right over property when those values do not jointly exceed €50,000.

Joint ownership does not divide the threshold. Where an account or a property belongs to several people, Se informará de los saldos totales sin prorratear, indicando el porcentaje de participación, the total balances are reported without apportionment, stating the percentage held, and the same rule applies to every block. A couple with a joint account of €60,000 each file the account at €60,000 with a 50 % share; neither may say that their half is below the line. Spouses under the Spanish community regime both file even when only one is the formal holder: ambos cónyuges (si están dentro del ámbito subjetivo de la obligación) tienen obligación de presentar la declaración, both spouses, if within the scope of the obligation, must file, the holder as owner at 100 % and the other as beneficial owner at 50 %.

«Abroad» is defined by where the asset sits, not by the nationality of the owner or the currency. Accounts at a foreign branch of a Spanish bank are excluded when the bank itself reports them to Spain, under article 42 bis.4.d. Foreign shares kept with a Spanish custodian are not reported, because the custodian reports them: the tax office says no existe obligación de informar sobre las mismas en virtud del artículo 42 ter.1 del Reglamento General aprobado por el RD 1065/2007, de 27 de julio, siempre que estas entidades depositarias estén obligadas a proporcionar a la Administración tributaria la información sobre el titular de los valores en ellas depositados, there is no duty to report them provided the custodian is obliged to give the administration the information on the holder. Foreign funds bought through their Spanish distributor and life policies taken with a foreign insurer that operates in Spain through a representative follow the same logic. An account that was declared while it was abroad and is later migrated to a Spanish bank is not declared again: No existe obligación de informar en el modelo 720 una cuenta bancaria originariamente situada en el extranjero, que en un ejercicio anterior haya estado sujeta a la obligación de información en el citado modelo 720, cuando se haya producido su migración a una entidad financiera establecida en España, unless the migration closed the old account, which is then reported as an extinction. Crypto is «abroad» when the custodian of the keys is one that does not report to Spain, and the coins are those custodiadas por personas o entidades que proporcionan servicios para salvaguardar claves criptográficas privadas en nombre de terceros, para mantener, almacenar y transferir monedas virtuales, held by persons or entities that safeguard private keys on behalf of third parties to keep, store and transfer them. Coins in a wallet whose keys you hold yourself are not custodied by anyone and are outside both forms.

What is not on the list, and what surprises people

The list is closed, and the tax office has spent twelve years answering what falls outside it. Foreign pension plans are the question every British and Dutch retiree asks, and the answer is that No existe obligación de información sobre los planes de pensiones (de las aportaciones a los mismos) en tanto no se produzca la incidencia que da lugar al cobro de la pensión en modo de renta temporal o vitalicia, there is no duty to report pension plans, meaning the contributions to them, until the contingency that turns the plan into a temporary or life annuity occurs. Two qualifications follow in the same answer: a plan whose terms give the member a surrender right in the manner of a life policy is reported under the insurance rule with its surrender value, and once a contingency has occurred the beneficiary reports the rights, either as surrender value or as an annuity. We covered how those pensions are taxed once they are paid in a piece of its own; the 720 side is that a pension in accumulation is invisible to the form and a pension in payment from a foreign insurer is a line in it.

Physical things are outside. Asked about art, boats, gold bars, jewellery and cash not held in an account, the tax office answers that No existe obligación de información sobre estos bienes entendidos como tales, there is no duty to report these assets as such, unless they are the underlying of something that is reported, such as an annuity bought with them. Stock options are outside. Loans you have made to a foreign company, trade receivables and profit-sharing loans are outside unless the loan is represented by a security. A deposit paid towards a foreign property before completion is outside until title passes. Inside, and often missed: exchange-traded funds, which deben declararse con la clave de tipo de bien o derecho I, must be declared under key I as foreign collective-investment holdings; unit-linked policies, where el hecho de que el tomador asuma los riesgos de la inversión en que se materializan las provisiones no altera la obligación de declarar, the fact that the policyholder bears the investment risk does not change the duty to declare; cash-pooling accounts of a group; accounts on which you are merely an authorised signatory for a relative, which count as yours for the threshold when you are the holder of another. The signatory rule stops at accounts: La figura o condición de autorizado solamente se establece como obligada a presentar declaración informativa respecto de las cuentas comprendidas en el artículo 42 bis, the status of authorised person creates a duty only for accounts, so a power over a relative's foreign brokerage account brings nothing into your return. Trusts have their own answers: a resident settlor reports the assets as their owner, a resident trustee reports the powers held, and a resident beneficiary reports only when the benefit is real rather than potential.

Valuing what you declare

The regulation sends valuation to the wealth-tax rules: Las valoraciones a que se refieren los distintos apartados de este artículo deberán suministrarse calculadas conforme a las reglas establecidas en la Ley 19/1991, de 6 de junio, del Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio, the valuations must be supplied under the rules of the wealth-tax law. In practice that means the fourth-quarter average price for listed shares, with the tax office accepting the 31 December quotation for shares and bonds listed on a comparable foreign market, the net asset value on 31 December for fund units, the surrender value or the mathematical reserve for life insurance, the capitalised value for annuities, and the book value for unlisted companies. Property is different: the form carries the acquisition value, and el valor de adquisición incluirá gastos inherentes a la compra e impuestos, the acquisition value includes the costs and taxes of the purchase; an inherited or gifted property carries its real value at the date it was acquired. Everything is converted aplicando el tipo de cambio vigente a 31 de diciembre del ejercicio al que corresponde la información declarada, at the exchange rate in force on 31 December of the year declared, including the acquisition value of a property bought years earlier, and an account closed during the year is converted at the rate of the closing date. Crypto is valued by the holder: the regulation says the obliged persons tomarán la cotización a 31 de diciembre que ofrezcan las principales plataformas de negociación o sitios web de seguimiento de precios, take the 31 December quotation offered by the main trading platforms or price-tracking sites, and state the quotation used.

First year, following years and the €20,000 rule

The window is the same in the regulation and in the order that approves the form: the obligation deberá cumplirse entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de marzo del año siguiente a aquel al que se refiera la información a suministrar, must be met between 1 January and 31 March of the year after the one the information refers to. The order adds a small mercy for technical failures, dicha presentación podrá efectuarse durante los tres días naturales siguientes al de finalización de dicho plazo, filing may be made during the three calendar days after the deadline, and a hard rule on form: the return se efectuará por vía telemática a través de Internet, is filed electronically over the internet, with a certificate or Cl@ve, by the taxpayer or by a representative such as this office. There is no paper 720 and there never was.

After the first return, the form is not annual. The regulation says that La presentación de la declaración en los años sucesivos sólo será obligatoria cuando cualquiera de los saldos conjuntos a que se refiere el apartado 4.e) hubiese experimentado un incremento superior a 20.000 euros respecto de los que determinaron la presentación de la última declaración, filing in later years is only compulsory when either joint balance has risen by more than €20,000 over the figures that triggered the last return, and the securities and property articles repeat the rule for their own blocks. The tax office's worked example runs three years: a first return with accounts totalling €57,000 on 31 December, no return the next year when the total rises by €18,000, a return the year after when the cumulative rise over the last return reaches €28,000. The comparison is always with the last return filed for that block, not with the previous year, and for accounts it is made on both figures, the 31 December balance and the fourth-quarter average. Exchange-rate movements count towards the €20,000 for accounts and securities; for property, once the acquisition value has been declared, las variaciones en el tipo de cambio que se produzcan en años posteriores al año de declaración no se tendrán en cuenta, later exchange-rate changes are disregarded.

Three events force a return regardless of the €20,000 rule. Selling, closing or losing a reported asset must be declared for the year it happened, with the transfer value and the date for property; the regulation's own words for property are that the return deberá incorporar el valor de transmisión del inmueble o derecho y la fecha de ésta. Losing a status must be declared: an authorised signatory whose authorisation is revoked reports the balance on the day of the revocation. And a reported account that falls below €50,000 and is then closed is still reported at closure. The mirror rule protects those who never crossed the line: an account that was never reportable is not reported when it is closed, in the tax office's words tampoco debe informarse de la cancelación de la cuenta ya que no he tenido obligación de presentar la declaración informativa por cuentas bancarias con anterioridad. Investors who churn a foreign portfolio have a simplification: where securities were sold during the year and the proceeds fully reinvested in other reportable securities, only the 31 December balances are declared, not each sale.

The 721 follows the same calendar. Article 42 quater was added to the regulation in April 2023, the order approving the form is the Orden HFP/886/2023, and its final provision applied it for the first time to the return correspondiente al ejercicio 2023, que se presentará entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de marzo de 2024, for the 2023 year, filed between 1 January and 31 March 2024. The 720 page of the tax office now opens with a notice that En el modelo 720 no se informa de monedas virtuales, virtual currencies are not reported in the 720: they have their own form, their own €50,000 line and their own €20,000 rule.

Penalties after Luxembourg: what changed on 11 March 2022

The 720 was born in the Ley 7/2012 with a penalty regime that had no equal in Spanish tax law, and it is worth knowing what it was, because the internet still repeats it. The provision fined the failure to report an account at 5.000 euros por cada dato o conjunto de datos referidos a una misma cuenta que hubiera debido incluirse en la declaración o hubieran sido aportados de forma incompleta, inexacta o falsa, con un mínimo de 10.000 euros, €5,000 per item or set of items per account, with a minimum of €10,000, and a late return filed without a request at 100 euros por cada dato o conjunto de datos referidos a una misma cuenta, con un mínimo de 1.500 euros, €100 per item with a minimum of €1,500, the same scale for each of the three blocks. The income-tax law added that undeclared foreign assets se integrarán en la base liquidable general del periodo impositivo más antiguo entre los no prescritos susceptible de regularización, were taxed as unjustified gains in the oldest open year, whatever their real age, and a first additional provision of the same 2012 law put a 150 % fine on the tax so assessed.

The European Commission took Spain to the Court of Justice, and on 27 January 2022 the Court gave judgment in case C-788/19. It accepted the obligation itself and the presumption of hidden income behind it, but found three breaches of the free movement of capital. Spain had failed by treating unreported foreign assets as unjustified gains sin posibilidad, en la práctica, de ampararse en la prescripción, with no practical possibility of relying on limitation; by the 150 % fine, whose rate, the Court said, le confiere un carácter extremadamente represivo, gives it an extremely repressive character; and by fixed fines cuyo importe no guarda proporción alguna con las sanciones previstas para infracciones similares en un contexto puramente nacional y cuyo importe total no está limitado, whose amount bears no proportion to the penalties for similar infringements in a purely domestic context and whose total is not capped. The Commission's plea, recorded in the judgment, was that the fixed fines were fifteen, fifty or sixty-six times those of the ordinary regime.

Spain rewrote the rule six weeks later. The Ley 5/2022 of 9 March, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 10 March and in force the day after, kept the obligation and deleted its second and third paragraphs, struck article 39.2 from the income-tax law and article 121.6 from the corporate-tax law, and left the 720 under the ordinary penalties of articles 198 and 199 of the General Tax Act. The tax office's own answer now reads that El régimen sancionador aplicable para la declaración informativa (Modelo 720) es el régimen general establecido en los artículos 198 y 199 de la Ley 58/2003, and that Estas sanciones se aplican de forma independiente para cada una de las tres obligaciones de información, the penalties apply independently to each of the three information obligations.

What the reform leaves in place is the ordinary law on unjustified gains and the ordinary clock. Article 39 now reads that unjustified gains are taxed in the year they are discovered salvo que el contribuyente pruebe suficientemente que ha sido titular de los bienes o derechos correspondientes desde una fecha anterior a la del periodo de prescripción, unless the taxpayer proves sufficiently that they owned the assets from before the limitation period, and article 66 of the General Tax Act sets that period: Prescribirán a los cuatro años los siguientes derechos: a) El derecho de la Administración para determinar la deuda tributaria mediante la oportuna liquidación, the administration's right to assess the tax expires after four years. A 720 filed late is now a formal breach with a three-figure price per block, and, because nothing is paid with it, none of the 1 %-a-month surcharges that a late self-assessment carries; the four-year limit protects the income that bought the assets like any other income. It does not protect what the assets earn each year: the interest, dividends, rents and gains of everything on the list belong in the income-tax return of a resident, and the form exists so that the tax office can check that they are there.

From Fuerteventura: a couple's first 720, line by line

A British couple, 58 and 56, moved to Corralejo in February 2026 and are resident for the whole of 2026 under the 183-day rule; neither has opted for the Beckham regime, because neither has a Spanish employer. On 31 December 2026 they hold, outside Spain, two joint sterling accounts, a stocks-and-shares ISA in her name, a whole-of-life policy in his name with a surrender value, a flat in Leeds they kept for family visits, his workplace pension not yet in payment, and some crypto on a foreign exchange in his name. We take the rate on 31 December 2026 as €1.17 to the pound for the example; the real rate is the one on the day.

The accounts block. The current account holds £22,000 and the savings account £31,000 on 31 December, €25,740 and €36,270, a joint €62,010; their fourth-quarter averages add up to €59,400. Both figures exceed €50,000, so each spouse lists both accounts, at their full balances, with a 50 % share. Had the joint balances been €48,000 on 31 December and €53,000 on average, the accounts would still be listed, because either figure opens the block.

The securities block, tested per person. Her ISA holds units in three funds worth €58,000 at their net asset value on 31 December; the wrapper is a British tax status that means nothing to the form, so the units are reported under key I as holdings in foreign collective-investment institutions, all three, because her block exceeds €50,000. His block holds only the life policy, surrender value €12,000, which is below the line: he reports nothing in this block, and the policy is not added to hers, because the joint limit is measured on what each taxpayer holds. The workplace pension is not on either return until it pays.

The property block. The Leeds flat cost £180,000 in 2009 with duty and fees, which at the 31 December 2026 rate is €210,600; both spouses list it with the acquisition date and a 50 % share. It is also a line in their 2026 income-tax return, because an urban property that is neither rented nor a habitual home produces imputed income under article 85 of the income-tax law, and a foreign property has no cadastral value, so el porcentaje será del 1,1 por ciento y se aplicará sobre el 50 por ciento del mayor de los siguientes valores: el comprobado por la Administración a efectos de otros tributos o el precio, contraprestación o valor de la adquisición, the rate is 1.1 % applied to 50 % of the acquisition value: €1,158.30 of income between them for the year, taxed at their marginal rates.

The crypto. His holdings on the foreign exchange are worth €31,000 at the 31 December quotation, below €50,000: no 721 this year, and the value is noted for the €20,000 test of later years. Had he kept the coins in a wallet under his own keys, they would be outside the 721 whatever their value.

The calendar. Both returns are filed between 1 January and 31 March 2027, electronically, from this office with a signed authorisation. In 2028 they file again only if a block has risen by more than €20,000 over these figures, or if something reported has been sold, closed or surrendered: selling the ISA units in 2027 puts her securities block back in the 2027 return with the extinction; the flat sold in 2027 puts the property block back with the price and the date. And the cost of forgetting, at today's law: a 720 filed in June 2027 without a letter from the tax office is a late return under article 198.2, €10 per item with a minimum of €150 for each of the blocks concerned, so €300 for him and €450 for her; the same return filed after a request costs €20 per item with a €300 minimum per block. Under the 2012 rule the same lapse carried a minimum of €1,500 per block if voluntary and €10,000 per block if requested.

Common questions

We arrived in September 2026. Is our first 720 due in March 2027?

Probably not. The return describes the year in which you were tax resident, and a person who spent fewer than 183 days in Spain in 2026 is normally not resident for 2026 unless the centre of their economic interests was already here. If your residence starts in 2027, the first 720 is the one for 2027, filed between 1 January and 31 March 2028. The tax office's answer is that residence is measured for the year the return refers to, and a return filed for a year in which you were not resident is not owed. Count the days before you file, not after.

My husband is under the Beckham regime. Do I file a 720?

Yes, if you are tax resident in Spain and your assets abroad cross a block's €50,000 line. The tax office exempts the person under article 93 with a one-word answer and, in the same reply, says the exemption does not extend to the rest of the family unit. Joint accounts and joint property go into your return at their full value with your percentage; his own accounts and investments stay out of everything while the regime lasts.

We forgot the 720 for 2025. What happens if we file it now?

You file it late without a request, and the penalty is the halved fine of article 198.2 of the General Tax Act: €10 per item or set of items, with a minimum of €150 and a maximum of €10,000, applied separately to each block you were bound to report. The 150 % fine, the €1,500 minimum and the taxation of the assets as unjustified gains of an imprescriptible year ended on 11 March 2022 with the Ley 5/2022; the income that bought the assets is protected by the ordinary four-year limitation like any other income, and only the income the assets produce each year has to be in your income-tax returns.

Is the 720 a tax? What do we actually pay on assets abroad?

Nothing through the 720 or the 721: they are information returns with no box for a payment. What a resident pays on assets abroad comes through other returns: income tax on the interest, dividends, rents, gains and, for an empty foreign property, the imputed income of article 85; wealth tax on worldwide net assets where the exempt minimum is exceeded; and inheritance or gift tax when the assets change hands. The form is the map the tax office uses to check those returns, and a map that matches them is the best protection a new resident can have.

The tax team at our Caleta de Fuste and Costa Calma offices prepares the 720 and the 721 for new residents, tests the thresholds block by block from the year-end statements, files with a signed authorisation and keeps the record of the values that will decide whether a return is due in the years after. The tax advisory page describes the service and a first meeting can be booked online.

Facts verified in September 2026 (Ley 58/2003, eighteenth additional provision in the wording of the Ley 5/2022 and articles 66, 198 and 199; Real Decreto 1065/2007, articles 42 bis, 42 ter, 42 quater and 54 bis; Orden HAP/72/2013 as amended by the Orden HFP/1180/2023; Orden HFP/886/2023; Ley 35/2006, articles 39 and 85; Ley 27/2014, article 121; the judgment of the Court of Justice of 27 January 2022 in case C-788/19 and the Court's press release 18/22; the tax office's Modelo 720 questions updated to February 2025 and its Modelo 720 and 721 pages). The example rate of €1.17 to the pound and the figures of the couple are illustrative; the thresholds and penalties are the ones in force on the date shown and are re-checked before every filing.