Digital nomad visa, 120 days in Spain: where is he actually taxed?
An Indian citizen holds a Spanish digital nomad authorisation, works for a US company and a German company in equal measure, and spends 120 days a year in Spain. He is under the 183-day threshold. He may still be a Spanish tax resident — and if he is not, a different country is waiting.
The facts we are working from.
An Indian citizen obtained a Spanish international teleworking authorisation — the digital nomad route. He works remotely for two clients, a US company and a German company, split roughly evenly. He spends about 120 days a year physically in Spain and the rest travelling, including time in India. He never works from the United States. He occasionally visits Germany. He wants to know where he is taxed and what he has to file.
This arrangement is common and it is usually built on one belief: that staying under 183 days keeps a person outside Spanish tax residence. That belief is half right, which is the most dangerous kind. The 183-day rule is real, but it is one of three independent routes into Spanish residence, and failing it does not resolve the question — it moves it.
The three tests, and why one of them is not about days.
Sporadic absences can count toward the 183 days.
Spanish law allows temporary absences to be included in the presence count unless the taxpayer proves tax residence in another country — normally with a residence certificate from that country's authorities. Someone who is resident nowhere therefore cannot easily exclude their travel days. A person spending 120 days in Spain and 245 days moving between places, with no certificate from anywhere, is in a considerably weaker position than the raw count suggests.
The digital nomad paradox.
The authorisation itself works against the non-residence argument, in two ways.
245 days abroad is too many
The teleworking authorisation runs on a three-plus-two scheme and tolerates absences of up to around six months a year. At 120 days in Spain he is absent for roughly eight. Renewal requires demonstrating continuity of residence, and this pattern is difficult to defend. Long-term residence and nationality tracks are stricter still.
The permit says he lives here
He applied for, and holds, a Spanish residence authorisation. Arguing to the tax administration that he is not resident, while holding a document premised on residing, is a position that invites the question rather than answering it.
These are separate regimes — immigration status and tax residence are decided under different rules and one does not automatically determine the other. But they are not unconnected in practice, and an inconsistency between them is a red flag rather than a technicality.
Where the income is not taxed.
Start with the easy part. Neither payer's country wants much from him, provided he stays out of them.
| Source | Position | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| US company income | Generally not US-taxable | He is not a US person and services are performed outside the US. Provide Form W-8BEN. |
| German company income | Generally not German-taxable | A non-resident is taxed in Germany only on defined German-source income; services performed abroad generally are not. |
| Days worked in the US | Creates US-source income | Physical work days in the US can bring a US filing obligation. |
| Days worked in Germany | Creates German-source income | Visits that involve work, not just meetings, need tracking. |
| German client, VAT | Reverse charge, but with duties | B2B services to a German business require EU VAT registration and periodic reporting on his side. |
The German client creates Spanish paperwork, not German tax.
If he operates as a Spanish self-employed professional, invoicing a German business is an intra-community supply of services. That means registration in the intra-community operators register and periodic reporting of those transactions — a Spanish filing obligation triggered entirely by having a German client. The US client, being outside the EU, does not create it.
India: the rule written for exactly this pattern.
This is the part that surprises people, and it is why "resident nowhere" is a worse plan for an Indian citizen than for most other nationalities.
India introduced a deemed residence provision aimed precisely at citizens who arrange their affairs so as to be tax resident in no country at all. In broad terms, an Indian citizen whose total income other than foreign-source income exceeds a defined threshold — commonly cited as 15 lakh rupees — and who is not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence, can be treated as resident in India regardless of how few days were spent there.
- Being resident nowhere is itself a trigger for the Indian rule to be examined
- The threshold applies to non-foreign-source income, so the analysis depends on how his income is characterised under Indian law — not a question to answer casually
- Separate day-count thresholds apply to Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin visiting India, and they are not the same as the general rules
- Where a business is controlled from or a profession set up in India, income can lose its foreign-source character
- The provision has been carried into the newer Indian legislation, so it is not a transitional oddity
- This needs Indian counsel, not a Spanish adviser's summary — including this one
Structuring out of Spanish residence can structure him into Indian residence.
If Spain does not claim him and no other country does either, the Indian deemed-residence provision is precisely the mechanism designed to catch that outcome. Indian residence brings taxation on a far wider base than a Spanish non-resident position, and it is a considerably worse result than simply being Spanish resident with proper planning.
If Spain does claim him: what he files.
Assume the centre of economic interests test lands, or he decides that Spanish residence is the cleaner position. As a Spanish tax resident operating as a self-employed professional, the calendar looks like this.
| Filing | What it is | When |
|---|---|---|
| Modelo 100 | Annual personal income tax return, worldwide income | Spring, for the previous year |
| Modelo 130 | Quarterly payments on account of income tax | Quarterly |
| Modelo 303 | Periodic VAT return | Quarterly, where applicable |
| Modelo 349 | Intra-community transactions — triggered by the German client | Periodically, by volume |
| Modelo 720 | Declaration of assets held abroad above the threshold | Annually, first quarter |
| Modelo 721 | Virtual currencies held abroad, where applicable | Annually |
| RETA registration | Self-employed social security | Before starting activity |
Modelo 720 is not optional and it is easy to trigger.
Spanish residents must declare assets held abroad above a threshold — bank accounts, securities, property. An Indian professional will very often hold Indian bank accounts, mutual funds or property that cross it comfortably. The reporting is informational rather than a tax charge, but failure to file has historically been treated seriously, and it is among the most common omissions by newly resident foreign nationals.
The regime he is giving up.
Here is the sharpest irony in the case. The digital nomad authorisation is the route through which a third-country national gains access to Spain's impatriate regime — a flat rate on employment income, for up to six years, instead of the progressive scale. It is one of the main reasons the visa is worth having.
The regime requires Spanish tax residence
The impatriate regime is a special way of being taxed as a Spanish resident. Someone arguing they are not resident cannot be inside it. Staying under 183 days to avoid Spanish tax therefore forfeits the very benefit the authorisation was obtained to unlock.
Become resident deliberately, and elect
Residence in Spain with the impatriate regime, correctly elected within its window, may produce a materially lower and far more defensible outcome than a contested non-residence position — especially against the risk of Indian deemed residence.
Two conditions have to be checked before this is more than an idea: eligibility depends on prior non-residence and on the nature of his contracts, and self-employed professionals with purely commercial relationships are generally outside the regime. With two client relationships rather than an employment contract, that is a real obstacle and it needs to be examined on the actual documents.
If both countries claim him.
India and Spain have a double taxation convention, and it contains the standard sequence for resolving dual residence. It is applied in order, and it stops at the first test that produces an answer.
The tie-breaker only helps if he is resident somewhere.
A treaty allocates residence between two states that both claim a person. It does nothing for someone claiming to be resident in neither — and that is exactly the position an unplanned 120-day pattern produces.
What he should do.
- Decide where he intends to be resident — and then behave consistently with it. The worst outcome is an unplanned position defended after the fact
- Reconcile the immigration and tax positions — a residence authorisation used for 120 days a year is fragile on renewal regardless of tax
- Obtain Indian advice on deemed residence, specifically on how his income is characterised and whether the threshold applies
- Test impatriate eligibility now, because the election window is short and the contract type may already have closed it
- Keep a day log with evidence — boarding passes, accommodation, card usage. Residence disputes are won and lost on records made at the time
- Fix the client paperwork — W-8BEN for the US payer, and a written statement of where services are performed for both
- Map the filing calendar for whichever residence he lands on, including foreign asset reporting
This case turns on facts and on two other jurisdictions.
We review the Spanish position — residence, impatriate eligibility, registrations and filings — and tell you plainly what is defensible, what is not, and where you need Indian or German counsel alongside us.
- Autorizacion de teletrabajo internacional
- The Spanish international teleworking authorisation, known as the digital nomad visa. Available to third-country nationals only.
- Nucleo principal de intereses economicos
- Main centre of economic interests — the residence test that operates independently of the day count.
- Ausencias esporadicas
- Sporadic absences, which may be counted toward Spanish presence unless residence elsewhere is proven.
- Deemed residence
- The Indian provision treating certain citizens as resident where they are not liable to tax in any other country.
- Modelo 720
- Spanish declaration of assets held abroad above the threshold. Informational, but seriously enforced.
- Modelo 349
- Reporting of intra-community transactions — triggered here by the German client.
- Ley Beckham
- The impatriate regime, accessible through the digital nomad route but only to Spanish tax residents.
- Certificado de residencia fiscal
- Tax residence certificate. The document that proves residence elsewhere — and that he may not be able to obtain from anyone.
Does staying under 183 days keep me out of Spanish tax residence?
Can I hold a digital nomad authorisation and not be a Spanish tax resident?
Do I owe tax in the US or Germany on this income?
Why does having a German client create Spanish paperwork?
What is the Indian deemed residence rule and does it apply to me?
Would becoming Spanish tax resident actually be better?
Can I use the impatriate regime with two client contracts rather than employment?
The rules behind this case.
Under 183 days is not a plan. It is a gap two countries can fill.
Book a consultation ↗Alexander Baranov
Seventeen years designing and delivering cross-border corporate structures — incorporation, tax, holding, banking and market entry — for founders and companies expanding into Spain and the EU. Author of professional books on entering the Spanish market.
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