Galicia: where the income tax is unremarkable and the inheritance tax is not.
On salaries Galicia is almost indistinguishable from Andalusia. What makes it worth a separate article is what happens when money passes between generations: at the very end of 2025 it doubled the inheritance exemption for close family to one million euro, and it is the only region in Spain that relieves wealth tax by exactly half.
Six articles into this series a pattern has appeared: the income tax scales differ less than the headlines suggest, and the taxes on capital differ far more. Galicia is the cleanest illustration of it. Its scale has five brackets running from 9 to 22.5 per cent, which on any salary produces a bill within a few hundred euro of Andalusia's. Nothing about it would justify moving.
Then look at what it does with inheritance, and the picture changes entirely.
Enter the base liquidable general — not gross salary — for a single taxpayer with no children. Madrid applies its own higher regional personal minimum; the other three use the state figure. Regional deductions are not modelled.
The Galician scale.
| Taxable base | Galician rate | Cumulative quota at the floor | Combined marginal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 – 12,985.35 | 9.00% | 0 | 18.5% |
| 12,985.35 – 21,068.60 | 11.65% | 1,168.68 | 23.65% to 26.65% |
| 21,068.60 – 35,200 | 14.90% | 2,110.38 | 29.9% |
| 35,200 – 60,000 | 18.40% | 4,215.96 | 36.9% |
| 60,000 – 300,000 | 22.50% | 8,779.16 | 45.0% |
| Above 300,000 | 22.50% | 47.0% |
Five brackets and 47 per cent, not nine brackets and 47.5.
Several comparison sites credit Galicia with nine autonomic brackets and a combined top of 47.5 per cent. Both are wrong, and the second is arithmetically impossible: 24.5 from the state plus 22.5 from Galicia is 47.0. The figures above are from the Galician tax agency's own publication of article 4, and the cumulative quota column checks out against the rates at every step.
Now the part that matters.
Ley 5/2024 of 27 December, published in the Galician gazette on the last day of that year, raised the inheritance reduction for close family from 500,000 euro to one million, with effect from 31 December 2025. Group I — descendants under 21 — keeps a 99 per cent bonification on top.
Most family estates now pay nothing
A reduction of a million euro applies to the taxable base for each qualifying heir, which for a typical estate of a home and some savings passing to children takes the base to zero before any rate is applied. The tax exists, and for most families it produces no charge.
Nothing changed for anyone else
The reduction is by kinship and belongs to Groups I and II. Siblings, nephews, unrelated heirs and unmarried partners without registered status are outside it, and for them Galicia is not a light-touch jurisdiction.
Set that against the income tax comparison above, and the disproportion is almost comic. Above 60,000 euro of taxable base the Galician and Andalusian scales are identical, so the gap between the two settles at a permanent 103 euro a year — the same figure whether you earn 60,000 or 400,000. Meanwhile the inheritance exemption for close family moved by 500,000 euro in a single stroke. One of those two numbers decides where a family lives, and it is not the annual one.
The only region that chose half.
On wealth tax the rest of Spain has clustered at the ends. Madrid, Andalusia and several others relieve it entirely. Catalonia relieves none of it and starts at 500,000 euro. Valencia relieves none of it either but exempts the first two million outright. Galicia applies a general 50 per cent bonification of the quota, which is unique.
| Region | Wealth tax relief | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Madrid, Andalusia | 100% | Nothing to pay below the state solidarity threshold |
| Galicia | 50% | Half the regional bill, then the state tax on large fortunes above it |
| Valencia | None | But the first 2,000,000 is exempt |
| Catalonia | None | And the exempt minimum is the lowest in Spain at 500,000 |
Halving a regional tax does not halve the state one.
As in Madrid and Andalusia, the state temporary solidarity tax on large fortunes sits above the regional wealth tax and is not affected by a regional bonification. For net wealth above three million euro the practical outcome converges regardless of what the region does. The 50 per cent relief does its work in the band between the exempt minimum and that threshold.
Deductions with a Galician accent.
- Birth and adoption. Between 300 and 1,200 euro, with a further deduction for families with two or more children.
- Rent on a main home. 10 to 20 per cent, at the higher end for younger tenants.
- Renewable energy. 5 per cent, capped at 280 euro — modest, but one of the few regions to offer it at all.
- The demographic challenge. A deduction aimed at people living in rural municipalities at risk of depopulation, which has no equivalent in the larger regions.
- Forestry. Relief tied to managed woodland, which tells you something about where the Galician tax base actually sits.
Is Galicia cheaper than Madrid?
Does the million-euro reduction apply per heir?
What about my unmarried partner?
Why is Galicia's scale full of odd numbers?
A few hundred euro on the salary. A million on the inheritance.
Talk through your position ↗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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