Working from Spain for a US company: who taxes what.
A French citizen living permanently in Spain, contracted personally by a US company, taking home 6,000 euro a month. Three countries could plausibly want something. In practice only one of them gets most of it — and one contractual detail decides how much.
The facts we are working from.
A French national has moved to Spain and lives there permanently. He works remotely, under a contract in his own name, for a company incorporated in the United States with no presence in Spain. He never travels to the US for work. He takes home the equivalent of 6,000 euro a month, or 72,000 euro a year, and wants to know what is owed and to whom.
People in this position usually arrive with the wrong question. They ask whether they owe tax in France because they are French, or in the United States because the payer is American. Both instincts are understandable and both are largely wrong. The answer turns on residence, on where the work is physically done, and on a contractual detail most people have never thought about.
Step one: where is he tax resident?
Spain, and this is not a close call. Spanish tax residence is generally triggered by spending more than 183 days in the country in a calendar year, or by having the main centre of economic interests there. Someone who lives in Spain permanently satisfies both.
Leaving French tax residence is an act, not an assumption.
Moving physically is not the same as having exited cleanly. The departure should be reflected in the French filings for the year of the move, and anyone who held a substantial shareholding on leaving should check whether French exit taxation applies to them. It is far cheaper to establish this at the time than to argue it three years later.
Step two: the detail that decides everything.
A "personal contract" with a foreign company is not one thing. Spanish tax and social security law will look through the label to the substance, and the answer falls into one of two boxes.
Employment relationship
He is an employee of the US company: fixed hours or availability, subordination, integration into the employer's organisation, tools and direction provided. His income is rendimientos del trabajo — employment income.
Independent services
He is a self-employed professional invoicing a client: his own methods, his own risk, potentially other clients. His income is rendimientos de actividades economicas, and he must register as autonomo.
Most people in this situation are placed in Box B by default, because the US company does not want the administrative burden of employing someone in Spain and simply asks for invoices. That default has consequences, and the largest of them concerns a tax regime he may otherwise have qualified for.
The Beckham problem, and why being French makes it worse.
Spain's impatriate regime — the Ley Beckham — taxes qualifying arrivals at a flat 24% on employment income up to 600,000 euro for up to six years, instead of the ordinary progressive scale. At this income level the difference is substantial. The 2022 Startups Law extended it to international teleworkers, which is exactly what our case looks like.
Two obstacles stand in the way, and together they catch a lot of EU citizens.
| Obstacle | Position | Effect on this case |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomo status | Self-employed with a mercantile relationship generally cannot access the regime | Box B likely closes the door |
| Digital nomad visa | Available only to third-country nationals, not EU, EEA or Swiss citizens | As a French citizen he cannot take that route at all |
| Employment contract | Employees receiving rendimientos del trabajo may qualify | Box A keeps the option open |
| Prior non-residence | Not Spanish tax resident in the five preceding years | Must be checked, not assumed |
| Election deadline | A limited window from the qualifying start point | Missed, and the regime is gone for all six years |
The teleworker route into Beckham was built around a visa that EU citizens cannot obtain.
A non-EU remote worker gets the digital nomad visa and, with it, a clear path into the impatriate regime. An EU citizen needs no visa to live in Spain — and therefore has no visa to point at. Whether the regime remains accessible to him depends on the nature of his contract and on current administrative practice, which is precisely why this needs professional confirmation rather than an assumption in either direction.
Step three: the numbers, three ways.
The target is 72,000 euro a year in his pocket. What has to be earned before that depends entirely on which route applies. The figures below are illustrative approximations using the general state and regional IRPF scale, ignoring personal allowances, family circumstances and regional variation — all of which move the result.
The shape is what matters. At 72,000 euro net, the gap between the impatriate regime and the ordinary scale is in the region of 25,000 euro a year, every year, for up to six years. That is why the contractual question in step two is not a formality.
Step four: social security, which nobody budgets for.
Income tax is only half the picture, and social security follows entirely separate rules from the tax treaty. Because he works in Spain, Spanish social security applies — regardless of where his employer sits.
| Route | What happens | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomo (Box B) | He registers in RETA and pays his own contributions | Contributions are income-banded across fifteen brackets, from roughly 200 to 590 euro a month, plus the intergenerational equity charge |
| Employee of a foreign employer (Box A) | The US company generally has to register as an employer in Spain | Many US companies refuse, which is exactly why people end up in Box B |
| Employer of record | A third party employs him in Spain on the US company's behalf | Solves the employment question at a per-head cost; check how it interacts with the impatriate regime |
| Spanish company of his own | He is administrador and employee of his own SL | Brings its own obligations, and its own risk — see below |
Step five: what the US company should have on file.
The US side is administratively light but not empty. The payer needs documentation confirming it is paying a foreign person for services performed outside the United States, otherwise it may withhold by default.
- Form W-8BEN from him, certifying foreign status, where he is treated as an individual payee
- A contract that states where the services are performed — this is the fact that determines sourcing
- No US tax withholding should generally apply to non-US-source personal services income
- Watch business travel to the US — days worked physically in the United States can create US-source income and a filing obligation
- The US company should consider its own exposure — a worker in Spain can raise permanent establishment questions for the payer, separate from his personal position
He may be creating a taxable presence for the US company.
Someone working from Spain for a foreign employer can, depending on what they do, contribute to a permanent establishment for that employer. If he concludes contracts or plays the principal role leading to their conclusion, the US company may have a Spanish filing obligation it has never considered. That is the employer's problem, but it tends to surface at the worst possible moment.
The option people ask about, and its risk.
Invoice through his own Spanish SL
The SL contracts with the US company, pays him a salary, retains the rest and is taxed at the corporate rate rather than at his marginal personal rate. On paper this looks efficient at this income level.
The interposed professional company
Where a company exists only to receive income from personal services that one individual performs, Spanish authorities have a well-developed line of attack. The company must have real substance and the remuneration must be at market value, or the income can be reattributed to the individual with penalties.
This route is legitimate where the activity genuinely warrants a company — other clients, employees, real assets, commercial risk beyond the individual's own labour. It is not a wrapper for a single personal services contract, and treating it as one is among the more common expensive mistakes in this exact scenario.
What he should actually do, in order.
The answer depends on facts a guide cannot know.
Contract wording, prior residence history, region of residence, family situation and the employer's willingness to register all change the outcome. We review the position and say plainly which route is available to you and what it costs.
- IRPF
- Spanish personal income tax, applied on a progressive state plus regional scale to residents on worldwide income.
- Rendimientos del trabajo
- Employment income. The category that can access the impatriate regime.
- Rendimientos de actividades economicas
- Self-employed or professional income. Generally outside the impatriate regime.
- Autonomo
- Registered self-employed status, with its own registration and contribution obligations.
- RETA
- The self-employed social security scheme, with contributions banded by declared net income.
- Ley Beckham
- The special impatriate regime: broadly 24% on employment income up to 600,000 euro, for up to six years.
- Modelo 149 / 151
- The election form for the impatriate regime, and the annual return filed under it.
- W-8BEN
- The US form by which a foreign individual certifies non-US status to a US payer.
- Sociedad interpuesta
- An interposed company receiving income from services personally performed by its owner — a recognised area of challenge.
Do I pay tax in France if I am French but live in Spain?
Does the US company withhold American tax from my pay?
Can I use the Beckham Law as a remote worker for a foreign company?
Should I register as autonomo or push for an employment contract?
Is it worth setting up a Spanish company for this?
How much is the difference between the routes?
The underlying rules.
Three countries, one taxpayer. And one clause that decides the bill.
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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