If you moved to the Costa Blanca — or the Costa Cálida, Costa del Sol or Costa Almería — and you became a Spanish tax resident during 2025, you almost certainly have an information return to file in early 2026 called Modelo 720. In plain terms: if you hold assets outside Spain (a UK bank account, an ISA, a pension pot, a property back home, shares) worth more than €50,000 in any one of three categories, you must declare them to the Agencia Tributaria between 1 January and 31 March 2026. It is a reporting obligation, not a tax bill — you pay nothing on the Modelo 720 itself.
The reason it matters so much is that failing to file used to trigger brutal, disproportionate fines. The EU Court of Justice struck those down in January 2022, and Spain rewrote the penalty regime so that Modelo 720 now works like any other information return. That is genuinely good news for new arrivals — but you still have to file it, and getting the thresholds and deadline right is exactly the sort of detail that separates a smooth first year of residency from a stressful one. Below is the practical, region-grounded version.
Only Spanish tax residents file Modelo 720. If you bought a holiday home in Jávea or Torrevieja but still live and pay tax in the UK, Ireland, Germany or the Netherlands, this form does not apply to you — you remain a non-resident and file the non-resident income tax on your Spanish second home instead.
You become a Spanish tax resident in a calendar year if any of these apply:
So a couple who completed on a villa in Denia in March 2025 and settled in for the year would be resident for 2025 — and would file their first Modelo 720 in the window that runs to 31 March 2026. If you arrived on a digital nomad visa or another long-stay route and crossed the 183-day line, the same applies. Getting your NIE and NIF sorted is a prerequisite, since you file under your Spanish tax number.
Modelo 720 splits your overseas assets into three separate "baskets". The €50,000 threshold is assessed per basket, not overall. You only have to report a basket if that basket's total exceeds €50,000.
| Category | What it covers | Filing trigger |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Accounts | Bank and building-society accounts held abroad (current, savings, deposits) | Combined balance over €50,000 |
| 2. Investments | Shares, funds, bonds, life-insurance policies, annuities held abroad | Combined value over €50,000 |
| 3. Property | Real estate and rights over real estate located abroad | Combined value over €50,000 |
A typical Costa Blanca retiree might have £70,000 in UK bank accounts (Category 1 — reportable) and a £45,000 stocks-and-shares ISA (Category 2 — under €50,000 once converted, so not reportable this year). Note that UK ISAs and premium bonds enjoy no special tax status in Spain — an ISA is simply a taxable investment here — but the shelter or not, it still counts towards the Category 2 threshold.
Not necessarily. After your first declaration you only need to re-file a category if:
If none of that happens, you simply do not file for that year. This is why the first filing after becoming resident is the important one — it establishes your baseline.
The filing window for the 2025 tax year is 1 January to 31 March 2026. Modelo 720 is filed online only, through the Agencia Tributaria portal, using a digital certificate, Cl@ve, or (far more commonly for new arrivals) via a gestor or tax adviser who files on your behalf. Given the currency conversions, valuations and the risk of mis-categorising assets, most new residents on the Costas use a Spanish accountant for the first year — expect to pay somewhere in the region of €100–€250 for a straightforward filing.
Values are generally reported as at 31 December 2025, converted to euros using the official year-end exchange rate. Bank accounts also require the average balance of the final quarter, so dig out your December statements early.
This is the single biggest area of outdated misinformation online. For years, articles quoted terrifying fines of €5,000 per data point and unlimited assessments treating undeclared assets as taxable income. Those provisions were declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the EU in January 2022 (case C-788/19) as disproportionate and contrary to the free movement of capital. Spain amended the law shortly afterwards.
Under the corrected regime, a late or incorrect Modelo 720 is treated like any other information return under Spain's General Tax Law:
| Situation | Typical consequence |
|---|---|
| Filed voluntarily but late (before any tax-office request) | Reduced fixed penalties, similar to a late voluntary return |
| Incomplete or inaccurate data | Fixed fine per erroneous item, with the disproportionate old caps removed |
| Failure to file after being required to | Standard information-return penalties apply |
| Undeclared assets treated as unexplained income | No longer automatic — normal statute of limitations now applies |
The bottom line: penalties are now proportionate and comparable to those for other Spanish tax returns. Do not let scaremongering online push you into rushed or panicked decisions — but do file, and file correctly, because it remains a legal obligation and the tax office receives your foreign account data anyway under international information-exchange agreements (the UK, for example, shares data with Spain automatically). If you are unsure, a short consultation with a Spanish lawyer or tax adviser is money well spent.
Cryptocurrency held on foreign exchanges or wallets is not reported on Modelo 720. Spain created a dedicated return, Modelo 721, for overseas crypto assets. The same €50,000 threshold logic and the same 1 January–31 March window apply. If you hold Bitcoin or other tokens on a non-Spanish platform above the threshold, you file Modelo 721 as well. Anyone considering using digital assets in a purchase should also read our guide on whether you can buy property in Spain with crypto.
Modelo 720 is an information return — it does not by itself create any tax. But it dovetails with the taxes that do apply once you are resident on the Costa Blanca or elsewhere:
Wealth tax rules differ sharply by region — Andalucía has been far more generous to residents than the Valencian Community in recent years — which is one more reason to take advice tailored to your coast rather than a generic "Spain" article. For the broader picture of what you owe once you own here, see our complete guide to the taxes of buying property in Spain.
New residents sometimes assume overseas assets are invisible to the Spanish authorities. They are not. Automatic exchange of financial information means the Agencia Tributaria routinely receives details of your foreign accounts, and Spain has been tightening cash limits and digital tracking rules. Combined with the €50,000 reporting threshold, the sensible strategy is simple: keep good records, convert values consistently, and file on time.
No. It is purely an information return declaring overseas assets. You pay nothing on the Modelo 720 itself. Any tax arises separately through income tax or wealth tax.
Yes, if you are a Spanish tax resident. Foreign real estate is Category 3, so a UK, Irish or other overseas property valued above €50,000 must be reported on your first Modelo 720.
No. Modelo 720 is only for Spanish tax residents. As a non-resident owner you have no Modelo 720 obligation, though you still file non-resident income tax on the Spanish property.
1 January to 31 March 2026, covering the 2025 tax year. It is filed online, usually through a gestor or tax adviser.
No. Those penalties were declared illegal by the EU Court of Justice in January 2022 and Spain reformed the law. Penalties are now proportionate and comparable to other Spanish information returns — but you must still file.
Crypto held on foreign exchanges or wallets goes on Modelo 721, not Modelo 720, using the same €50,000 threshold and the same January–March window.
Only if a reported category rises by more than €20,000, or you close, sell or acquire an asset that changes the picture. Otherwise you do not re-file that category.
Understanding your reporting obligations is part of settling confidently into life on the Costa Blanca, Costa Cálida, Costa del Sol or Costa Almería. At Mediter Real Estate we help international buyers find the right property and connect them with trusted local lawyers and tax advisers who handle Modelo 720 and residency matters every day. Explore our Costa Blanca living and buying guide, then get in touch with the Mediter team to discuss buying property across Spain's four southern coasts.
We use what you tell us here only to answer you. Privacy
