Investor income tax return: dividends, funds and shares, in Spain and abroad

If you live in Spain and invest, here or abroad, your income tax return includes what your investments earn: dividends, interest and the gains or losses when you sell. This page explains how they are taxed, which rules change the result and how BMC files the return.

What is declared

Dividends, interest, other investment income and gains or losses on selling shares, funds, ETFs or crypto make up the savings tax base of Spanish income tax (art. 46 of the Income Tax Act). It makes no difference whether the broker, bank or platform is in Spain or in another country: a Spanish tax resident declares here everything earned worldwide.

How much is paid: the savings scale

Since 1 January 2025 the savings base is taxed as follows, adding the state and regional parts (arts. 66 and 76, as worded by Law 7/2024):

Each band applies only to the part of the base that falls within it.

Losses: how they are offset

• Losses on sales offset gains on sales of the same year.
• If a negative balance remains, it offsets up to 25% of the positive balance of dividends, interest and other investment income, and the other way round (art. 49).
• Whatever cannot be offset carries forward to the following four years, in the same order.

A loss on selling listed shares is not computed if homogeneous securities are bought in the two months before or after. It is included when those securities are sold (art. 33.5.f). For unlisted securities the period is one year.

When several lots of the same securities were bought, the ones bought first are treated as sold first (art. 37.2).

Income from abroad and double taxation

If the source country already withheld tax on a dividend or interest payment, Spain deducts the lower of two amounts: what was paid abroad, or what Spain would charge on that income at the average effective rate (art. 80). If the withholding at source exceeded the rate set by the double tax treaty, the excess is not deducted in Spain: it is reclaimed from that country.

Investment funds: switches

A switch from one fund to another is not taxed if it meets the requirements of art. 94 of the Income Tax Act: the gain or loss is deferred until redemption. If the money is redeemed and another fund is bought afterwards, the sale is taxed that year.

Who must file

You need not file if you only have investment income and gains with Spanish withholding of up to €1,600 a year, and nobody with total income of up to €1,000 and losses under €500 must file (art. 96). Income from abroad without Spanish withholding does not count towards the €1,600 limit, nor do some fund redemptions where the withholding is not calculated on the gain, so with investments abroad you will usually have to file.

Deadline

The return is filed in the campaign of the year after the one being declared, which the tax agency opens every year in April and closes at the end of June. The 2026 return is filed in 2027.

How it relates to Forms 720 and 721

Form 720 and Form 721 report the assets and crypto you hold outside Spain and create no tax. What those assets earn, or the gain when they are sold, goes in the income tax return. That is why the figures in the three returns have to match.

Anyone under the special regime of art. 93 (Beckham Law) does not file this return while the regime lasts: they file Form 151. More on the Beckham Law page.

Two ways to do it

• With an adviser: someone at BMC checks your case, advises you, files the return and answers the tax agency if there is a request. This is the route available today.
• Platform (coming soon): BMC One prepares the return from the documents you provide and BMC checks it and files it on your behalf. No advice and no requests included.

The other returns for investors and non-residents (Form 720, Form 721 and Form 210) are on the returns index. The first meeting, to see which returns apply to you, is free.