Entry Restrictions

[Pandali]

Hi, 

Can anyone say for certain whether UK nationals can arrive from outwith the UK if they don't have residency? As an example, could I travel from Amsterdam en-route from work in another country if I haven't been in the UK since November last year? 

Thanks

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I don't think the ban is anything to do with UK nationals, it's a ban on arriving from the UK for non- residents.

[Ducks]

I'm sorry, what ban is this? I haven't heard anything about it?

[Pandali]

Thanks Tamara, that was the information I received from Janet Anscombe.

[Pandali]

I'm sorry, what ban is this? I haven't heard anything about it?

If you were flying form the UK, before the flights were stopped, you had to have residency to be allowed to fly.

[DavidP]

Anybody else looked at the full "new" 90/180 day rules.

In addition to the 90/180 rolling days for non residence, my understanding:- 

If you have a temporary residence and you are outside Spain for more than 90 days in a year then you lose your residencia.
Also if you are outside more than 180 days over a period of 5 years you lose your residencia.

IF you have the FULL residencia or Full TIE then this does not apply
  
Not sure if it was outside of Spain or the EU.

[FVmouse]

Anybody else looked at the full "new" 90/180 day rules.

In addition to the 90/180 rolling days for non residence, my understanding:- 

If you have a temporary residence and you are outside Spain for more than 90 days in a year then you lose your residencia.
Also if you are outside more than 180 days over a period of 5 years you lose your residencia.

IF you have the FULL residencia or Full TIE then this does not apply
  
Not sure if it was outside of Spain or the EU.

It has always been thus. It’s just they’ve had no way of discerning people’s movements before so have needed to rely on people formally deregistering as resident. 

Indeed, until they move away from stamping passports to scanning them (at least a year away I believe) it is tough to see how that inability to track movements will change in the short term. Passport stamps are often quite illegible and the Spanish authorities have already said that the responsibility to keep to the rules will lie with the individual at this stage. It cannot be actively policed for now.

One big question is how the Spanish authorities will decide to handle past years.

By Full I guess you mean Permanent....

[McAdam]

Along the right lines but slightly incorrect DavidP

The Rules are as follows:

Maximum time outside Spain allowed to avoid losing your card
In order to answer this question, we must differentiate between the two types of cards under the time criterion: the temporary cards (the initial ones for 1 year, and the first 2 renewals); and the permanent ones.

With a temporary card
Article 162.2 of Royal Decree 557/2011 establishes the maximum period of absence allowed with those cards.

In order to know the maximum time you can be out of the country with a temporary residence, you must take into account two different conditions

Firstly, you must not be outside Spain for more than 6 months within a period of one year.
In the case of sporadic departures (in your first year in the country 1 month, in the second 3 months, etc.); the sum of these periods outside Spanish territory during the last 5 years may not exceed 1 year.
If you comply with these two requirements, you may keep your residence card and renew it (as long as you comply with all the other renewal requirements, which are different according to the type of residence).

This applies, for example, to the non-profit residence or the golden visa.

With a long-term card
In the case of long-term, long-term EU or permanent EU cards, the deadlines are extended.

In this case, if you want to prevent your card from being extinguished, you cannot be outside Spain for more than 12 months continuously, neither more than 30 months (adding up all the departures of shorter time spans), during the past 5 years.

Source: https://www.immigrationspain.es/en/maxim...residency/


MY NOTES:

With the freedom of movement around the EU, there were no borders, passport stamps, digital records etc... that could be kept track of.
Now with Brexit, there will be passport checks and records logged either in the form of a stamp in the passport (unlikely) or using the digital system the EU already has in place.
Whilst I don't think they would revoke residence if you went a few days over, they would very likely revoke it if there is a clear line of evidence that you are not residing in Spain full time as your primary residency.
I know of personal cases in Germany where they have revoked the residency of 3rd country nationals who did not follow the times to a T - some were appealed and won, others lost and had to leave germany as they "had a mark against their record". Germany is a stickler for the rules though....

[FVmouse]

With the freedom of movement around the EU, there were no borders, passport stamps, digital records etc... that could be kept track of.
Now with Brexit, there will be passport checks and records logged either in the form of a stamp in the passport (unlikely) or using the digital system the EU already has in place.
Whilst I don't think they would revoke residence if you went a few days over, they would very likely revoke it if there is a clear line of evidence that you are not residing in Spain full time as your primary residency.
I know of personal cases in Germany where they have revoked the residency of 3rd country nationals who did not follow the times to a T - some were appealed and won, others lost and had to leave germany as they "had a mark against their record". Germany is a stickler for the rules though....

It seems common sense that residency status will continue to be intimately linked to tax take. 

Pay your global taxes to Spain then they are hardly going to mind you spending whatever time you want outside the country, the longer the better as far as they are concerned. 

The destination country will be less happy though....

[McAdam]

P.S. sorry, this ended up being a long post... but some things needed clarification before opinions sway people.

Not sure I read your tone right.

The rules for taxes, and residency status are applied across almost any country in the world.
We are lucky that Spain has "Double Taxation" agreements with most developed countries across the world.
This means, If you pay your annual income tax to Spain as your primary tax residency, then the amount you have paid will be counted towards whatever you have to pay elsewhere if an agreement exists.
Example time
You earn 10,000€ in 2025 and you spend more than 183 days of the year in Spain (it becomes primary tax residency)
You then need to file your annual tax return in Spain first.
Spain has tax rate of 20% and thus you pay them €2000
You also spent 90 days in France in 2025, so you do a tax return there.
France has a tax rate of 19.5% - which would equal €1950, but you have already paid 2000 to spain, and therefore nothing is due to France.
You spent 90 days in the UK, where you have properties and other assets, so you do a tax return there.
UK has a tax rate of 20.5% - which equals €2050, you have already paid Spain €2000 leaving €50 due to Her Majesties Revenue Collectors

p.s. if income is taxed at source (e.g. UK pension or other income) then it is calculated in spain as X amount of tax already paid on it and thus not due.

This is a very simplified version...


The internationally accepted norm is:

If you spend more than 183 days per year in any country, then that country will become your primary tax residency.
Any other country that you spend any amount of time in, and earn Money whilst you are there, has the right to charge you tax on either: 1. The income you earned there - 2. Your worldwide income.
Even now, working remotely (Office work but sat in front of a laptop) is classed as working in the country, and thus taxes are due to that country (Germany has special plans to enforce this).

But if you spend less than 183 days per year in a country, the place you spend the most amount of time will become your primary tax residency.

Pay your global taxes to Spain then they are hardly going to mind you spending whatever time you want outside the country, the longer the better as far as they are concerned.

This is actually incorrect... They will want you to spend all your hard earned Money on their local economy, not take it abroad and spend it elsewhere.
There are many special tax rules, writeoffs, and classifications that actually encourage local people to spend locally. The tax Money is all great and well, but the real impact comes when they can charge taxes on the already taxed monies

Another Example...
You earn 10000, pay 2000 tax.
Then you spend the remaining 8000 over the year... of which about 525 is sales tax of about 7% (total tax 2525 paid)
The business who you bought from needs to pay 20% on profit... so we'll say 30% margin on all goods = approx €450
The total amount of your Money that went to the tax office ends up being about 3000, or 30% vs the original 20%... 30% of raw tax...
The % amounts here are random numbers to simplify the math...

But I once calculated when I was in Germany, I was only truly seeing about 30 odd cents of every single Euro earned as a business owner... the rest was taxes in some way or another.


Just be thankful that we are not US Citizens who are taxed on worldwide income as long as they have citizenship... even if they have lived out of the country for 10+ years... and there is always some amount due to them as their double taxation treaties do not cover the full scope of income.
ALL international banks are forced to report their US Citizen customer accounts to the US treasury so the US can claim taxes on any and all movements.
There is a special sign up process for US Citizens with banks.
Only way to get out of it is to give up citizenship...
I hope the UK does not follow this.