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The modelo 720, for people who have settled in Spain

Once you are resident, what you left at home gets declared too.

While you were non-resident, Spain only asked about your house here. The day you become tax resident, the question turns round: now it wants to know what you hold abroad. The modelo 720 is the form on which you tell it, and it is not for paying, it is for reporting.

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The typical case

A retired couple, Dutch, British or Belgian, bought a house on the coast years ago. At first they came for a few months; then for longer each time. One day they decide to stay, register on the padrón, apply for residence and start filing their income tax in Spain. Back home they still have the family house, let or shut, a current account their pension is paid into, a savings account and perhaps a portfolio of funds.

Nobody has told them that all of this, from their first year as Spanish tax residents, may have to be reported on a specific form. It is not a new tax. It is a reporting obligation, and that is exactly why it gets forgotten: no bill ever arrives to remind you.

Who files it

It is filed by people resident in Spain who hold assets or rights located abroad. According to the Spanish tax agency, that includes someone who becomes tax resident during a year and has to file that year's income tax return. Nationality is irrelevant: what counts is where you are tax resident.

It is not only the holder. The tax agency also includes anyone listed as an authorised person or beneficiary on an account, or as beneficial owner. Those taxed under the special regime for posted workers are excluded, among others. And residents of the Basque Country and Navarre file under their own regional rules.

Three boxes: accounts, securities and property

The modelo 720 is one form covering three separate obligations. First, accounts held with financial institutions abroad. Second, securities, rights, insurance and income deposited, managed or obtained abroad: shares, funds, life or unit-linked policies. Third, real estate and rights over real estate located outside Spain.

For the couple above, the house back home goes in the third block, the accounts in the first and the fund portfolio in the second. A pension plan still in its savings phase is not reported while it cannot be cashed in; once retirement comes and it pays out, that changes. Jewellery, physical gold and cash are, as a rule, outside it.

The threshold, block by block, and the rule for later years

The obligation does not start with the first euro. According to the tax agency, each block is looked at separately and only has to be reported if its combined value exceeds 50,000 euros. For accounts several balances are checked (among them the one on 31 December and the average of the last quarter), and any one going over the limit is enough. If a house or an account belongs to both partners, the agency asks for the total value, not split, with each person's percentage, and each of them files their own form.

Once filed, it does not have to be repeated every year. It only becomes due again when the combined value of a block rises by more than 20,000 euros over the value that triggered the last return filed for that block. The comparison is not with the previous year but with the last year a return was actually filed. These are the figures the tax agency publishes today, 1 October 2026; other situations (selling or closing an asset already reported, for instance) are worth checking with whoever prepares your return.

When it is filed

The modelo 720 is filed between 1 January and 31 March of the year after the one the information refers to. This is set by article 7 of Orden HAP/72/2013, which created the form, and it is the window in force according to the consolidated text in the Spanish official gazette, checked on 1 October 2026.

Notice the order: a year's information is filed before that same year's income tax return. The first year of residence is the trickiest, because the move takes up everything and the deadline passes without anyone mentioning it.

What changed in 2022: the European judgment and Ley 5/2022

For almost ten years, failing to file the 720, or filing it wrongly, carried very harsh consequences: fixed fines for every item of data, the value of undeclared assets treated as unjustified capital gains with no limitation period, and a proportional fine on top. On 27 January 2022 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled, in case C-788/19, that this regime breached the free movement of capital.

Spain corrected it with Ley 5/2022 of 9 March. Today, according to the tax agency, 720 infringements are penalised under the general regime of articles 198 and 199 of the General Tax Law, separately for each of the three blocks. A more reasonable penalty does not make the obligation go away: it still exists, and not filing still has a cost.

The modelo 721: crypto, separately

Virtual currencies held by a custodian that is not resident in Spain have a form of their own, the modelo 721, created by Orden HFP/886/2023. It is filed in the same window, 1 January to 31 March of the following year, and was first due in 2024, for 2023 balances.

According to the tax agency, nothing has to be reported if the 31 December balances of all those currencies, valued in euros, do not together exceed 50,000 euros. If you hold crypto on a foreign platform, it does not go on the 720: it goes on the 721. If you hold it yourself, with no custodian, the question is a different one and is best asked with your own details in front of you.

What this guide cannot tell you

Whether your particular case goes over the threshold, exactly what value to give your house back home or an old insurance policy, whether a missed year needs regularising and how, and what happens to those same assets in your Spanish income tax return and in your home country's. All of that depends on statements, deeds and treaties we have not seen.

What we do: HolaOwners gathers the papers for your foreign accounts, securities and property, translates them and follows the file with the dates in view. Our partner tax adviser calculates, signs and files the return. Nothing is passed on to the adviser without your written agreement.

Frequently asked questions

I am still non-resident and own a house in Spain. Does the 720 apply to me?

No. The 720 is for Spanish tax residents holding assets abroad. Your obligation as a non-resident is a different one: the modelo 210 for the house here.

Our house back home is in both our names. One form or two?

Two, if each of you is obliged. The tax agency asks for the asset's total value, not split, with each holder's percentage.

I became resident three years ago and never filed it. What now?

Do not wait for a letter. Since Ley 5/2022 penalties follow the general regime, far more proportionate than before, and people who put things right on their own initiative are usually better placed. Start by gathering statements and deeds.

Does the 720 mean I will pay tax on those assets?

The 720 itself has nothing to pay: it is a report. Whatever those assets produce (interest, dividends, rent) is taxed separately, in your income tax return, and the treaty with your country decides who taxes what.