Do Americans living in Spain still have to file US taxes?

Generally yes. US citizens and green-card holders file a US federal return on worldwide income wherever they live, and Spanish tax residence does not end that. Spanish IRPF is progressive and often substantial, so the Foreign Tax Credit on Form 1116 typically removes most or all of the US tax on salary — but the return and any reporting forms are still required.

Are Spanish fondos de inversión PFICs?

A Spanish fondo de inversión or SICAV share is a non-US pooled investment vehicle, and such vehicles commonly meet the §1297 income test (75% or more of gross income is passive) or asset test (50% or more of assets produce, or are held to produce, passive income). It's an annual test applied to the fund, so each holding should be confirmed rather than assumed. Direct shares in Inditex or Iberdrola are not PFICs.

Does Spain's traspaso rule change my US tax on fund swaps?

No. A traspaso lets a Spanish resident move money between funds without triggering Spanish tax on the gain — a Spanish deferral rule with no US counterpart. For US purposes, a fund-to-fund transfer can still be a disposition of PFIC stock, which is exactly the kind of mismatch that catches people who assume the two systems move together.

Do Spanish bank and brokerage accounts count for the FBAR?

Generally yes. A cuenta corriente, cuenta de ahorro or brokerage account at a Spanish institution is a non-US financial account, and the combined peak value across all of them counts toward the $10,000 FinCEN Form 114 threshold, separately from any Spanish reporting you already do.

Is Modelo 720 the same as the FBAR?

No — they are two unrelated filings to two different governments. Modelo 720 is Spain's own informational return for Spanish tax residents holding assets abroad, filed with the Agencia Tributaria. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is a US filing for US persons with non-US accounts, filed with FinCEN. A US citizen resident in Spain can owe both, and neither substitutes for the other.

Do I need Form 8938 for my Spanish accounts and investments?

Possibly, and it is a separate test from the FBAR. For a single filer living abroad Form 8938 starts at $200,000 in specified foreign financial assets at year end or $300,000 at any point; married filing jointly, $400,000 and $600,000. It covers a broader class of assets than the FBAR, so the two thresholds do not move together.

How is a Spanish plan de pensiones treated for US tax?

It depends on the specific plan and how it is structured — employer-sponsored and individual planes de pensiones are not automatically equivalent to a US retirement account for tax purposes, and the underlying investment funds raise their own PFIC question. Classification comes before any treaty analysis and needs the plan's own documents.

Does Spain's wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio) affect my US return?

Not the same way an income tax does. Wealth tax varies significantly by autonomous community — some effectively eliminate it, others do not — and whether it can offset US tax through the Foreign Tax Credit is a genuinely unsettled question worth a dedicated review rather than an assumption either way; the credit under §901 is built around income taxes.

Spain · US corridor

US expat taxes in Spain —
your fondo de inversión is the standard advice and a standard problem.

A US citizen living in Spain generally stays inside the US federal filing system on worldwide income. Spanish IRPF is usually high enough that the Foreign Tax Credit removes the US tax on salary — so the hard part is not the tax. It is that fondos de inversión are the mainstream Spanish way to invest, and they are typically PFIC territory.

Check my Spain filing Check my ISINs

Free diagnostic and on-screen summary — you pay only to generate the package.

What actually applies

The layers a Spanish return runs through.

Not everyone needs every form. These are the layers that come up most for Americans in Spain, and what makes each one bite here.

US filing layers that commonly apply to a US person living in Spain
Form	What it is	What makes it bite in Spain
Form 1040	The US federal return, on worldwide income.	Filed regardless of Spanish residence. Euro converts at the IRS yearly-average rate; the Spanish tax year is the calendar year, so the periods align.
Form 1116	Foreign Tax Credit for foreign income tax paid.	IRPF on salary usually exceeds US tax on the same income. Spain's regional variation (comunidades autónomas) changes the actual rate you pay, and so the size of the credit.
FinCEN 114 (FBAR)	Report of non-US financial accounts once the combined peak exceeds $10,000.	Cuenta corriente, cuenta de ahorro, brokerage accounts. Entirely separate from Spain's own Modelo 720 — a US citizen resident in Spain can owe both.
Form 8938	FATCA reporting of specified foreign financial assets, filed with the return.	Higher thresholds than the FBAR — from $200,000 year-end for a single filer abroad — but a broader class of assets.
Form 8621	One per PFIC per year, subject to the form's own triggers.	Fondos de inversión and SICAV shares. A diversified portfolio built on Spain's traspaso-friendly fund system is several forms a year, indefinitely.
Streamlined (Form 14653)	The catch-up route for non-willful taxpayers living abroad.	A common path for the long-settled American population across Madrid, Barcelona and the Costa del Sol.

A form listed here does not mean it applies to you. Which of these your return needs depends on your accounts, holdings and income.

Salary and accounts

The easy half of a Spanish return.

Spanish tax on employment income does most of the work. It is worth knowing which parts are genuinely simple before getting to the parts that are not.

Spanish salary and the Foreign Tax Credit

IRPF withheld through payroll retenciones generally exceeds the US tax on the same income. Form 1116 credits it category by category, and the residual US tax on salary is commonly zero — though the exact rate depends on which comunidad autónoma you live in.

Your declaración de la renta is the cleanest evidence of Spanish tax actually assessed, year by year — exactly what the credit needs.

How the Foreign Tax Credit works →

Spanish accounts: two separate reporting regimes

A cuenta corriente, a cuenta de ahorro, a brokerage account — each is a non-US financial account for FBAR purposes. The FBAR adds their peaks together, so accounts that each look small can cross $10,000 between them.

Filing Modelo 720 with the Agencia Tributaria is a Spanish obligation for Spanish residents with foreign assets. It does nothing for your FBAR or Form 8938 — the two regimes are independent.

FBAR filing guide, in detail →

If you have a fondo de inversión

Money in a Spanish or European fund?

It is the standard Spanish financial advice and, for a US citizen, a standard PFIC. CaixaBank, Santander, BBVA, MyInvestor and every Spanish broker sell Spanish- or Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV and fondo de inversión shares — non-US pooled vehicles, and generally one Form 8621 per fund per year. Spain's traspaso rule lets you swap funds without Spanish tax, but a fund swap can still be a US disposition.

Direct shares in Inditex, Iberdrola or Santander held outright are not PFICs, and neither is a directly held Spanish government bond.

PFICs, in full Check my ISINs

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Check your fondo de inversión for PFICs.

Pick where you hold it — CaixaBank, Santander, MyInvestor, Renta 4, IBKR — and what you hold, or paste the ISINs from your informe fiscal.

1 · Where do you live?

Where you live changes the products you are likely to hold and the guidance you get next. It does not change how the PFIC rules classify a holding — those turn on the fund, not your address.

2 · Where do you hold it?

3 · What do you hold?

Or paste your ISINs — one per line

Result

Tell us what you hold

Pick the closest match on the left, or paste your ISINs below and we'll flag each one.

More for US taxpayers in Spain: The Spain desk.

Educational estimate, not tax advice. Domicile is the fund's legal home, not the broker or exchange you used. Broker and provider policies change — confirm current terms with your provider before acting.

Pensions and wealth tax

Two Spanish products with no clean US answer.

A plan de pensiones and the regional wealth tax are both genuinely fact-dependent — the kind of thing worth reviewing rather than assuming.

Planes de pensiones need classifying first

Employer and individual planes de pensiones are Spanish retirement vehicles without an automatic US equivalent. Contributions, growth and eventual withdrawals need to be characterised for US purposes before any treaty position is considered — and the underlying funds raise their own PFIC question.

Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio and the credit

Spain's wealth tax varies by comunidad autónoma — some apply it, others effectively don't through regional bonifications. Whether it offsets US tax through the Foreign Tax Credit is unsettled; the credit under IRC §901 is built around income taxes, and a wealth tax is a different kind of tax.

Behind on filings?

The penalty-free route back, from Spain.

Spain has a growing, long-settled American population and a steady stream of people who find out years in. The programme exists for exactly that.

A qualifying taxpayer files the most recent 3 years of returns and the most recent 6 years of FBARs, with the offshore penalty at 0%. Two gates: non-willful conduct, and the non-residency test — at least 330 days abroad in at least one of the last three years.

On salary, the tax across those years is often little or nothing after the credit for Spanish tax. The volume is in the information returns — a diversified fondo de inversión portfolio held for several years produces one Form 8621 per fund per year across the whole window.

You certify non-willfulness on Form 14653, under penalty of perjury. Atamatax prepares the return side and does not generate Form 14653, assemble the mailing, or transmit anything to the IRS or FinCEN.

Check Streamlined eligibility The Streamlined process, in detail

The treaty, in short

The 1990 convention and the 2013 Protocol.

US–Spain Convention 1990 · Protocol 2013

The US and Spain have had an income tax treaty since 1990, substantially amended by a 2013 Protocol that entered into force in 2019 and modernised several provisions, including withholding rates on dividends and interest. As with every US treaty, the saving clause preserves US taxation of its citizens, so the convention mainly works through the Foreign Tax Credit rather than exempting a US person from filing.

Atamatax has not yet built a Spain treaty desk with article-level positions the way it has for Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the UK and France — this page intentionally does not cite specific article numbers until that work is done. Form 8833 is for a treaty position that overrides the default Form 1116 treatment, and matters most where you are considering one.

Nothing in the convention displaces the PFIC rules, which are US domestic law layered on top of whatever the treaty says about ordinary investment income.

The US–Spain totalization agreement separately assigns social-security coverage to one country for a worker moved between the US and Spain, documented by a certificate of coverage — a contributions question, distinct from how income is taxed.

The Spain desk

Start from here.

PFIC & Form 8621

Why non-US pooled funds get taxed unfavourably, and what electing changes.

FBAR filing guide

The combined-account threshold, and what counts toward it.

Foreign Tax Credit

How Form 1116 credits foreign income tax against US tax, category by category.

Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures

The catch-up route for non-willful taxpayers behind on US filings.

All country desks

US filing abroad, adapted to where you live.

Other country desks

The layers a US return runs through don't change by country — what changes is which local accounts, funds and pensions actually trigger them. Here's how Spain compares.

Switzerland

Pillar 3a · Swissquote · PFIC

Denmark

Saxo · Aktiesparekonto · Danish pensions

Italy

Italian funds · pensions · Quadro RW

Germany

UCITS · German pensions · FTC

United Kingdom

ISA · SIPP · UK funds

US taxes in Spain — the questions we get

Do Americans living in Spain still have to file US taxes?#: Generally yes. US citizens and green-card holders file a US federal return on worldwide income wherever they live, and Spanish tax residence does not end that. Spanish IRPF is progressive and often substantial, so the Foreign Tax Credit on Form 1116 typically removes most or all of the US tax on salary — but the return and any reporting forms are still required.
Are Spanish fondos de inversión PFICs?#: A Spanish fondo de inversión or SICAV share is a non-US pooled investment vehicle, and such vehicles commonly meet the §1297 income test (75% or more of gross income is passive) or asset test (50% or more of assets produce, or are held to produce, passive income). It's an annual test applied to the fund, so each holding should be confirmed rather than assumed. Direct shares in Inditex or Iberdrola are not PFICs.
Does Spain's traspaso rule change my US tax on fund swaps?#: No. A traspaso lets a Spanish resident move money between funds without triggering Spanish tax on the gain — a Spanish deferral rule with no US counterpart. For US purposes, a fund-to-fund transfer can still be a disposition of PFIC stock, which is exactly the kind of mismatch that catches people who assume the two systems move together.
Do Spanish bank and brokerage accounts count for the FBAR?#: Generally yes. A cuenta corriente, cuenta de ahorro or brokerage account at a Spanish institution is a non-US financial account, and the combined peak value across all of them counts toward the $10,000 FinCEN Form 114 threshold, separately from any Spanish reporting you already do.
Is Modelo 720 the same as the FBAR?#: No — they are two unrelated filings to two different governments. Modelo 720 is Spain's own informational return for Spanish tax residents holding assets abroad, filed with the Agencia Tributaria. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is a US filing for US persons with non-US accounts, filed with FinCEN. A US citizen resident in Spain can owe both, and neither substitutes for the other.
Do I need Form 8938 for my Spanish accounts and investments?#: Possibly, and it is a separate test from the FBAR. For a single filer living abroad Form 8938 starts at $200,000 in specified foreign financial assets at year end or $300,000 at any point; married filing jointly, $400,000 and $600,000. It covers a broader class of assets than the FBAR, so the two thresholds do not move together.
How is a Spanish plan de pensiones treated for US tax?#: It depends on the specific plan and how it is structured — employer-sponsored and individual planes de pensiones are not automatically equivalent to a US retirement account for tax purposes, and the underlying investment funds raise their own PFIC question. Classification comes before any treaty analysis and needs the plan's own documents.
Does Spain's wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio) affect my US return?#: Not the same way an income tax does. Wealth tax varies significantly by autonomous community — some effectively eliminate it, others do not — and whether it can offset US tax through the Foreign Tax Credit is a genuinely unsettled question worth a dedicated review rather than an assumption either way; the credit under §901 is built around income taxes.
Can Americans in Spain use Streamlined procedures?#: Living in Spain neither qualifies nor disqualifies you. The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures require non-willful conduct and the non-residency test — at least 330 days abroad in at least one of the last three years. A qualifying taxpayer files the most recent 3 years of returns and the most recent 6 years of FBARs with a 0% offshore penalty, certifying non-willfulness on Form 14653.

Authorities cited

IRC §1297 — IRC §1297 — Definition of a passive foreign investment company
IRS Form 8621 — About Form 8621 — Information Return by a Shareholder of a PFIC or QEF
IRC §1291 — IRC §1291 — Interest on tax deferral (excess-distribution regime)
IRC §1296 — IRC §1296 — Mark-to-market election for marketable PFIC stock
FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
31 CFR §1010.350 — 31 CFR §1010.350 — FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) filing requirement and $10,000 threshold
IRS Form 8938 — About Form 8938 — Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
IRC §6038D — IRC §6038D — Information reporting of specified foreign financial assets (Form 8938)
IRS Form 1116 — About Form 1116 — Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)
IRC §901 — IRC §901 — Taxes of foreign countries and U.S. possessions
IRC §904 — IRC §904 — Limitation on the foreign tax credit
US–Spain Income Tax Treaty — Convention between the United States and Spain (signed 1990), as amended by the 2013 Protocol (in force 2019)
U.S.–Spain Totalization Agreement — U.S.–Spain Social Security (Totalization) Agreement
IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures — U.S. Taxpayers Residing Outside the United States — Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures

Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.

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