Michel
Michel – Our Spanish Bureaucracy Expert
Michel is our Spanish bureaucracy expert. He went through all processes multiple times in different locations throughout Spain.
As the initiator of Easy to Spain, Michel was the one who took the first steps to ensure everything was perfectly arranged for our entire family. He guided us personally and helped us truly understand the complex processes, while encouraging us to actively research and figure things out ourselves.
Through his persistence and the fact that he has repeatedly tackled these procedures in various regions of Spain, he has built up a vast wealth of practical knowledge. A major advantage is that, thanks to all this experience, Michel’s Spanish is now several levels above the rest of ours. His mastery of both the language and the system is our greatest asset when dealing with official authorities. Thanks to his dedication and expertise, we can now offer these clear modules, giving you a head start on your own Spanish adventure.
Reagrupación Familiar: Bringing Your Non EU Family to Spain
The general regime route for non EU residents who want their family in Spain. What the 2025 reglamento changed, what the income and housing tests really mean, and where the file usually stalls.
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The EU Family Member Card in Spain: For Non EU Relatives
If you are Dutch, German or any other EU citizen living in Spain, your non EU partner or parent does not go through reagrupación familiar. They use a faster route without its income table. Relatives of Spaniards have had their own permit since May 2025.
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Getting a Mortgage in Spain as a Non Resident
Buying property in Spain from abroad usually means a smaller loan, a longer paper trail, and a rate that is negotiated case by case rather than quoted off a table. Here is what actually happens once you ask a Spanish bank for a hipoteca as a non resident.
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The Real Cost of Buying Property in Spain Beyond the Asking Price
Buying a home in Spain always costs more than the price on the listing. This guide walks through notary fees, land registry fees, gestoria costs and the regional ITP or IVA and AJD, with a real Valencia example, so you can budget with your eyes open.
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Renta Imputada: The Tax on Owning Property You Do Not Rent Out
Spain taxes non resident owners of empty or personally used property through renta imputada, a notional income declared via Modelo 210, and two 2026 changes, an unresolved rate question and a new filing window, make this year worth extra attention.
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IBI and Comunidad Fees: What Owning a Home in Spain Really Costs Every Year
IBI and comunidad de propietarios fees are the two recurring costs of owning property in Spain, both set locally rather than nationally, and both carry real consequences if left unpaid, especially for owners living abroad.
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Criminal Record Certificates for Spain: What Gets Asked and Why
A criminal record certificate looks like a simple document until the validity clock, the five year lookback and the apostille start interacting. Here is the logic behind what Spain asks for, and where applicants lose weeks.
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What an Apostille Actually Does for Your Spain Paperwork
An apostille does not say your document is true, it says the signature on it is genuine. That distinction explains most of the mistakes people make when they prepare foreign documents for Spain.
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Sworn Translation in Spain: What It Is and When It Is Required
A sworn translation is a legal act, not just a language service. Here is what a traductor jurado certifies, when Spanish offices insist on one, and how to avoid paying for the same translation twice.
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Document Validity Windows for Spanish Visas: The Timing Trap
Every document in a Spanish visa file has its own expiry clock, and they all start on different days. Here is why the paperwork so often expires before you use it, and how to plan the order so it does not.
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Does Your NIE Expire in Spain?
The NIE number never expires. The paper you were handed at the counter is a different story, and confusing the two costs people appointments, bank accounts and completion dates.
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What Counts as a Reason for a NIE in Spain
Most people never have to justify wanting a NIE, because the state assigns it automatically. If you are one of the people who does have to explain, a vague answer on the EX-15 is a real risk.
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The Consular NIE and What It Does Not Cover
Getting your NIE at a consulate is often the sensible choice. The trouble starts when people assume the PDF they receive does more than it does.
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A NIE for Your Children and Through a Representative
A child on a Spanish deed and a buyer who cannot fly have the same problem: the application is easy, and the supporting documents are where the file dies.
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What the Spanish Green Card Does Not Prove
It has no photograph, it is not proof of your identity, and the Council of the EU document register says so in writing. What the green card is, and what it is not.
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Health Insurance for EU Registration in Spain
The requirement that catches non working EU arrivals, and the gap between what the Orden says and what the counter expects.
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The Permanent Certificate for EU Citizens in Spain
After five years the conditions fall away and a different document takes their place. It is still a piece of paper, and it can still be lost.
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Keeping Your Spanish Registration Valid
Registration is not a one off event. It carries continuing obligations, and the certificate is a piece of paper that people lose.
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The Renta in Spain: Filing Your First Modelo 100 in 2026
Your first Spanish tax return is less frightening than it sounds and less automatic than people hope. Here is what the Renta covers, who has to file, and where first timers go wrong.
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Totalisation: Combining Your EU Pension Years for a Spanish Pension
Fifteen Spanish contribution years sounds impossible if you arrived at sixty. EU totalisation means you do not need them all in Spain, and the pension you end up with arrives in pieces.
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How Spain Taxes Your Foreign Pension in 2026
Two retirees on the same street, same income, wildly different tax bills. The reason is almost always the type of pension and the treaty behind it, not the amount.
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Pension Lump Sums and the Tax Timing Trap for New Residents in Spain
A lump sum is one payment, but Spain treats it as one year of income. Cross the residency line in the wrong direction and the same money can be taxed at a completely different rate.
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Modelo 720 and Your Foreign Pension: What Retirees in Spain Must Declare
A pension you receive as monthly income is one thing. A pension pot you still own is another, and the second one is what the Modelo 720 is asking about.
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Arraigo Familiar in Spain 2026: Residency Through Family Ties
Arraigo familiar is not what most online guides still say it is. The 2025 reglamento narrowed it sharply, and the parent of a Spanish child now uses a different route entirely.
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Bringing Your Children to Spain: Padrón, School and Healthcare
The paperwork for children in Spain is not hard, but it is sequential. One registration unlocks the school place, the health card and the residency file, and doing it late costs an entire term.
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Worldwide Income in Spain: What Residents Have to Declare
Tax residency in Spain quietly changes what you owe. From that moment Spain taxes your income from everywhere, and the surprise is usually not the tax but the paperwork.
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Capital Gains Tax in Spain: What You Pay When You Sell
When you sell property in Spain, only the profit is taxed, and how much you pay depends entirely on your residency status, not how long you owned the place. Here is how the gain is calculated and what residents and non residents actually pay in 2026.
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Selling an Inherited Property in Spain: What Heirs Need to Know
Before you can sell an inherited home in Spain, the inheritance has to be accepted, taxed and registered, in that order. Here is how the chain works, and how the capital gain is taxed once the sale goes through.
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Capital Gains Exemptions in Spain: Main Home and Over 65
A resident who sells their main home and reinvests, or who is over 65, can wipe out Spanish capital gains tax entirely. Here is how the three reliefs actually work, and why a holiday home never qualifies.
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The 3% Retention in Spain: Modelo 211 for Non Resident Sellers
In Spain, the buyer keeps back 3% of what they owe you and pays it straight to the tax office, not you. Here is how Modelo 211 works, and how Modelo 210 gets any excess back.
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How Spanish Income Tax Works: IRPF Brackets and the Savings Tax in 2026
Spanish income tax runs on two engines: a general base for salary, pension and rent taxed partly by your region, and a savings base for interest, dividends and gains taxed the same everywhere. Here is how the IRPF fits together in 2026, the savings rates, and when you file the Renta.
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Arraigo in Spain 2026: The New Residency Routes After RD 316/2026
The 2026 immigration reform (RD 316/2026) rebuilt arraigo into five clearer routes, cut the qualifying stay, and let holders work from day one. Here's how the standing routes now look.
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Spanish Wealth Tax by Region: Where You Pay and Where You Do Not
Spain has one wealth tax on paper and seventeen answers in practice. Madrid and Andalucía rebate it to zero while Catalonia and others still charge it, and a state Solidarity Tax sits above 3 million euros. Here is how region, residence and that state tax fit together.
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Gifting Property to Your Children in Spain
Gifting a Spanish home to your children can save inheritance tax — or quietly trigger a capital gain and plusvalía that dying would have avoided. Here is how a donáción really works and where the traps sit.
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Plusvalía Municipal: The Local Tax on Inherited and Sold Property
The town hall tax that catches out heirs and sellers in Spain: what it taxes, how the 2021 reform changed it, the two ways to calculate it, and when you owe nothing at all.
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Non Lucrative Visa Spain 2026: The Income Rule Explained
The non lucrative visa is Spain's classic route for people who can support themselves without working here. In 2026 the income bar is tied to the IPREM, which stayed at 600 euros a month, and the rules on what you can and cannot do are stricter than they look. Here is how it actually works.
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Spanish Bureaucracy in August: What Gets Done and What to Defer (2026)
Spanish offices slow to a crawl in August and cita previa slots dry up. Here is what is realistic to attempt, what is smarter to leave for September, and how to plan a summer that does not end in frustration.
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EES Explained: What the Entry Exit System Means for Visitors and Residents in Spain
The EU Entry/Exit System has been live across Schengen since April 2026. Here is what changes at the Spanish border, how the 90-day rule is now tracked digitally, why residents are exempt, and how EES differs from ETIAS.
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Renting Long Term in Spain
Renting a home in Spain looks simple from the outside. You find a flat, you like it, you sign. The catch is that the words on the contract decide how much protection you actually have, and a lease that calls itself one thing while behaving like another can quietly strip away rights you assumed were yours. This is a guide to how long term renting really works in 2026, the law that sits behind every proper lease, the limit on what a landlord can ask upfront, the seasonal contract trap that catches so many newcomers, and what the recent housing reforms changed. The rules vary by region in important ways, so treat this as the map rather than the final word for your exact town.
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Certificado Digital backup and renewal
Getting your Certificado Digital is the hard part. Keeping it is the part people forget about, and it is where the avoidable disasters happen. The certificate expires after a few years, and it lives as a file on one device, which means two things can go wrong: it can lapse because you did not renew in time, or it can vanish because the device died and you never made a backup. Either way, you are back at the start of the FNMT process, including the identity verification step that sent you to an office in the first place. This blog explains how the expiry and renewal work, why the backup is the single most important thing you can do, and how to think about keeping your certificate alive for the long term. As with the rest of our certificate content, the exact clicks live in the module; here we explain why it matters and where it goes wrong.
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Renewing your Spanish driving licence after 65
Once you hold a Spanish driving licence, renewing it is straightforward at any age, but the rhythm changes as you get older. Up to age 65, you renew every 10 years and the medical check is a quick formality. From 65, you renew every 5 years, and from a certain point the medical examination becomes more substantive. None of this is dramatic, but it is helpful to know the schedule so the renewal does not surprise you, and so you can avoid the awkward situation of driving on an expired licence because you missed the notification. This page explains the renewal cycle, what the medical check actually involves at different ages, where to do it, and the few things that change once you cross 65 and 70.
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Beckham Law Spain 2026
The Beckham Law is one of the most talked about features of moving to Spain as a professional, and one of the most misunderstood. People hear flat 24% tax and assume it always saves money. It does not. The Beckham Law is a fixed regime that ignores your personal circumstances, which means it helps high earners with simple income and can actively cost money for moderate earners with deductions and family circumstances. The only way to know whether it fits you is to model your specific situation. This blog walks through several illustrative profiles to show the pattern of when it pays off and when it does not. These are constructed examples for illustration, not real individuals, and the exact figures depend on your region and your full circumstances, so treat them as a way to understand the mechanics rather than as tax advice.
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DNV vs NLV in Spain 2026
For non EU citizens looking to move to Spain in 2026, the two most common residency routes are the Digital Nomad Visa (DNV) and the Non Lucrative Visa (NLV). They look superficially similar (both are long stay residency visas, both involve income proof, both lead to Spanish residency) but they are designed for fundamentally different applicants. Picking the wrong one wastes months and several thousand euro. The DNV is built for people who keep working remotely from Spain. The NLV is built for people who do not work at all in Spain, typically retirees or those living on passive income or savings. Which one fits you depends on your income source, your professional plans, and your tax preferences. This blog walks through the differences that matter.
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Cease activity as autónomo in Spain
Becoming autónomo in Spain gets all the attention. Stopping rarely does, even though most autónomos eventually need to deregister at some point. Maybe the business did not work, maybe you took an employee job, maybe you are leaving Spain, or maybe you are restructuring as an SL. Whatever the reason, the deregistration process (called baja en el RETA) needs to be handled properly with both the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social and the Agencia Tributaria. Get the timing wrong or skip one of the two steps and you keep paying social security contributions while not invoicing, or you trigger automatic penalties for missed tax declarations. This page walks through how the baja actually works in 2026, when to file it, what tax obligations remain after, and what to think about if you might come back.
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Seguridad Social Family Beneficiarios in Spain
One of the most generous parts of the Spanish Seguridad Social system is the family coverage. If you are a contributing worker in Spain (employee or autónomo), your spouse and children can be registered as beneficiarios on your Seguridad Social account. This gives them full public healthcare access for free, no extra contribution required. It is a feature many newcomers miss in their first months, paying instead for private family health insurance that duplicates what they already have through their work coverage. This page explains who qualifies as a beneficiario, how the registration works through IMPORTASS, and what each family member actually gets in practice.
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Seguridad Social Cost in Spain
How much does the Seguridad Social actually cost in Spain in 2026? It depends on whether you are an employee, an autónomo, a Digital Nomad Visa holder, a pensioner with an S1, or someone paying voluntarily through the Convenio Especial. Each path has its own contribution formula, and the differences add up to thousands of euro per year. This page breaks down every contribution scenario you might encounter with real 2026 numbers, including the 15 income brackets for autónomos, the Tarifa Plana for new autónomos, employer obligations for hiring, and the Convenio Especial for retirees and remote workers without employer coverage. If you want to understand what your monthly Seguridad Social bill will look like, this is the reference.
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TIE Card Spain: What Non EU Residents Need to Know
If you are a non EU citizen living in Spain, the TIE (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero) is the document that proves you are here legally. It is a biometric card, the size of a credit card, that contains your photograph, fingerprints, NIE number, residence permit type, and the dates your permit is valid. It is the non EU equivalent of the green card that EU citizens receive, but more substantial: the TIE is a full biometric identity document, while the EU green card is a printed paper certificate with no photo or chip. Banks, employers, the Seguridad Social, the Agencia Tributaria, insurers, and the DGT all recognise the TIE as your primary identification in Spain. Without it, you have a residence permit in the system but no practical way to prove it at a counter, a border, or an insurance claim.
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Exchanging Your EU Driving Licence
On paper, exchanging your EU driving licence for a Spanish one is a straightforward administrative process. You go to the DGT, hand in your old licence, and get a new one. In reality, the process is riddled with surprises that nobody warns you about until you are sitting in the waiting room wondering why nothing is happening. The RESPER verification takes longer than expected, the photo format is wrong, your medical certificate is from the wrong type of centre, or the DGT website crashes while you are trying to book your cita previa. This blog is an honest account of what the process actually looks like in 2026 for EU citizens living in Spain, based on real experiences rather than the sanitised version on the DGT website. For the full step by step procedure and requirements, see our pillar page.
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NIE Number for EU Citizens
You have arrived in Spain. You have found a place to live. You are ready to open a bank account, sign the rental contract in your name, set up utilities, or start working. And then the first question hits: "Do you have a NIE?" No? Then none of those things can happen. The NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjero) is the single most blocking number in the entire Spanish administrative system. Without it, you are invisible. Banks cannot identify you. Employers cannot register you. The Agencia Tributaria does not know you exist. The NIE is not residency, not a visa, and not a tax status. It is a nine character identification number. But it is the key that starts every other process, and for EU citizens moving to Spain, understanding when and how to get it is the difference between a smooth first month and weeks of frustration.
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Digital Nomad Visa Income Proof
Of all the requirements for Spain's Digital Nomad Visa, income proof is the one that causes the most rejections, the most requerimientos (requests for additional documentation), and the most stress. The UGE-CE is specific about what it needs, but the law itself is vague enough that applicants are left guessing. What counts as income? Gross or net? Which documents prove it? What if you are a freelancer with variable income? What if your employer pays you in a currency other than euros? This blog answers all of those questions based on what the UGE-CE actually accepts in 2026, not what the law theoretically says.
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How to Maintain Your Spanish Residency
Most people who register as residents in Spain assume that once they have the green card or the TIE, the hard part is over. The registration is done, the card is in the drawer, and life goes on. What many do not realise is that residency in Spain is conditional, not just on how you entered the system, but on how you maintain it. Leave Spain for too long, fail to keep your empadronamiento current, or let your residency conditions lapse, and you can lose what you worked to get. This is not a theoretical risk. It happens, and with the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) now tracking border crossings digitally, the enforcement is becoming more data driven than ever.
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The Correct Residency Sequence for EU Citizens
The biggest source of frustration for EU citizens moving to Spain is not the bureaucracy itself. It is doing things in the wrong order. Each registration depends on the one before it, and if you skip a step or try to jump ahead, the system does not bend. It simply stops. You show up at the Policía Nacional for your green card and they ask for your empadronamiento. You go to the Centro de Salud for your health card and they ask for your NUSS. You try to register as autónomo at the TGSS and they ask for your Modelo 036 from Hacienda. Each step has a prerequisite, and the prerequisite has a prerequisite. This blog lays out the correct sequence, explains why the order matters, and describes what goes wrong when you get it backwards.
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Green Card in Spain: What Actually Changes
You have done the empadronamiento. You have your NIE. And now you have walked out of the Policía Nacional with a green piece of paper: your Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión. The green card. The moment feels anticlimactic for most people. A sheet of green A4, no photo, no biometrics, just your name, your NIE number, your address, and a date. But that understated document changes more than you might expect. It also changes less than many people assume. This blog covers both sides: what the green card actually unlocks in your daily life, and the things it does not affect at all.
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NUSS Spain: Get Your Social Security
Most people who move to Spain know about the NIE. It is the number that unlocks everything: bank accounts, rental contracts, tax registration. But fewer people know about the NUSS (Número de la Seguridad Social), and that knowledge gap creates real problems. The NUSS is your Spanish social security number. It is what connects you to public healthcare, tracks your pension contributions, and links you to sick leave and maternity benefits. Without it, your employer cannot register you. Without it, you cannot get a Tarjeta Sanitaria. Without it, the entire social security side of your life in Spain does not exist. And the thing is: you can get it before your first day. You should get it before your first day. Here is why, and how.
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Retiring to Spain: S1 Form and Your Healthcare Rights
For many people moving to Spain in retirement, the question of healthcare is the first one that keeps them up at night. How do I get access to the Spanish public system? Do I still have coverage from my home country? What is this S1 form everyone keeps mentioning? The answers depend on where you are coming from, whether you are already receiving a state pension, and whether you are old enough to qualify. The Spanish Seguridad Social system is comprehensive, but the path into it as a pensioner is different from the path for employees or the self employed. This blog explains the S1 route, the alternatives, and the things that trip people up.
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NIE vs TIE Spain: What's the Difference
NIE number, Green NIE, TIE card they're not the same thing. Here's a plain-English breakdown of what each document is, who needs which, and why having one doesn't replace the other.
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Autónomo - Gestor or DIY in Spain
One of the first pieces of advice you get when you start working in Spain is: get a gestor. It comes from Facebook groups, from your neighbour who has lived on the Costa del Sol for ten years, and from the gestor’s own website. The advice is not wrong, but it is incomplete. Some tasks genuinely require professional help. Others are straightforward enough that paying someone 100 euro a month to do what you could handle in an afternoon is just a subscription to convenience. The trick is knowing which is which.
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Registering your family in Spain as a resident
Already living in Spain and want to officially register your partner or children? Read everything about Reagrupacion Familiar, the green certificate for your family and the Seguridad Social.
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FastNIE vs Easy To Spain
If you're looking for help with your Spanish NIE, two services keep coming up with very different models. FastNIE is a US based remote agency that promises your NIE in as little as seven business days, handled end to end by Power of Attorney. Easy To Spain is a self guided platform built by a team who emigrated to Spain in 2024 and now helps others do the same.
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TGSS and INSS in Spain: what is the difference?
Many people who move to Spain or start working there as self-employed use the terms TGSS and INSS interchangeably. That is understandable, because both institutions fall under the broader framework of the Seguridad Social. Yet they are two completely separate organisations, each with their own responsibilities, powers and desk. In this blog we explain what the abbreviations mean, what each institution actually does, who they are relevant for and when you will deal with which one. Whether you are an employee, self-employed, retired or a newcomer to Spain, this information is essential for understanding Spanish bureaucracy.
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Volante or certificado: what do you actually need in Spain?
The volante de empadronamiento is the right document for the vast majority of situations in Spain. With a barcode or a stamp and signature, the volante is valid at banks, healthcare providers, government bodies, landlords and virtually all other everyday administrative situations. The certificado de empadronamiento carries more legal weight and is specifically required at court, at the Registro Civil (marriage, name change, adoption), for inheritance declarations and in some cases for procedures with foreign authorities. Both documents must not be more than three months old when submitted. A useful tip: tell the town hall what you need the document for. That way you can leave with the right one straight away.
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How Modelo 720 Works and Who Has to File It
If you became a Spanish tax resident last year and you still hold a savings account in the UK, an investment portfolio in the Netherlands, or a rental apartment in Germany, the Spanish tax authority wants to know about it. Not to tax those assets directly, but to confirm they exist. That is the purpose of Modelo 720: a purely informative declaration of foreign assets. It sounds harmless, and in many ways it is. But missing it, filing it late, or filing it incorrectly remains one of the most common compliance mistakes among new residents in Spain.
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