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.
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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