Spain requires a tax resident to disclose foreign assets every year on a separate information return. Modelo 720 raises no tax of its own: the duty sits in disposición adicional decimoctava of Ley 58/2003 (LGT) and is fleshed out in three articles of the general tax management regulation, RD 1065/2007. The form itself was approved by Orden HAP/72/2013, in its consolidated version of 31 October 2023.
For a decade this return carried the harshest penalty regime in the EU, until the Court of Justice of the EU found it disproportionate. The second most common problem is arithmetic: the €50,000 threshold applies to each of three independent asset blocks separately, and adding accounts to real estate produces the wrong answer in both directions.
Concept: who is caught and why
The duty falls on individuals and legal entities that are Spanish tax residents, on Spanish permanent establishments of non-residents, and on the unincorporated entities of art. 35.4 LGT. The circle is wider than legal ownership: representatives, authorised signatories, beneficiaries, holders of powers of disposal and titulares reales within the meaning of art. 4 Ley 10/2010 — the same beneficial-ownership definition used in the anti-money-laundering perimeter — all report.
Assets already inside the Spanish accounting perimeter drop out: accounts and property of companies and of individuals carrying on a business, provided they are booked individually and fully identified. The provision closes an information gap and stops short of re-collecting what the tax office already sees.
Three blocks and the €50,000 threshold
The three blocks live in different articles of the regulation, are measured separately, and are valued under different rules.
| Block | Provision | Covers | How the threshold is measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts | art. 42 bis RD 1065/2007 | Accounts with foreign banks and credit institutions | Aggregate balance at 31 December, or aggregate average balance for Q4 |
| Securities, insurance, annuities | art. 42 ter | Shares and participations, debt securities, fund units, assets placed with trusts and fiduciary structures, life policies, annuities | Aggregate value at 31 December under the valuation rules of Ley 19/1991 |
| Real estate | art. 54 bis | Foreign real estate, timeshare rights, usufruct and bare ownership | Aggregate acquisition value |
| Crypto assets | art. 42 quater | Virtual currencies held in foreign custody | Aggregate euro valuation at 31 December — separate Modelo 721 |
Crossing the threshold on any one measure inside a block exposes the whole block: a Q4 average above the line pulls in every account even when the 31 December balance looks modest. Valuation of the second block is tied to the wealth tax rules — the same Ley 19/1991 that builds the IP base fixes the value of securities and policies for the information return.
When a repeat return is due
The first filing covers the year in which the person became resident and crossed the threshold. Two rules govern what follows, and the second is routinely missed.
Growth: a repeat return is due when the aggregate figure for a block has risen by more than €20,000 against the figure that triggered the last return filed. Growth is tested per block, never per individual account or asset.
The "en todo caso" rule: regardless of growth, a return is due when during the year the person ceased to be holder, representative, authorised signatory, beneficiary, holder of powers of disposal or titular real over a previously declared account, and — for the securities and real estate blocks — where the person ceased to be titular or titular real. The balance or value at the date the status ended is reported, and for real estate the disposal price and date. Closing an account, selling a flat and revoking a power of disposal all land here.
Deadline and filing mechanics
- The reporting period is the calendar year; positions are fixed at 31 December.
- The filing window runs from 1 January to 31 March of the following year (art. 7 Orden HAP/72/2013). For 2025 the deadline fell on 31 March 2026.
- Filing is electronic only, through the AEAT Sede electrónica, with a qualified X.509 V3 certificate or DNI electrónico.
- Errors are corrected by a supplementary or substitute return through the consulta y modificación de declaraciones informativas service.
- Where AEAT rejects a filing for defects, the taxpayer has 10 days to cure them; uncured defects leave the obligation unfulfilled.
Penalties after the CJEU ruling
On 27 January 2022 the CJEU held in C-788/19 Commission v Spain that the old construction breached art. 63 TFEU and art. 40 of the EEA Agreement on three counts: taxation of undeclared assets as unjustified capital gains with, in practice, no limitation period; a proportional fine of 150% of the tax calculated; and flat-rate fines — €5,000 per data item with a €10,000 minimum under the then-applicable DA 1ª Ley 7/2012 — whose amount the Court found disproportionate to the penalties imposed for similar infringements in a purely national context and whose total was not capped.
Ley 5/2022 of 9 March 2022 implemented the judgment: its repealing provision struck out disposiciones adicionales primera y segunda of Ley 7/2012, disposición final cuarta rewrote DA decimoctava LGT to leave only the information duty, and disposición final quinta restored the limitation defence in art. 39 LIRPF. No special penalty regime for Modelo 720 survives in the statute.
What applies now is the general regime of arts. 198 and 199 LGT. The figures below come from the statute; how a given breach is classified remains with the inspectorate.
| Situation | Provision | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary late filing, before any AEAT request | art. 198.2 LGT | €10 per data item or set of data, minimum €150, maximum €10,000 per return |
| Filing after an AEAT request | art. 198.1 LGT | €20 per data item, minimum €300, maximum €20,000 |
| Incomplete or inaccurate data, non-monetary items | art. 199.4 LGT | €200 per data item |
| Incomplete or inaccurate data, monetary items | art. 199.5 LGT | 0.5–2% of the undeclared operations, minimum €500 |
| Repealed pre-2022 regime | DA 1ª Ley 7/2012 | 150% of the assessment plus €5,000 per item, no limitation period |
A repeated infringement doubles the art. 199 penalty (art. 199.6 LGT). The gap between the repealed and the current regime explains why voluntary late filing today is cheaper than any waiting strategy.
Who does not file, and what is filed separately
Beneficiaries of the Beckham regime remain residents in form while being taxed under IRNR rules, and art. 93.1 LIRPF states expressly that they fall under wealth tax by obligación real only. On the settled position of the DGT, residents' information duties over worldwide assets do not reach them; those duties switch on with the first year of ordinary IRPF, which is why the exit from the regime is planned in advance.
Modelo 720 replaces no tax return. Foreign crypto assets go on Modelo 721 (Orden HFP/886/2023) under the same threshold and the same window; the capital taxes themselves are declared on forms 714 and 718 to different deadlines. Spanish real estate stays out of the 720 altogether — the tax office sees it from the deed and the register.
Missed years and where practice stands in 2026
A resident's foreign account is visible to AEAT without any return: automatic exchange under CRS has run since 2017, and in its 2026 tax control plan AEAT states outright that it will intensify control of individuals with significant wealth and test simulated changes of tax residence. The DAC8 transposition will extend forms 172 and 721 to electronic money and central bank digital currencies.
A discovered gap is closed by filing voluntarily for every affected year before a request arrives: the rate is half, and any related income assessment is confined to the four-year limitation period. Taxation of the assets themselves is covered separately, in the wealth tax and in the country-by-country crypto overview.
Compared with its neighbours, the Spanish return sits in the middle: France asks for every foreign account on forms 3916 and 3916-bis with no threshold at all, Italy for all foreign financial and real assets in quadro RW, while Germany asks only about foreign businesses and holdings of 10% or more or above €150,000 of cost and not about accounts. The country-by-country comparison of these returns, alongside what each administration receives under CRS and CARF, sits on tax transparency.
Q/A
Is the return filed every year?
No. After the first filing, a repeat return becomes due when a block has grown by more than €20,000 against the figure that triggered the last return, or when a status over a previously declared position ended during the year. A quiet year with no growth and no closures needs no return.
Is the €50,000 threshold measured across all assets combined?
No — per block. A €30,000 account plus a €40,000 flat trigger nothing. Inside the accounts block the threshold is tested twice, on the 31 December balance and on the Q4 average balance, and breaching either one exposes every account in that block.
What is the exposure for a late return today?
The general LGT fines. Filing voluntarily before any request from the tax office costs €10 per data item, with a €150 minimum and a €10,000 cap per return; after a request the rate doubles. The 150% surcharge and the open-ended imputation were repealed by Ley 5/2022 in implementation of C-788/19.
Do Beckham regime holders file Modelo 720?
No, for the entire life of the regime, on the settled position of the DGT. They are taxed under IRNR rules and pay wealth tax on Spanish assets only. The duty arises with the first year of ordinary IRPF after the regime ends, and the first return falls due by 31 March of the following year.
Where does a foreign brokerage account belong?
The cash balance sits in the first block and the securities in the second, and each block is tested against €50,000 on its own. Securities are valued under Ley 19/1991, the same rules that build the wealth tax base.