Your First Spanish Tax Return as a Resident: Preparing Modelo 100

Who must file modelo 100 in the first year

Modelo 100 is the IRPF return. The tax period coincides with the calendar year, and the tax accrues on 31 December [1]. If you are a Spanish tax resident for the year, tax is calculated on income for the whole year: a person remains resident or non-resident for the whole year, and a change of residence does not interrupt the period. This is how the AEAT guide for residents with Russian income puts it [2]. If you arrived in autumn and became resident, income from before your arrival also goes into the return. How status is determined is explained in tax residence: 183 days and centre of interests.

Whether you must file depends on the source and amount of income. According to the AEAT guidance for Renta 2025, you do not file if your only income is a salary of no more than €22,000 a year from one payer. The threshold is lower with several payers. You must file in any case if you were in RETA at any point in the year, if you are entitled to the international double taxation deduction or if you are claiming a refund. Tax-exempt income is not counted when checking the thresholds [8]. The full table of thresholds is in the article IRPF rates, deductions and filing deadline.

The income threshold for the DNV, €34,188 a year before tax, is above the €22,000 limit. So a resident on a DNV with a salary at or above the threshold has to file a return [8]. A self-employed person has to file whatever the amount [8]. If you have opted for the article 93 regime, you file modelo 151 instead of modelo 100: the Beckham Law for digital nomads.

How to get access: NIE, Cl@ve or número de referencia

You can file online with an electronic certificate, Cl@ve Móvil, a referencia number or eIDAS (identification of a foreign national as an EU citizen). Telephone and in-person filing at the office are subject to conditions [3]. For a first return without a Spanish history, Cl@ve is the simplest: registration opens all Renta services without a referencia [14]. How to register is explained in getting Cl@ve.

If you choose referencia, the AEAT asks for your NIE and the soporte number shown on your foreigner’s card or another document. For the 2025 campaign, the referencia was linked to casilla 505 of the previous return. If you did not file Renta 2024 or the amount in casilla 505 is zero, the system asks for the last five digits of the IBAN of an account that your bank reported to the AEAT in its annual information return as one you held in 2025 [4].

If the bank did not report the account, you cannot get a referencia online this way. Alternatives according to the AEAT: registering in Cl@ve via an invitation letter, an electronic certificate or an appointment at the tax office [5]. A referencia consists of six characters, and each new one cancels the previous one [4].

The first time you access the Renta services for a year, the system asks you to confirm or correct your tax domicile [11]. Give the address where you actually live. Registering your address: empadronamiento in Barcelona.

How to prepare the return: the steps

1. Record your status and dates. Draw up a table of days in Spain for the year, your date of moving, your address and your household. You will need documents to support your status.
2. Gather income by type: salary (contract, payslips), invoices and receipts if you are self-employed, interest and dividends, sales of assets, rent. For each income, note the amount in the currency you received it in.
3. Convert to euros. For employment income the AEAT says: an amount in foreign currency is converted at the official rate, that is, the ECB rate published by the Banco de España [6]. Which day’s rate to use for each type of payment is not spelled out in the guide for employment income: check with a gestor.
4. Prepare documents on foreign tax. For the article 80 deduction you need the amount of tax actually paid abroad under a tax similar to IRPF or IRNR [7]. Keep proof of the tax together with the return.
5. Open your datos fiscales. This is the data known to the AEAT at the time you log in: from employers, banks and other payers. Access is through the same certificate, Cl@ve or referencia [11]. Foreign receipts may be missing from this data: check and add them.
6. Decide whether to file jointly with your spouse. Joint filing is possible for the whole family, and the choice is made for each year [1].
7. Complete the return in Renta WEB, check it and file it. If the result is “to pay”, pay by direct debit (accepted until 25 June 2026) or another method: how to pay tax online through the AEAT [3].
8. Keep your documents. As a general rule, the AEAT’s right to assess a tax debt lasts four years (article 66 LGT) [12].

Foreign income and Russia: what to declare and what to deduct

A resident declares worldwide income, regardless of which country the payer is in (article 2 LIRPF). The AEAT says so directly for residents with Russian income [2]. A salary from a Russian company, interest on an account abroad and the sale of shares go into the return even if no tax was withheld in Spain.

If a foreign state has taxed the same income, Spain takes this into account through the deduction under article 80 LIRPF. The lower of two amounts is used: the tax actually paid abroad, and the average effective rate applied to the part of the base taxed abroad [7]. How the treaty between Russia and Spain affects this is covered in the article double taxation between Russia and Spain: since 2023 Russia has suspended most of the treaty’s articles, while the AEAT pages do not mention the suspension.

Foreign accounts, securities and real estate worth more than €50,000 per group are subject to a separate information return, modelo 720, from 1 January to 31 March of the following year [13][15]. It does not replace modelo 100, nor the other way round: modelo 100 and modelo 720: the difference.

Your first return step by step: a sample calendar

A hypothetical example for clarity. Say you moved to Barcelona in February 2026 and are resident for 2026.

• By the end of 2026: you keep a table of days, collect payslips and proof of foreign taxes, and get Cl@ve.
• From 1 January to 31 March 2027: modelo 720, if your foreign assets on 31 December 2026 exceed €50,000 per group.
• Spring 2027: modelo 100 for 2026. The campaign dates are announced by the AEAT; for 2025 they were 8 April to 30 June 2026 [3].

As of 2 October 2026, the AEAT had not published the campaign dates for 2026, so check the exact deadline on its website in spring.

Common mistakes in the first return

• Not entering a foreign salary or interest because it is not in your datos fiscales.
• Converting roubles to euros at a random rate instead of the official ECB rate [6].
• Forgetting the foreign tax deduction or not keeping proof that the tax was paid [7].
• Not checking whether you must file: assuming your income is below the threshold and forgetting about RETA or the double taxation deduction [8].
• Starting to arrange access in the last weeks of the campaign: if your bank has not reported your account to the AEAT, you will not get a referencia online, and Cl@ve registration goes through a letter [5].
• Filing modelo 100 as a participant in the Beckham regime instead of modelo 151, or the other way round [9].
• Assuming that modelo 720 replaces the income tax return, or that the income tax return covers modelo 720 [10][13][15].

When you need an individual review

You can manage on your own if you have a single salary and no foreign assets. An individual review is worthwhile if you moved mid-year, have income from several countries, have foreign accounts or property, are self-employed, moved with your family or are considering the article 93 regime. Which deduction to apply and how to show foreign tax is decided by a gestor on the basis of the documents.

How we can help

We do not give tax opinions. The ReloVictory team in Barcelona helps prepare the documents for your first return: a timeline of days, a list of income by country, proof of foreign taxes and questions for a tax adviser. First consultation: 15 minutes free; full consultation: €121 for 45 minutes. Booking: consultation. Service page: digital nomad residence permit; how to apply for the DNV: route card; the overall process in the city: residence permit in Barcelona.

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ReloVictory · Sources reviewed 02.10.2026 · Not a substitute for individual legal advice.