Modelo 720 in 2026: Foreign Assets Reporting, Thresholds, Penalties

Modelo 720 is the annual return in which Spanish tax residents report assets held abroad. You file it if the total value in any one of three categories is over €50,000 on 31 December, between 1 January and 31 March of the following year. It is an information return: it does not create a tax bill by itself.

Who has to file

The obligation falls on individuals and companies resident in Spanish territory, and on anyone who is the owner, authorized person, beneficiary or “beneficial owner” of the assets (arts. 42 bis, 42 ter and 54 bis of RD 1065/2007). For an individual, that means a Spanish tax resident under the 183-day and economic-interest tests. The Tax Agency says that all taxpayers who must pay personal income tax on their full income are covered.

If you stop being the owner during the year, you still report the asset as of the date you lost it (art. 54 bis.5 for property, with similar rules for accounts and securities).

The three categories and the €50,000 thresholds

Each category is tested separately. If the combined value of a category is €50,000 or less, you do not report that category. If it is over, you report every item in it (arts. 42 bis.4.e, 42 ter.4.c and 54 bis.6.d).

Category	What counts	How it is valued
Accounts (key C)	Current, savings, term deposits and credit accounts in foreign banks	Balance on 31 December and average balance of the last quarter. The threshold is exceeded if either goes over €50,000
Securities, funds, insurance (keys V, I, S)	Shares, bonds, units in foreign funds, foreign life and disability insurance, annuities	Value on 31 December, with funds valued by net asset value and under the wealth tax rules (Ley 19/1991)
Real estate (key B)	Property and rights over property abroad	Acquisition value and 31 December value are both tested against the €50,000 limit

Two points that trip people up. First, accounts abroad count even if they earn no interest. Second, the sum is per category, so €40,000 in a UK bank and €40,000 in a US brokerage account are two different categories and neither reaches the threshold.

Joint ownership and the “beneficial owner” test mean a spouse’s account where you are an authorized signer may also count. Check the rules for each account before you decide it is outside the form.

Filing again in later years

After the first filing, you file again only if the combined value of a category has risen by more than €20,000 from the value that triggered the last filing (art. 42 bis.5, 42 ter.5 and 54 bis.7). You must also file the year you sell or close something that was already reported.

When and how

The window is 1 January to 31 March of the year after the reporting date (Orden HAP/72/2013, art. 7). The return for the 2025 position was due between 1 January and 31 March 2026. The 2026 position goes in between 1 January and 31 March 2027. It is filed online, and the Tax Agency allows four extra calendar days if a technical failure prevents online filing in time.

The Tax Agency warns that modelo 720 does not report virtual currencies. The General Tax Law’s additional provision 18 lists virtual currencies held abroad as a separate duty to inform.

The EU court ruling and the penalties today

Before 2022, missing or late filing triggered harsh consequences. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Case C-788/19 on 27 January 2022 that Spain had breached the free movement of capital because of three things in the regime:

1. Undeclared assets were taxed as “unjustified capital gains” with no limitation period, even for years already time-barred.
2. A proportional fine of 150% of the tax was imposed, which could be stacked on flat-rate fines.
3. The flat-rate fines were disproportionate to those for comparable domestic failures and had no overall cap.

Spain answered with Ley 5/2022 of 9 March 2022, in force from 11 March 2022. Its final provisions rewrote additional provision 18 of the General Tax Law, which now states only the duty to report, and amended art. 39 of the Personal Income Tax law. Under art. 39 as now worded, unjustified gains go into the general tax base of the year they are found, unless you prove you owned the asset before the start of the limitation period.

The practical effect is that the ordinary penalty rules in the General Tax Law now apply to an information return. For a late return, the fine is €20 per data item, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €20,000 (art. 198.1), halved if you file late on your own initiative without being asked (art. 198.2). For an incomplete or false return, the fine on monetary data is up to 2% of the amounts left out or misstated, with a minimum of €500 (art. 199.5); €200 per data item applies to non-monetary data (art. 199.4). Which of these applies to your case, and how the Tax Agency counts “data items”, is a matter for an adviser.

Do Beckham regime taxpayers file?

No. The Tax Agency’s FAQ answers this question directly. Taxpayers under the special regime for workers moved to Spain (art. 93 of Ley 35/2006, the Beckham regime) do not have to file modelo 720. Its reasoning is that the consequences of non-compliance were tied to taxpayers who pay tax on their whole income, which the Beckham regime is not.

The exemption stops at the main taxpayer. The FAQ states the regime does not extend to other family members, who must file if they are Spanish tax residents and cross the thresholds. When the regime ends, you are an ordinary resident and the form applies from that point.

How it connects to other taxes

Reporting an asset is separate from paying tax on it. Income from foreign accounts and funds goes in your personal income tax return, and large estates may owe wealth tax. Pensions and ISAs are covered in UK pensions and tax in Spain, and Americans should also see US taxes for Americans in Spain.