In order to answer this question we must first look to the definition of Digital Nomad.
digital nomad
noun
a person who earns a living working online in various locations of their choosing (rather than a fixed business location).
So, I would say from my findings (keep reading), that Spain do not actually have a digital nomad visa option. In all fairness to Spain, the visa that is being confused by many as digital nomad is actually in fact called the Spanish Teleworking Visa. The lazy mistake is to read teleworking, and think remote working, and come up with digital nomad. However, as we learned above, a digital nomad is of various locations (rather than a fixed business location). Unfortunately this IS NOT what Spain intends, and here is where we start to get into some details……
From the list of requirements for successfully acquiring the Spanish Teleworkers Visa, most are pretty straight forward:
- Must be bringing in your income from outside of Spain
- Company of employment must have been incorporated for at least 1 year OR as a freelancer must have proof of future contract and for both must have been employed with company or client for at least 3 months
- Have clean criminal record
- Proof of education or experience
- Proof of sufficient income
Where is starts to get complicated, and pretty non transparent is on the topics of tax and social security payments.
For tax, there is conflicting information littering the internet and no official information from the Spanish authorities themselves. I’ve seen 15% spouted, 24% seems to be the most popular conclusion, but recently I have been told by an immigration lawyer, that in the scenario as a freelancer, that you would actually NOT be eligible for the 24% flat rate. Instead a freelancer is held to the usual Spanish residential tax brackets, up to 47%. This conflicts with the wording under the beckham law which reads that “Freelancers or self-employed CANNOT apply for Beckham’s law (unless they are holders of a digital nomad visa). So who knows what the truth is right now for freelancers (please comment in the chat if you can shed any light on this).
A freelancer would get at a 1 year reduced social security payment amount, but would rise up over the next 2,3,4 years, and obviously a freelancer wouldn’t have an employment company paying their SS for them.
For social security as an employee, your company of employment would need to register in Spain and pay 30% of your salary in Spanish social security payments. This is waved IF your company are paying your social security in your home country AND that country has a SS agreement with Spain (US does, UK and most don’t).
Between the tax and social security scenarios, it basically negates any kind of tax relief as part of the teleworker visa.
Finally, and back to the point in mind. With tax, social security and the need to spend 180 days in Spain in a single tax year, this is definitely NOT a digital nomad situation.