Forms 149, 150, 151: posted workers

With the free movement of workers in the European Union, more and more people are moving to work temporarily in Spain. For these situations, there is a special regime for posted workers. This article will talk about this regime, and we will tell you what Forms 149, 150 and 151 are used for.

Special scheme for posted workers

The special tax regime that applies to workers posted to Spanish territory is regulated in article 93 of the Personal Income Tax Law which establishes that natural persons who acquire their tax residence in Spain due to a displacement to our country for any of the cases contemplated in the law, may choose to pay taxes for Non-Resident Income Tax, maintaining the status of taxpayers for personal income tax, during the tax period in which the change of residence occurs and during the following 5 tax periods.

Let us remember that the attractiveness of this special regime lies, on the one hand, in a fixed tax rate of 24% for the first EUR 600,000.00 of the general tax base to be paid and the excess of 47%. On the other, with the exception of income from work, which is taxed by all those obtained worldwide, only income obtained in Spain is taxed. Thus, for example, the profit obtained from the sale of a property abroad or the dividend of some shares of a foreign company is not taxed.

Regarding the requirements to be met to qualify for this special regime are:

• That they have not been residents in Spain during the previous 10 tax periods.
• That the displacement is produced by:
  • An employment contract.
  • For being the administrator of an entity.
• That they do not obtain income that is classified as obtained through a permanent establishment in Spain.

Forms 149, 150 and 151

Let’s see what each of these models is for:

• Form 149 is used to notify the Treasury of the option for the special regime for posted workers, their resignation, exclusion and the date on which the posting ends.
• Form 150 is used for the declaration of personal income tax in the cases of taxpayers who have opted for this regime before January 1, 2015. This form must be presented by income taxpayers to whom the special regime for workers posted to Spanish territory is applied in the following cases:
  • Returns corresponding to the year 2015 and remaining until the end of the application of the regime, or extemporaneous returns of periods not prescribed, only in the case of taxpayers who have chosen to apply the special regime in its wording in force on 31 December December 2014.
• Form 151 is the one used to declare personal income tax for taxpayers benefiting from this special regime since January 1, 2015, the date on which the regulations change and, therefore, the model to present.

In short, in the event that you are a worker posted to Spain for a time, it is important that you inform yourself, with an expert tax advisor, on how to pay taxes in Spain for the benefits you obtain. In this way, you will avoid sanctions and inspections from the Spanish Tax Agency.