Skip to main content
Practical manual for Income Tax 2022.

Introduction and scope of application

Of the tax reform introduced in the IRPF by Law 26/2014, of November 27 ( BOE of November 28) the figure known as "exit tax" or "exit tax", conceived by the legislator as an instrument to prevent tax evasion and a measure to guarantee tax revenues.

The exit tax established in IRPF aims to tax the "latent" capital gain generated by the ownership of the shares or interests of the taxpayer who loses such status due to the change of residence, even if said gain has not yet materialized because said shares or interests have not been transferred, since the transfer of a natural person to another country transfers the tax authority to the latter, giving rise, when it comes to high-value financial assets, to a significant loss of tax revenue for the country of origin (Spain).

Area of application: subjective and objective requirements

The positive differences between the market value of the shares or holdings of any type of entity owned by the taxpayer and their acquisition value will be considered as capital gains when the following requirements are met:

a) Subjective requirements

It applies in the event that the taxpayer loses his status due to a change of residence, provided that said taxpayer had had such status for at least ten of the fifteen tax periods prior to the last tax period that must be declared for this tax.

In the case of workers who have opted for the special tax regime applicable to workers posted to Spanish territory, the ten-year period will begin to be computed from the first tax period in which the special regime is not applicable.

b) Objective requirements

For the application of this regime, it is also necessary that any of the following circumstances occur:

  1. That the market value of the shares or participations exceeds, jointly, 4,000,000 euros.

  2. When the above is not met, that on the accrual date of the last tax period to be declared for this tax the percentage of participation in the entity is greater than 25 percent , provided that the market value of the shares or participations in the aforementioned entity exceeds 1,000,000 euros .

    In this case, the special regime will only apply to capital gains corresponding to the shares or interests referred to in this circumstance.