Recipients can renew the one-year visa every year for up to five years (Picture: Unsplash)
Spain is set to join the list of European countries offering ‘digital nomad visas’ that would allow remote workers to live and work in the country for up to five years.
Under the recently introduced Startup Act in the Spanish Parliament, people working remotely for foreign companies will be permitted to live in the country without needing a full work visa.
According to Spainvisa, the country is planning to launch a brand-new visa for digital nomads to ‘take advantage of the explosion of remote working options accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic’.
The highly-anticipated visa is expected to officially launch in January 2023 and is part of a new startup law approved by the Spanish parliament in early November. Now, the bill just needs to be approved by the Senate before going into effect.
Under the Startup Act, digital nomads earning less than €600,000 a year would qualify for a reduced non-resident income tax of 15% for up to four years. That’s less Spain’s standard 25% income tax.
Spain is set to join the list of European countries offering ‘digital nomad’ visas (Picture: Unsplash)
The attractive tax break is specifically aimed at remote workers who make at least 80% of their income from companies located outside of Spain.
Recipients can renew the one-year visa every year for up to five years, after which they can apply for permanent residency.
It’s unclear what the minimum monthly income will be required to qualify for the but some experts have predicted that it should be between €2,000 and €2,500 (£1,739 – £2,173) a month.
That’s nearly twice the national minimum wage in Spain which is €1,050 but is less than the monthly income requirement for Portugal’s digital nomad visa.
Earlier this year, Portugal introduced a visa for digital nomads as long as they made at least four times its minimum wage to apply.
Portugal is scheduled to raise its monthly minimum wage to €760 in January, bringing the visa’s income requirement to €3,040 a month.
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The one-year visa can be renewed every year for up to five years.
