The Beckham Law (officially the Special Expats' Tax Regime, or SETR) is a Spanish income-tax option that lets qualifying inbound workers be taxed as non-residents while living in Spain. Named after footballer David Beckham, an early beneficiary, it applies a flat 24% rate on Spanish-source employment income up to EUR 600,000, with income above that threshold taxed at 47%. The regime runs for the year of arrival plus the following five years (up to six years total).
To qualify you generally must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the previous five years and must move for a work, director, or qualifying entrepreneurial reason. A key benefit: most foreign-source income (overseas dividends, interest, rental, and capital gains) stays outside the Spanish net.
Example: An engineer relocating to Madrid on a EUR 200,000 salary pays a flat 24%, roughly EUR 48,000. Under Spain's normal progressive scale (reaching 47%), the same salary could cost well over EUR 75,000, saving nearly EUR 30,000 a year.
Freelancers usually cannot use this regime and file under standard rules instead; see the Spain autonomo tax calculator. Compare with related concepts like tax residency and the non-dom regime.