Modelo 720 for Americans: Reporting U.S. Accounts and Assets to Spain

Modelo 720 is the return on which Spanish tax residents list their assets outside Spain. It is due from your first resident year once your accounts, securities or real estate abroad top 50,000 euros. For an American that is almost everything: the checking account back home, the brokerage account, the IRA, the house kept after the move. It is an information return, a declaración informativa, so no tax is paid with it. A missing one cost at least 10,000 euros per block until 2022; today the minimum is 300 euros. This article is for informational purposes only and is not tax or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

What does a missed or late Modelo 720 cost since the 2022 reform?

Far less than before 2022: from 300 to 20,000 euros per block, halved when you file before the Agencia Tributaria, Spain’s tax agency, asks. Until 2022, additional provision 18 of the General Tax Law fined each missing item of data 5,000 euros, with a 10,000 euro minimum per block. The income tax law taxed undeclared assets as unjustified gains in the oldest open year, and Ley 7/2012 added a fine of 150 percent of the tax on those gains. On January 27, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union held in case C-788/19 that this breached the free movement of capital. Ley 5/2022, published on March 10, 2022 and in force the next day, repealed the 150 percent fine, rewrote provision 18 without a penalty section and deleted the unjustified-gains rule of article 39.2.

The Agency applies articles 198 and 199 of the General Tax Law separately to each block, according to its answer on penalties, updated February 2025, which leaves the figures to those articles:

• Not filed on time: 20 euros per item of data or set of data, with a 300 euro minimum and a 20,000 euro maximum.
• Filed late before any request from the Agency: half of each figure, so 10 euros per item, from 150 to 10,000 euros.
• Filed on time but incomplete or wrong: 200 euros per item for a return that carries no amounts (article 199.4), or up to 2 percent of the amounts misreported, with a 500 euro minimum, for a return that carries amounts (article 199.5).

The Agency does not say which paragraph of article 199 applies. Article 15.3 of the penalty regulation sends a return that carries both amounts and other data to 199.5, with the linked amount as the base even when only the other data are wrong. No official page applies that rule to Modelo 720 by name. Under article 198.2 of the General Tax Law, completing an on-time return later, before any request, removes the article 199 infraction; only what was declared late is fined, at the halved rate.

Items are defined in articles 42 bis.6, 42 ter.7 and 54 bis.8 of the tax procedures regulation. For an account, the bank’s and the account’s identifications are each a set of data, and the opening date, the December 31 balance and the fourth-quarter average are each a datum. By this guide’s arithmetic, not an official figure: two U.S. accounts at two banks, never filed, make ten items, 200 euros, raised to the 300 euro minimum; filed late before any request, 150 euros.

Article 189.2 of the General Tax Law gives the Agency four years from an infraction to penalize it, though no Agency page applies that clock to Modelo 720. The general rule of article 39 of the income tax law survived the 2022 reform: assets that do not match your declared income or wealth are taxed as unjustified gains in the year they are found, unless you prove you owned them before the limitation period. The Agency’s page for earlier years takes returns for tax years 2020 to 2024 and lists nothing earlier.

The three blocks, and what each one reports

Modelo 720 holds three separate obligations on one form, each tested on its own: a block is reported once its combined value tops 50,000 euros. Keys are the letter codes the form uses for each type of asset.

The tax procedures regulation sets the thresholds and values funds, insurance and crypto; the Agency’s valuation answers cover the rest.

After the first return, a block comes back only when its combined figure has risen by more than 20,000 euros since the last return. Currency moves count toward that rise, except for real estate, the Agency’s valuation answers add. Filing is also compulsory, whatever the increase, for anything reported before that you stopped holding during the year: a closed account, sold shares, a sold house. Closing an account in a block that never had to be reported needs no return, the Agency’s answer on accounts never declared confirms.

Who files, and from which year

Every Spanish tax resident taxed on worldwide income is covered, the Agency’s taxpayer answers state, but files only once a block tops 50,000 euros. For accounts, the regulation reaches holders, authorized persons, beneficiaries, anyone with signing power and beneficial owners, the titulares reales defined by the anti-money-laundering law. Any of these roles at any point in the year counts.

Under article 9 of the income tax law, you are resident for a calendar year once you spend more than 183 days in Spain or your main economic interests are there. Residence is also presumed when your spouse and dependent minor children live in Spain. There is no split year. Arrive in May 2026 and stay, and your first Modelo 720, if a block tops 50,000 euros, covers December 31, 2026 and is due between January 1 and March 31, 2027, shortly before your first Renta. Overlooking Modelo 720 on becoming resident is one of the mistakes Americans make when moving to Spain. Residents under the Basque Country or Navarre systems file with their hacienda foral, the provincial or regional treasury.

Under the Beckham law, the special regime for workers who move to Spain, plan on no Modelo 720 for the main taxpayer. The Agency’s taxpayer answers, updated February 2025, say no for a regime taxpayer, spouse and children in one question, then add that the regime does not extend to other family members, who may have to file. Since January 1, 2023, article 93.3 of the income tax law lets the spouse, children under 25 or of any age if disabled, and, for an unmarried taxpayer, the children’s other parent opt in, which that answer does not mention. The regime is in Spain’s Beckham law for Americans.

How your U.S. assets land on the form

Bank accounts, joint or not

A joint account is reported at its full balance, with your percentage, under the Agency’s shared ownership answers. Under gananciales, the Spanish community property regime, both spouses file for assets titled to one of them when both are Spanish residents, the other as beneficial owner of half. The Dirección General de Tributos (DGT), which answers taxpayers’ questions in binding rulings, applied this in ruling V2514-18 of September 18, 2018 to shares at a U.S. broker. No official page addresses the marital property systems of U.S. states.

A brokerage account

Each security or deposit in a U.S. brokerage account is reported separately and may fall into a different block, according to the Agency’s other answers; ETFs go under key I, per its answers on scope. The broker side is in your U.S. brokerage account after moving to Spain.

For securities you stopped owning during the year, articles 42 ter.1 and 42 ter.5 of the regulation always require a return. The Agency’s other answers, updated February 2025, say that when the whole proceeds were reinvested in other reportable securities, only the December 31 balances are reported; neither the 2012 nor the 2023 text of the regulation contains that exception. Follow the regulation’s rule and report each sale.

IRAs, a 401(k) and pensions

The Agency’s general answer leaves pension plan rights off the form until the event that triggers the pension, unless the plan allows a surrender like life insurance. In ruling V1291-22 of June 7, 2022, on a U.S. national resident in Spain, the DGT held that a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA carry such a right, since both allow withdrawals at any time. Both are reported under article 42 ter.3 of the regulation, whether or not a covered event such as retirement has occurred.

A September 27, 2026 search of the DGT’s database found no ruling applying Modelo 720 to a 401(k). The general rule above applies: ruling V0890-24 of April 23, 2024 kept a U.K. workplace pension off the form, with no covered event and no surrender right. Whether limited in-service withdrawals amount to a surrender right is unanswered. No official page says whether U.S. Social Security goes on the form: ruling V2449-24 of December 4, 2024, on such a pension, deals only with income tax, and the regulation’s annuity rule targets annuities bought with capital handed to a foreign entity. How Spain taxes withdrawals is in 401(k) and IRA in Spain.

A house you kept, or sold

A house you kept is valued as in the table; an inherited one at its real value on the day you acquired it, per the valuation answers. Sell a house whose block was above 50,000 euros, and article 54 bis of the regulation requires a return for that year, with the sale price and date. DGT ruling V1051-26 of May 13, 2026 converts that price at the European Central Bank rate of the sale date. The same ruling requires no return for the sale if the real estate block never topped 50,000 euros while you held the house, and moves proceeds left in an account abroad, a U.S. one included, into the accounts block.

An LLC or a trust

A single-member U.S. LLC is, by default, disregarded for U.S. federal tax, per the Form 8832 instructions. Ruling V0848-26 of April 21, 2026 nonetheless assumes the LLC has legal personality of its own and puts the owner’s interest in the securities block. That interest is valued under article 16 of the Wealth Tax law: book value on the last approved balance sheet if it was audited, otherwise the highest of par value, that book value, or the average profits of the last three closed years capitalized at 20 percent. No ruling or Agency answer found says whether the owner also reports the LLC’s bank account as a signer.

For trusts, the Agency’s other answers have a resident settlor report the trust’s assets as holder, and actual, not potential, resident beneficiaries report its accounts and annuities. In ruling V3394-19 of December 11, 2019, the DGT reached further and treated the beneficiary of an irrevocable, discretionary Florida trust as beneficial owner of all its foreign assets. No Agency answer or ruling read for this guide names a revocable living trust; the settlor answer is the closest fit.

What stays off the form

Anything located in Spain, including an account already reported that migrates to a Spanish bank without being closed. Art, physical gold, jewelry, cash outside an account and stock options are not reported as such, per the answers on scope. Foreign shares held with a depository in Spain are left off too, per the exemption answers.

Deadline, online filing and corrections

The window runs from January 1 to March 31 of the year after the one reported, under article 7 of Orden HAP/72/2013. The Agency’s deadline page still shows January 1 to March 31, 2026 for tax year 2025. If technical problems block online filing, that page and article 17.2 of Orden HAP/2194/2013 allow four calendar days after the deadline, while article 6.2 of Orden HAP/72/2013, never amended, says three. Treat March 31 as the deadline and the extra days as a rescue for an outage.

Filing is online only, on the Modelo 720 page, with an electronic certificate or, for individuals, Cl@ve, the Spanish government’s login system, as the help page and article 12 of Orden HAP/2194/2013 allow. Article 5 of Orden HAP/72/2013 still names only a certificate. The web form takes up to 40,000 records, and a filed return is corrected by reloading it there.

Under article 42 ter.6 of the regulation, securities are valued by Wealth Tax rules; that tax has its own return. The U.S. returns you still owe as a citizen are in U.S. taxes while living in Spain.

Crypto goes on Modelo 721

Coins go on Modelo 721, created by Orden HFP/886/2023, when a custodian that safeguards private keys for others holds them and is not resident or established in Spain, per the Agency’s Modelo 721 answers. Wallets whose keys you control, hot or cold, are left off. The 50,000 euro threshold, the 20,000 euro rule for later years and the January 1 to March 31 window are the same, per the answer on deadlines. The first return, for 2023, was filed between January 1 and March 31, 2024. Since 2022, additional provision 18 has had no penalty section, and no Modelo 721 page states what a missing return costs.

Before March 31: list, value, then file

Make the list while December 31 is still ahead: every account, brokerage position, IRA, property, company interest and custodial crypto account outside Spain, with the role you hold on each. In early January, add the December 31 balances, the fourth-quarter averages and the exchange rate, and total each block against 50,000 euros.

With U.S. bank and brokerage accounts in your own name, an IRA and perhaps a house, you can file alone with Cl@ve or a certificate. Get a Spanish tax adviser when an LLC, a trust or a 401(k) with withdrawal features is involved, when earlier years went unfiled, or when someone in the family is on the Beckham regime.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.