How do I leave Spain, and in what order?

Leaving Spain goes smoothly when things happen in the right order. Most steps take days, but a few, like your rental contract, a property sale, your pets and your last tax return, need planning months ahead.

The order that works

1. 3–4 months before: check your rental contract, get removal and pet transport quotes, and apply for UK transfer of residence relief (form ToR1) so your belongings can enter the UK free of duty and VAT
2. If you own a home: decide whether to sell, let or keep it, and talk to a lawyer (abogado) and a tax adviser (asesor fiscal) about the non-resident rules below
3. Your notice at work: as your collective agreement (convenio colectivo) or contract says. If you’re self-employed (autónomo), set your last day of trading
4. Your home: give written notice, book the final check and give a forwarding address for your deposit
5. Your car: sell it and file a notice of sale with the DGT (the traffic authority), or deregister it to take it with you
6. Your last week: leave the padrón, tell the Oficina de Extranjería and your health centre, and update your tax address
7. After you go: chase your deposit and final pay, file your last Spanish tax return the next spring, and any non-resident returns

Make a dated version for your own leaving date with the leaving planner on this page.

Your job

• When you resign (dimisión), you give the notice set by your collective agreement or, if it says nothing, local custom. Check your convenio before you set a date
• When your contract ends, your employer must give you a proposed settlement (finiquito) listing what you’re owed. You can ask for a workers’ representative to be there when you sign it. Read it carefully first
• As an employee, your employer takes you off the Social Security register. Download your employment record (informe de vida laboral) from Import@ss while your Spanish phone still receives SMS codes
• Self-employed: tell Social Security you’ve stopped (a baja in the RETA, the self-employed scheme) within 3 calendar days. Done on time, up to three bajas a year take effect from the day you stopped; otherwise contributions can keep running. Also file a census return on modelo 036 with the tax agency within a month of stopping

Your rental home

Under the urban tenancies law (LAU), you can leave a long-term rental once it has run for at least 6 months, if you give the landlord at least 30 days’ written notice. On a temporary let, it’s 1 month and 10 days’ notice.

• The legal deposit (fianza) on a home is one month’s rent. If it isn’t returned within a month of you handing back the keys, it earns interest at the legal rate
• Go to the final check, take dated photos, and give the landlord a forwarding address and your bank details for the refund
• Rent and bills are often paid by direct debit (domiciliación). Cancel them only after the last payment has gone

The padrón, your TIE and your residence

• GOV.UK advises you to leave the padrón at your town hall (the baja) before you go, and tell your Oficina de Extranjería and health centre. Town halls do it differently: Alicante takes a signed, dated declaration with your ID, online or at an office by appointment; Madrid lets adults with a digital ID do it online, dated from the day you apply; Palma has a form for moving abroad and an email contact if you’ve already left
• Your TIE (residence card): Spain’s immigration regulations say you must hand it in at the police station where you live when it expires, when it’s replaced on renewal, or when you lose the right it was issued for. They don’t set out a separate step for simply moving away, so ask your Oficina de Extranjería or police station what they want, and keep proof of the date you left
• If you might come back: under the Withdrawal Agreement, permanent residence held by Britons living in Spain before 2021 is lost only after more than 5 years in a row away. Long-term residence under Spanish law ends after 12 months in a row outside the EU. A TIE is only valid while the permit behind it is. If you may return, get advice before handing anything back

Tax

• Spain’s tax year is the calendar year and there’s no split year. If you spent more than 183 days in Spain in the year you leave, or your main economic interests were here, you’re usually resident for the whole year, and you file your last income tax (IRPF) return the next spring. For 2025, the window ran from 8 April to 30 June 2026
• The UK–Spain tax treaty decides which country taxes what if both treat you as resident in the same year. See How do we settle back into the UK?
• Tell the tax agency (Agencia Tributaria) your new address on modelo 030 within 3 months of moving, or in your tax return if that’s due first. You can do it online with Cl@ve or a digital certificate
• The overseas assets return (Modelo 720) is for Spanish tax residents, so it stops once you’re non-resident

Keeping or selling a home in Spain

Once you’re non-resident, Spain taxes Spanish income through non-resident income tax (IRNR), filed on modelo 210.

On a €300,000 sale, the 3% retention is €9,000 (about £7,630). The town hall’s tax on the rise in land value (plusvalía municipal) is the seller’s, but when the seller is a non-resident individual, the buyer is liable to pay it for them. It’s declared within 30 working days of the sale, and isn’t due if the land hasn’t gained value. You must also show you’re up to date with community fees: see What do I need to close before I leave Spain?

Your car

If you sell privately, file a notice of sale (notificación de venta) with the DGT straight away. It protects you from the buyer’s fines, and counts from the day you file it, not the day you signed. The buyer then has 30 days to register the change of owner. To take the car with you, ask the DGT for permanent deregistration for export (baja definitiva por traslado). The fee is €8.67 (about £7), or nothing if the car was registered in Spain 15 or more years ago. Any finance on the car must be cleared first, the previous year’s road tax must be paid, and because the UK is outside the EU, a car more than 4 years old needs a valid ITV (vehicle inspection). It must leave Spain within 90 days, and until it’s registered in the UK it can only be driven on temporary green plates (placas verdes) or moved on a transporter.

Your belongings and pets

Transfer of residence relief lets you bring household goods, a car and pets into the UK without import duty or VAT if you’ve lived outside the UK for at least 12 months in a row and owned and used the goods for at least 6 months. Apply on form ToR1 and get HMRC’s approval before you ship. For pets, see How do I take my pet back to the UK?