Modelo 720 in Spain: who files and what the CJEU changed

What is Modelo 720? The short answer

Modelo 720 (Form 720) is Spain's information return on assets held abroad. Spanish tax residents file it when their foreign accounts, securities and insurance, or property exceed €50,000 in any one category on 31 December. The filing window runs from 1 January to 31 March. Since 2022 its penalties are the general ones.

The duty comes from the 18th additional provision of the General Tax Act (Ley General Tributaria, or LGT) and is set out in Articles 42 bis, 42 ter and 54 bis of the General Regulation on tax management and inspection, approved by Royal Decree 1065/2007. Nothing is payable: the form tells the AEAT (Spain's tax agency, usually called Hacienda) what you hold abroad, so it can match it against your income tax return (the Renta) and, if you are liable, your wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio).

Who has to file Modelo 720?

Order HAP/72/2013, which approved the form, covers individuals and companies resident in Spain, Spanish permanent establishments of non-residents and entities such as an estate not yet accepted by the heirs (herencia yacente). Tax residence decides, not nationality (if you are unsure about yours, see the guide to Spanish tax residency). You report as:

• Owner, even if you share the asset with others.
• Authorised signatory, beneficiary or person with power of disposal, but only for accounts: Article 42 ter does not extend this to securities.
• Beneficial owner, as defined in Article 4.2 of Law 10/2010 on anti-money laundering: whoever controls more than 25% of a company and, in a trust, the settlor, trustee, protector and beneficiaries. Putting a company or a trust in between does not take its assets out of Form 720.
• Someone who held that position during the year and stopped before 31 December: you report the data as at the date you lost it.

Non-residents do not file and, according to the AEAT's FAQ, neither do taxpayers under the inbound workers' regime (the Beckham Law). Nor do you report assets recorded individually in the accounts of a Spanish-resident company, or accounts at foreign branches of Spanish banks that the bank already reports. In the Basque Country and Navarre you file with the regional (foral) tax authority if you are taxed there.

What goes in each category, and how is the €50,000 threshold worked out?

Form 720 is one form covering three separate obligations. Each has its own €50,000 threshold and its own valuation rule:

How the threshold works:

1. Each category stands alone. With €45,000 in accounts, €45,000 in securities and €45,000 in an apartment, you have €135,000 abroad and file nothing.
2. If a category crosses the threshold, all of it goes in, including a small €3,000 account (Article 42 bis.4.e of the Regulation).
3. Accounts have two snapshots: it is enough for either total 31 December balances or total last-quarter average balances to exceed €50,000.
4. With joint owners, the whole value counts. The AEAT asks for the total value, not split, with your percentage. For community property (bienes gananciales) in one spouse's name, both spouses file: the formal owner with 100% and the other as beneficial owner with 50%.
5. Foreign currency is converted at the 31 December rate, the average balance included, or at the rate on the closing date if you closed the account (FAQ on valuation).
6. Property is reported at what it cost, including purchase costs and taxes, not at today's market value (Article 54 bis).

What is the Modelo 720 deadline, and when do you file again?

The window runs from 1 January to 31 March of the year after the one the information refers to (Article 7 of Order HAP/72/2013). The window for assets held on 31 December 2025 closed on 31 March 2026; assets held on 31 December 2026 are reported between 1 January and 31 March 2027. Filing is online only, on the AEAT's electronic portal, by you or by a representative.

You do not file every year. Once a category has been reported, Article 42 ter.5 of the Regulation and its equivalents for accounts and property only require a new return when:

• The category rises by more than €20,000 compared with the value that triggered your last return, not compared with the previous year. For accounts, a rise in either of the two totals is enough. Exchange-rate movements count for accounts and securities, but not for property.
• You stop owning something you already reported: you sell a property, close an account or sell all your shares of one class. For property you add the sale value and date.

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What changed after the CJEU ruling?

Form 720 was created by Law 7/2012 of 29 October, with its own penalty regime, which the European Commission took to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In its judgment of 27 January 2022, case C-788/19, the court held that Spain had breached the free movement of capital (Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and Article 40 of the EEA Agreement) on three points:

1. The gain with no limitation period. The former Article 39.2 of the Income Tax Act treated assets not reported on time as an unjustified gain in the oldest year still open, with no practical way to rely on the limitation period.
2. The 150% fine on the tax due on that gain, which could be added to the fixed fines.
3. The fixed fines, uncapped and far above those for similar breaches in a purely domestic setting (the figures are in the table).

Spain responded with Law 5/2022 of 9 March, in force since 11 March 2022. It is a law on hybrid mismatches, but its fourth and fifth final provisions and its repealing provision change Form 720:

• They rewrite the 18th additional provision of the LGT: the duty to report remains, without its own penalties, so the general ones in Articles 198 and 199 apply.
• They rewrite Article 39 of the Income Tax Act: an unjustified gain is taxed in the year it is discovered, unless you prove you owned the asset since before the limitation period.
• They repeal the first and second additional provisions of Law 7/2012, which contained the 150% fine.

Who files, the categories, the €50,000 threshold, the €20,000 rule and the deadline did not change.

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What about fines imposed under the old regime? Article 10.2 of the LGT applies more favourable penalty rules retroactively, but only to decisions that are not yet final. A final penalty is not reopened automatically: that case needs a lawyer.

What are the Modelo 720 penalties today?

According to the AEAT's FAQ on penalties, the general regime applies, separately to each of the three obligations:

• Not filing on time: Article 198.1 of the LGT sets €20 per item or set of items, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €20,000. For an account, the Regulation counts five: the bank, the account, the opening date, the balance and the average balance. With 15 items or fewer, you pay the minimum.
• Filing late on your own initiative, before any request (requerimiento) from the tax agency: half, €10 per item with a minimum of €150 and a maximum of €10,000.
• Incomplete, inaccurate or false data: Article 199, up to 2% of the amount misreported, with a minimum of €500.
• Reduction: 40% off if you pay on time and do not appeal (Article 188.3).

The form itself now costs little. What matters is what sits behind it: if the assets do not match your declared income, Article 39 of the Income Tax Act treats them as an unjustified gain in the year Hacienda discovers them, and failing to pay that tax is penalised at 50% to 150% of the unpaid amount (Article 191 of the LGT). Your defence is to prove you owned them since before the four-year limitation period (Article 66), or that you paid for them with declared income. Keep deeds, old statements and past returns.

What about the Beckham Law, crypto and other special cases?

• Inbound workers' regime. The AEAT's view is that people under the regime in Article 93 of the Income Tax Act do not file Form 720, because they are not taxed on their worldwide income. It does not cover your spouse or children: if they are resident and above the thresholds, they file. When the regime ends, the general rules apply.
• If you move to Spain. In your first year as a tax resident, your position on 31 December decides whether you file Form 720 between the following 1 January and 31 March. What to review before you arrive: moving to Spain with wealth.
• If you leave. From the year you are no longer a Spanish tax resident, you no longer have to file.
• Crypto. Crypto held abroad by a provider that safeguards keys on behalf of others goes on Form 721 (Article 42 quater of the Regulation), with the same €50,000 threshold, the same €20,000 rule and the same window.
• Inheritances. Until the estate is accepted, the estate itself must file; the heirs must file from acceptance.
• Wealth tax. Form 720 replaces no tax: the same assets count, if you are liable, in your wealth tax.

Illustrative example: a Swiss account, a US broker and a London flat

Clara is 58, lives in Barcelona and has been a Spanish tax resident since 2015, when she came back from London after ten years as a banking executive. She did not opt for the inbound workers' regime. She has an account with a Zurich bank in Swiss francs, a portfolio of shares and funds with a US broker and the London flat she bought in 2010.

She last filed Form 720 in 2024, for all three categories, with her assets on 31 December 2023: the account had a balance of €120,000 and a last-quarter average balance of €115,000; the portfolio was worth €410,000, and the flat was reported at its acquisition value of €520,000. Now she must decide whether to file Form 720 for 2026, between 1 January and 31 March 2027. We assume these values on 31 December 2026, in euros at that day's exchange rate:

Step 1. Compare with the last return, the one with 2023 data, not with the previous year.

Step 2. Accounts. The 31 December balance is €138,000: up €18,000, below €20,000. But the average balance is €136,500: up €21,500. One of the two is enough, so she files the accounts category.

Step 3. Securities. The portfolio is worth €395,000: down €15,000. But in June she sold all her shares in her former employer, a class of securities already reported, for €62,000. She must report that disposal, with the data as at the sale date, and the gain goes in her 2026 income tax return.

Step 4. Property. The flat stays at €520,000: acquisition value does not change and the pound's movements do not count for property. She does not file this category.

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Step 5. What forgetting would cost her. Since her money comes from income she declared, Article 39 does not affect her: the only risk is the Form 720 penalty. With so few items, she would pay the minimum in both categories:

• Late, on her own initiative: €150 per category, €300.
• After a request from Hacienda: €300 per category, €600, less 40% if she pays on time and does not appeal.
• Under the pre-2022 rules, late on her own initiative: the minimum of €1,500 per category, €3,000.
• Under the pre-2022 rules, after a request: €25,000 for the account (five items at €5,000) and at least €10,000 for the sale, €35,000 at the very least.

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Common mistakes with Modelo 720

• Adding the three categories together. Each has its own €50,000 threshold, and if one crosses it, all of it goes in.
• Looking only at the 31 December balance. For accounts, the last-quarter average balance also counts, for the threshold and for the €20,000 rule.
• Reporting only your share of a jointly owned asset. The full value goes in, with your percentage.
• Believing the CJEU struck down Form 720. It struck down its disproportionate consequences; the duty to report remains.
• Forgetting sales and closures of assets already reported.
• Valuing property at market value instead of acquisition value.
• Assuming the family of an inbound worker is exempt. The regime is personal.
• Putting crypto held on a foreign exchange on Form 720. It goes on Form 721.
• Trusting old figures. Some pages still publish the fines of €5,000 per item or the €1,500 minimum, repealed since 11 March 2022.

How Melso helps

Melso Private offers lawful tax planning for net wealth from 1 million euros: tax advisers work with an AI that reads your statements, deeds and returns and cross-checks each country's rules and tax treaties, and the advisers review every scenario and stand behind it. Melso files the agreed returns, including income tax, wealth tax and Forms 720 and 721, always after you approve the exact version, and works alongside your private bank and your advisers in other countries. The first conversation lasts 45 minutes, is free of charge and ranges are enough, not exact figures: go to melso.ai/en/private-wealth and click Request a conversation.

This article is for information only and does not replace professional advice for your case. Last reviewed: 18 October 2026.