What's Beckham Law in Spain?
The Beckham Law, formally known as the Royal Decree 687/2005, is a tax law in Spain that was passed in 2005, primarily aimed at attracting foreign talent to Spain. It was nicknamed as "Beckham Law" after the English footballer David Beckham was one of the first to benefit from it. The Beckham Law allowed overseas individuals who had recently moved to Spain, the choice to pay the Spanish tax only on their income generated within the country, rather than their worldwide income. This resulted in a significantly lower effective tax rate for these individuals. Specifically for the footballers, they benefited greatly as their income from image rights would not be taxed at domestic rate. It helped attract many internationally renowned footballers to Spanish teams, as they faced much lower taxes compared to other European countries. The law was repealed in 2010 for salaries above €600,000 thereby not making it beneficial for high-income earning footballers anymore.