Legal considerations for Spanish sports professionals living or working in the UK
Spanish sports professionals living or working in the United Kingdom need to manage a range of cross-border legal and tax issues carefully. These may include UK and Spanish tax residence, post-Brexit immigration requirements, image rights, pensions, and the protection of personal and family wealth through coordinated international planning.
Set out below is a practical overview of the key legal, tax and asset-management considerations for Spanish professional athletes, coaches and other sports professionals with UK connections. This note is intended as a general guide only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for tailored legal or tax advice.
Tax residence and the double taxation treaty
Determining tax residence is often the most important first step, as it affects where income, gains and assets may be taxed, and how relief from double taxation may be claimed.
• UK Statutory Residence Test: Spending 183 days or more in the UK during a tax year will usually make an individual UK tax resident. However, UK residence is assessed under the wider Statutory Residence Test, which also considers work patterns, accommodation, family and other UK ties.
• Tie-breaker rules: If Spain and the UK both treat an individual as tax resident under their domestic rules, the Spain-UK double taxation treaty applies a sequence of tests, including permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode and nationality.
• Split-year treatment: Where an individual moves to or from the UK part way through a tax year, split-year treatment may apply if the statutory conditions are met. This should be reviewed carefully, as it does not apply simply by choice.
• Spanish exit tax: Spain may apply an exit tax on unrealised capital gains, including shares and investments, where the relevant statutory conditions are met. This is particularly important for individuals who have been Spanish tax resident for a significant period before relocating.
Image rights structuring
Image rights arrangements are closely scrutinised by both the Spanish tax authorities and HMRC, particularly where payments are made to a separate company or where the commercial valuation is unclear.
• The 85/15 rule in Spain: Where Spanish tax rules remain relevant, care should be taken with any split between salary and image rights payments. Spanish rules may restrict the proportion of club-related income that can properly be treated as image rights.
• HMRC scrutiny in the UK: In the UK, image rights can in some circumstances be paid to a separate company. HMRC will expect the valuation to reflect genuine commercial exploitation, such as sponsorship, advertising and marketing opportunities, rather than disguised salary.
Visas and post-Brexit immigration
Since Brexit, Spanish citizens no longer have an automatic right to live and work in the UK. Professional sportspeople and coaches must therefore ensure that they have the correct immigration permission before starting work.
• Governing Body Endorsement (GBE): The relevant UK sports governing body must endorse the application, confirming that the individual is an elite sportsperson or qualified coach who is internationally established and will contribute to the development of the sport at the highest level in the UK.
• International Sportsperson visa: This is the main UK visa route for eligible professional athletes and coaches who are sponsored by a UK club, team or organisation. The sponsor will usually need to issue a certificate of sponsorship.
• Family members: Partners and children may be able to apply as dependants, but they must make their own applications linked to the main applicant’s immigration status and sponsorship arrangements.
Wealth protection and estate planning
Cross-border wealth requires careful planning because Spain and the UK have different legal systems, tax rules and succession regimes.
• Residence and long-term exposure: UK residence, Spanish residence and longer-term connections to either country can affect the tax treatment of worldwide income, gains and estate planning. Recent UK reforms mean that residence history should be reviewed carefully rather than relying on older “non-dom” assumptions.
• Separate wills: It is often advisable to have separate, carefully coordinated wills: one dealing with UK assets, such as UK property, and another dealing with Spanish assets. The documents must be drafted so that they work together and do not accidentally revoke one another.
• Regional Spanish rules: Spanish wealth tax and inheritance tax can vary significantly by autonomous community. Planning should therefore take account of where the individual or family may return to, own assets or have future tax exposure in Spain.
Post-career transition
Sports professionals often have distinctive wealth lifecycles, with earnings peaking relatively early and then reducing sharply at the end of a playing or coaching career.
The UK offers pension structures that may be tax-efficient, but their treatment should be reviewed alongside Spanish tax rules, particularly if the individual expects to return to Spain or access pension funds from abroad.
If you are a Spanish athlete, coach, agent or family member seeking advice on any of the issues above, please contact us for tailored cross-border legal support. The information in this note is for general information only. Rules are subject to change and may vary by region in Spain, so specialist legal and tax advice should be taken before decisions are made.
Please contact Yolanda Perez Berges at yolanda.perez@theburnsidepartnership.com for more information.