Retirement

Steps

1. Before leaving, ask for form S1 from the fund of your country that pays your pension and covers you for sickness. Also ask, if needed, for the certificate proving that your country does not cover your care in Spain (sheet ES-SANTE-TOUS-001).
2. Register on the padrón, then request your residence registration certificate (sheet ES-SEJOUR-TOUS-001). Without an activity, you need comprehensive health insurance and sufficient resources.
3. Have your S1 registered with the Seguridad Social: form "registration of a document for care in Spain of people insured in a European State", submitted at a CAISS (Seguridad Social reception centre) by appointment, online or by post to the nearest Dirección Provincial.
4. Apply for your tarjeta sanitaria at the health centre of your autonomous community (sheet ES-SANTE-TOUS-001).
5. Take stock of your taxes: in the year you become tax resident (sheet ES-IMPOTS-TOUS-001), check in the tax treaty who taxes each of your pensions (basic pension, supplementary pension, civil service pension). Declare them in the Renta the following spring and, if your assets abroad exceed €50,000 per category, file modelo 720 (sheet ES-IMPOTS-TOUS-003).
6. If you have contributed in several countries, ask for your pension from the fund of the country where you live or where you last worked: it forwards the file to the other countries. Each country pays its share, at its own legal age.
7. If you have contributed in Spain, check your Spanish legal age and your contribution period (see "Costs and timelines").

Documents

• S1 form from your health insurance fund.
• Passport or identity card, residence registration certificate and empadronamiento certificate.
• Proof of pension (annual amounts, nature: basic scheme, supplementary, civil service).
• Career statement from each country where you have worked.
• For the Renta: certificates of pension and of tax paid abroad, NIE, online access (Cl@ve or electronic certificate, sheet ES-ADMINISTRATIONS-TOUS-001).

Costs and timelines

• S1 registration: no fee is stated by the Seguridad Social. No processing time is published: it depends on the CAISS (Seguridad Social reception centre) where you submit your S1, ask on the spot.
• Legal age for Spanish retirement (general scheme):
  • 2026: 65 with at least 38 years and 3 months of contributions; otherwise 66 years and 10 months;
  • from 2027: 65 with at least 38 years and 6 months of contributions; otherwise 67.
• Minimum period for a Spanish pension: 15 years of contributions (5,475 days), including 2 years in the 15 years preceding retirement. Periods in other EU countries count towards reaching this minimum (aggregation), but Spain only pays the share that corresponds to your Spanish years.
• Tax on your pension in Spain: IRPF scale (sheet ES-IMPOTS-TOUS-001); the allocation between countries depends on each tax treaty. Example, the treaty with the United Kingdom: pensions (art. 17) are only taxable in the country of residence, therefore in Spain; a civil service pension (art. 18) only in the paying country, unless you are both resident and a national of the other country (here Spain). Other treaties have their own rules: read the "Pensions" and "Civil service" articles of yours.
• Declaration: Renta campaign from April to the end of June, for the previous year's income.

Common pitfalls

• Keeping your European Health Insurance Card as your only cover. It is for temporary stays, not for settling: you need the S1 or other cover.
• Thinking the pension "already taxed" does not have to be declared. Even if your country keeps the right to tax, some treaties (for example the one with the United Kingdom, art. 22) allow Spain to take it into account to calculate the rate on your other income (exemption with progression): look at the "Elimination of double taxation" article of your treaty, and declare it in your Renta when it provides for this.
• Denmark no longer has a tax treaty with Spain (sheet ES-IMPOTS-TOUS-001): risk of double taxation for a Danish pension.
• Forgetting modelo 720 in the year of your arrival, for your accounts and investments left in your country.
• Choosing an autonomous community without comparing. The regional share of IRPF and wealth tax change from one community to another (sheet ES-IMPOTS-TOUS-003). The Basque Country and Navarre have their own taxation; in Ceuta and Melilla, a 60% deduction applies to income earned locally (art. 68.4 of the IRPF law). A foreign pension is not part of it: the employment income concerned is that from work done in Ceuta or Melilla. Exception: after 3 years of residence, if at least a third of your net wealth is located there, your outside income qualifies, up to the limit of your income earned locally.

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA and Switzerland: European coordination of pensions and care (S1, aggregation of careers). Each tax treaty allocates the tax on public and private pensions according to its own articles (see the British example above); for a mixed case, get help.
• British citizens (Scots included): the British government states that care can be funded by the NHS with an S1 (to be cancelled with the Overseas Healthcare Team if you return), and refers to its guide on retiring abroad to find out in which countries the State Pension is uprated each year (to be checked for Spain in this guide). A United Kingdom–Spain tax treaty applies. To settle, they come under the regime for non-EU foreigners, except for rights acquired under the Withdrawal Agreement (sheet ES-SEJOUR-TOUS-001).
• Former civil servants: in the treaty with the United Kingdom (art. 18), their public pension is taxable in the paying country, unless they also hold Spanish nationality. Check the "Civil service" article of your treaty: each treaty has its own rule.