Spain Issues Regulations for the Global Minimum Tax Act

On April 2, 2025, Spain issued Royal Decree 252/2025 to approve the Regulations for the Global Minimum Tax Law. On December 21, 2024, Spain published Law 7/2024 in its Official Gazette to transpose the EU Minimum Tax Directive. This includes an IIR and QDMTT from December 31, 2023 and the UTPR from December 31, 2024.

The provisions of the Regulations generally apply to fiscal years that commence on or after December 31, 2023.

Whilst the Global Minimum Tax Law does not reflect most aspects of the OECD Administrative Guidance (either the February 2023, July 2023, December 2023 or June 2024 guidance issued), the April 2025 Regulation does include a number of these provisions from the:

February 2023 OECD Administrative Guidance (AG1)

July 2023 OECD Administrative Guidance (AG2)

December 2023 OECD Administrative Guidance (AG3)

Implementation of OECD Administrative Guidance

The April 2025 Regulation includes:

-Meaning of “ancillary” for Non-Profit Organisations (Article 1.6);

-Forex hedge election (Article 2.2);

-Excluded dividends – asymmetric treatment of dividends and distributions (Article 2.3);

-Debt release election (Article 2.4);

-Equity gain or loss inclusion election (Article 2.9);

-The extension of Additional Capital to include Restricted Tier One Capital (Article 3.3);

-Liabilities related to Excluded Dividends and Excluded Equity Gain or Loss from securities held on behalf of policyholders (Article 3.4);

-Application of Tax transparency election to Mutual insurance companies (Article 3.6).

–Tax Credits Guidance (MTTCs) (Article 2 Second Set of OECD Administrative Guidance);

-Rules for the Substance-Based Income Exclusion:

o Foreign rules (Article 3 Second Set of OECD Administrative Guidance)
o Stock-based compensation election
o Leases (Article 3 Second Set of OECD Administrative Guidance)

-Mismatch between fiscal years of the UPE and another constituent entity (Article 3.1 of the Third Set OECD Administrative Guidance);

-Mismatch between fiscal year and tax year of a constituent entity (Article 3.2 of the Third Set OECD Administrative Guidance).

Registration/GIR

The Regulation also include a registration obligation. Article 18(1) of the Regulation provides that any constituent entity located in Spain that forms part of a large multinational or domestic group is required to file an information return with the tax authority.

It must notify the Tax Authority of the identification, the start and end date of the tax period and the country or territory in which the UPE is located, when the UPE is required to file the return or, if it is not required to file the return, it must notify the Tax Authority of the identification and the country or territory in which the entity designated to file the return is located. This must be filed at least 3 months before the GIR filing deadline.

The Regulation also provides the content of the GloBE Information Return (in detail) although a future Ministerial Decree will be issued to provide the form. 

The Third Transitional provision to the Regulations provides that the GIR must be filed with the Tax Administration, within the two months prior to the last day of the eighteenth month following the end of the tax period in the transitional year.