In recent years, EU countries have been actively attracting digital nomads by offering them special visas and tax incentives. For example, Greece – with a 50% income tax discount for new foreign residents for 7 years. And Italy – with a visa for digital nomads.
However, today there is a growing realization that they should also come under the scrutiny of tax authorities. For example, Spain has had a special visa for digital nomads since 2023 and an expanded “Beckham law” allowing foreigners to pay a flat tax of 24% on income (instead of a progressive rate of up to 47%). This was done to attract entrepreneurs, IT specialists and startups to the country.
Nevertheless, Spanish authorities are tightening controls on residents’ foreign income. The 2025 tax reform introduced stricter reporting of foreign income and assets for those who spend a lot of time in Spain. Remote workers who are tax residents in Spain are now required to declare their income in much greater detail, otherwise they face sanctions. In addition, from 2026, Spanish banks and payment systems will start automatically transmitting information on accounts and transactions of residents (including foreigners) to the tax office as part of a new “fiscal control plan”.
Germany is promoting a new digital tax (Digital Services Tax) in 2025 – a 10% levy on the revenues of large technology corporations from advertising shown to German users. While directly affecting multinational giants, indirectly the tax increase on the digital economy will also affect small online businesses that digital nomads rely on.
In general, however, the EU is introducing uniform rules for the exchange of tax information on income from online platforms. Since 2023, the DAC7 directive has been in force there, obliging resources (from Airbnb to Upwork) to report users’ earnings to the tax authorities. This means that freelancers earning through digital platforms are now “transparent” to the tax authorities. Data on their earnings is automatically transmitted to the countries where they are registered as residents. Most EU countries have already implemented these mechanisms.
The general trend for 2025 is to strengthen monitoring of the real income of remote workers, even if preferential rates remain in place. Tax authorities are increasingly tracking how much time such a specialist spends in the country (through data on border crossings, accounts, etc.) in order to recognize him/her as a tax resident and tax his/her income, if necessary.
