After thirty-five years, Gibraltar is no longer treated as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for Spanish tax purposes. The change is now in force, not a proposal. This note sets out the instrument, its timing, and what it means in practice for cross-border clients across the Campo de Gibraltar, Cádiz, Madrid and London.
The instrument
The change was made by Orden HAC/649/2026, de 21 de junio, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado of 27 June 2026 (BOE núm. 156). It amends Orden HFP/115/2023, de 9 de febrero, and removes Gibraltar from the list of jurisdicciones no cooperativas, alongside Barbados, Dominica, the Samoan offshore business regime, Seychelles, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Legal Background of the Gibraltar Non-Cooperative Jurisdiction Status
The original designation dated back to Real Decreto 1080/1991, de 5 de julio. The current framework rests on the first additional provision of Ley 36/2006, de 29 de noviembre, de medidas para la prevención del fraude fiscal, as amended by Ley 11/2021, de 9 de julio, which transposed Council Directive (EU) 2016/1164 and replaced the older notion of paraísos fiscales with that of non-cooperative jurisdictions assessed against international standards.
It should be said plainly. Gibraltar has been on the OECD white list since 2009 and has never appeared on the European Union list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. The administrative framework has also moved on: the International Agreement on Taxation between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom in respect of Gibraltar, signed on 4 March 2019 and in force since 2021, already governs residence tie-breakers and administrative cooperation. The 1991 designation had long since stopped matching the facts.
Entry into force and the transitional provision
The removal enters into force the day after publication. The transitional provision matters in practice. For taxes whose tax period had not concluded at that date, the prior list continues to apply for that period. For periodic taxes such as Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (IRPF) and Impuesto sobre Sociedades (IS), the clean effect therefore lands in the period beginning after entry into force, rather than mid-period.
What changes in practice
Non-cooperative status is not a label. It carries a battery of penalising consequences across the Spanish system, and removal reverses them, subject always to the specific tax, the facts, and the timing point above. The areas most likely to matter for clients with a Gibraltar nexus are the following.
Real estate held through entities. The special levy on the real property of non-resident entities under the consolidated Non-Resident Income Tax Act (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004, de 5 de marzo, TRLIRNR) has historically reached structures connected to non-cooperative jurisdictions. Removal opens the question of relief for Gibraltar companies holding Spanish property, a recurring feature of the Campo de Gibraltar market.
Non-resident income tax exemptions. Exemptions on interest and on certain capital gains under the TRLIRNR are denied where the recipient is resident in a non-cooperative jurisdiction. Their availability now turns on ordinary criteria rather than on the designation.
Controlled foreign company rules. The harsher presumptions applied under the transparencia fiscal internacional regime in the IS and IRPF, where an entity is located in a non-cooperative jurisdiction, fall away, leaving the standard substance and income analysis.
Anti-abuse presumptions, deductibility and reporting. A range of reversed burdens, restrictions on the deductibility of payments, and reporting and representation obligations are keyed to non-cooperative status. These should be reviewed structure by structure, including the treatment of foreign assets under Modelo 720 and Modelo 721.
A Dynamic List: Spain’s Evolving Rules on the Gibraltar Non-Cooperative Jurisdiction
The same Order is a reminder that the list remains dynamic. It adds the Russian Federation at number 25, in respect of its international holding companies regime, with entry into force deferred by six months. Relief in one direction, vigilance in another.
Conclusion
Thirty-five years is a long time for a designation that stopped matching the facts. The removal aligns the law with a reality that the OECD, the European Union and the 2019 bilateral agreement had already recognised. The practical task now is unglamorous and immediate: identify which clients and structures were caught by the designation, confirm when relief crystallises under the transitional provision, and act accordingly.
Del Canto Chambers is a leading international chambers specializing in cross-border tax, legal, and property matters between the UK and Spain. Our dual-qualified tax legal counsel and Spanish abogados are perfectly positioned to help clients navigate the dissolution of the Gibraltar non-cooperative jurisdiction status and review existing offshore or property structures.
For a detailed review of your corporate structure, property holding companies, or individual tax residency status under the new rules, please contact our international tax team or read more about our cross-border tax services.
