Spain vs United States

Spain

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (BOE-A-2026-7296 RETA + Agencia Tributaria IRPF scale) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Best realistically-eligible scheme for a solo IT freelancer = es-autonomo-estimacion-directa at €60,000 revenue with 10% (€6,000) expenses. RETA cuota tramo 14 (base 1,732.03 × 31.5%) = 6,547.08/yr; difícil-justificación 2,000 (notional); IRPF base 39,902.92 (after mínimo personal 5,550) → 10,465.58. Total levies 17,012.66 / 60,000 = 28.4%. The Beckham regime (flat 24%) is NOT open to ordinary freelancers, only to eligible employed/relocated impatriates — see es-beckham-impatriate.

United States

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 federal rules (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; IRS self-employment tax; SSA 2026 contribution base) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Best eligible scheme us-sole-proprietor-federal at €60,000 = $68,394 (ECB 1.1399 USD/EUR, 2026-07-02) with 10% expenses. Net profit $61,554.60; self-employment tax 15.3% on 92.35% of it = $8,697.38; half deducted, giving AGI $57,205.91; less the $16,100 standard deduction and a §199A deduction of $8,221.18 leaves taxable income $32,884.73, taxed $3,698.17. Total levies $12,395.55 / $68,394 = 18.1%. This is federal tax only, which is the whole story just in the nine states that levy no income tax on earned income.

Notes

The single number hides the widest internal spread of any country in this dataset. The same freelancer pays 18.1% in Texas or Florida, 20.5% in California (us-sole-proprietor-california) and 24.4% in New York City (us-sole-proprietor-new-york-city), where state and city income taxes stack on the federal one. Read this figure as the floor available to someone free to choose their state, not as a national average. It also excludes the self-employed health-insurance deduction and retirement contributions, both of which US freelancers use heavily and both of which would lower it.

Spain

Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones (UGE) — international teleworkers authorization; PRIE portal ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Spain has a dedicated digital-nomad route: the international-teleworking residence authorization (autorización de residencia por teletrabajo de carácter internacional), created by Ley 28/2022 (Startups Law), in force since Jan 2023. Open to non-EU nationals working remotely for non-Spanish companies (max 20% of activity from Spanish firms). Income requirement 200% SMI. Initial visa 1 year (from abroad) or 3-year residence permit via UGE-CE, renewable, path to permanent residence.

United States

U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Visa Waiver Program; 8 CFR 214.2(b) visitor admissions ↗

Official source

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

The United States has no digital-nomad visa and no freelance or self-employment permit — the concept does not exist in US immigration law, which authorises work through a sponsoring employer, a treaty investment, or an immigrant petition. For a location-independent earner with an ordinary passport, the realistic ceiling is a visitor stay: 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, or up to six months on a B-1/B-2 visa, neither of which authorises work in the United States. The genuine long-stay routes all have a demanding filter — E-2 requires a treaty nationality plus substantial invested capital, O-1A and EB-1A require documented national or international acclaim, and the diversity lottery is a lottery. See data/countries/us/legalization.json for all six.

Spain

INE — Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares 2024 (household budget survey), rent stripped ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

INE EPF 2024 average household spending by COICOP group (total €34,044/hh). Housing group €11,029 reduced to utilities only (imputed rent €9,299 removed), leaving a non-rent basket of €24,746/hh. Divided by average household size 2.50 (€34,044 ÷ €13,626 per-person) → €9,905/person/yr = €825/mo; converted at EUR/USD 1.1399 (ECB 2026-07-02) → $941/mo. Cross-checked against Eurostat comparative price levels (Spain ≈ 92% of EU27; ≈ 1.28× Poland, whose figure is $753).

Notes

National per-capita non-rent basket. A person living alone typically spends somewhat more per head (fixed costs not shared) — this figure is the reproducible household-survey floor. City files (Madrid/Barcelona) run higher; Valencia/smaller cities lower.

United States

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 annual means (series CXU*LB0101M and CXU*LB0502M via the BLS public API) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024, all consumer units: average annual expenditures $78,535 across an average 2.4 persons. Removing shelter ($16,317, the rent-equivalent line), personal insurance and pensions ($9,797, which is saving rather than consumption) and cash contributions ($2,292, which are transfers) leaves $50,129 of consumption. Divided by 2.4 people and by 12 months = $1,740.59 per person per month.

Notes

Per-capita basis, to match how Italy, Spain, Czechia, Austria and France are computed in this dataset. The BLS also publishes the real one-person consumer unit, which is what a solo mover actually faces: $48,794 a year, or $29,359 after removing the same three lines — about $2,447 a month excluding rent, 41% above the per-capita figure because a person living alone has no household economies of scale. Read $1,741 as the comparable cross-country number and $2,447 as the realistic personal one. Both include US health spending, which is why every line involving healthcare runs far above the European entries.

Spain

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101, per 100k) ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Latest year 2024 = 0.72 per 100k (2023: 0.69; 2022: 0.69). Spain is among the safer EU countries for intentional homicide.

United States

Bureau of Justice Statistics and FBI — Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2024 (NCJ 310856), Table 1 ↗

Official source

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

17,420 homicides in 2024, a rate of 5.1 per 100,000 — down sharply from 6.1 in 2023, continuing the retreat from the 2020–21 spike. Still several times the Western European level: Italy records 0.6, and no European country in this dataset is above 1.2. The national figure also hides an enormous internal range: New York State records 2.7 and California 4.2, while several southern states run above 8. Estimated by the BJS/FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System Estimation Program from agencies covering about 96% of the population.

Spain

Sanitas / Adeslas / DKV comprehensive (with-hospitalization) individual plans — market midpoint; insurers quote on request ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 4, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Comprehensive Spanish private health policies (póliza de salud) include outpatient AND hospitalization/inpatient by default. For a healthy 35-year-old, full-cover plans run ≈ €45–52/mo with modest copays and ≈ €65–90/mo copay-free (Sanitas, Adeslas, DKV — 2026 published ranges). Comprehensive midpoint ≈ €60/mo ≈ €720/yr ≈ $821 at EUR/USD 1.1399 (range ≈ $615–$1,230/yr).

Notes

Residents in the contributory system have public healthcare (Sistema Nacional de Salud); private cover is optional and widely bought for speed/choice. Premiums are quoted on request and vary by province (Madrid/Barcelona highest) and copay structure, so this is a curated market midpoint on a comprehensive (outpatient+inpatient) basis, not a single public quote.

United States

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — 2026 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period State-Level Public Use File, national total row ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 15, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

CMS reports an average monthly premium of $741 before advance premium tax credits across the 23,130,860 people who selected a plan for 2026 through HealthCare.gov and the state exchanges; ×12 = $8,892 a year. Average premium after tax credits is $178 a month.

Notes

Basis differs from the other countries here and the difference matters. This is an enrollee-weighted average across all ages and all metal levels, not a quote for a healthy 35-year-old: the marketplace risk pool skews old (41% of enrollees are 45 or over), and the Affordable Care Act lets insurers charge the oldest adults up to three times the youngest, so a 35-year-old pays meaningfully less than $741 a month. No age adjustment was applied because CMS's default uniform age-rating curve was not retrievable at the verification date. Two further caveats: most enrollees do not pay the sticker price — premium tax credits cut the average to $178 a month — and this is individual-market insurance with deductibles and coinsurance on top, not the comprehensive low-deductible cover the other entries quote. Even discounted for all of that, US health cover is the most expensive in this dataset by a wide margin, and it is the single largest fixed cost a freelancer moving to the United States takes on.

Spain

Agencia Tributaria — compra y venta de monedas virtuales: tributación en el IRPF; CNMV/Banco de España MiCA supervision ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Holding/trading legal for individuals. Gains on disposal (to fiat OR crypto-to-crypto swaps, which ARE taxable, unlike Poland) are savings income (renta del ahorro) taxed 19–30% under IRPF; FIFO applies. EU MiCA fully applicable in Spain from 1 July 2026 (CASPs licensed/supervised by CNMV and Banco de España); DAC8 reporting from 2026. Buying with fiat is not a taxable event.

United States

IRS — Digital assets: for U.S. tax purposes digital assets are property, not currency, and income from them is taxable ↗

Official source

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

Holding, trading and spending crypto is legal throughout the United States and banking access is normal. Tax treatment is the friction rather than the legality: digital assets are property, so every disposal — including paying for something in crypto or swapping one token for another — is a taxable event producing capital gain or loss, and every federal return asks a digital-asset question on its first page. Exchanges are regulated at both federal level (FinCEN money-services-business registration and anti-money-laundering rules) and state level (New York's BitLicense is the strictest), and brokers now report customer transactions to the IRS. Classified 'legal-regulated' rather than 'legal-friendly' because nothing about the tax treatment is favourable: there is no de minimis exemption for small payments and no long-term holding relief beyond the ordinary capital-gains rates.

Spain

Agencia Tributaria — límite de pagos en efectivo (Ley 11/2021); eurozone member, no capital controls ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Composite: eurozone member, euro fully convertible, no currency/capital controls (free EU capital movement). Cash-payment limit €1,000 per transaction when a party acts as business/professional (Ley 11/2021), €10,000 for non-resident private individuals. Standard EU CRS/DAC bank reporting and DAC8 for crypto; Modelo 720 declaration of foreign assets >€50,000 exists (informational). No exchange restrictions on personal funds; non-residents can open bank accounts (NIE required).

Notes

Modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting (>€50,000) is an information duty; EU Court struck down its disproportionate penalty regime in 2022, penalties since aligned to general rules. Overall personal money movement is free (low control) by the criterion's definition.

United States

FinCEN — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR): required when foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any time in the year ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Composite. No capital or currency controls: the dollar is fully convertible and personal funds move in and out freely, which is the 'low' end of this scale. Against that: reporting is unusually broad. US persons must file an FBAR whenever foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, FATCA obliges foreign banks worldwide to identify US account holders, currency of $10,000 or more must be declared when crossing the border, and citizens and permanent residents are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — a rule almost no other country applies. Banking access for a newly arrived foreigner is workable but slow, generally requiring an SSN or ITIN. Rated 'moderate': money moves freely, but it is watched more closely than in most of the countries here, and the tax net follows you out of the country.

Notes

The worldwide-taxation rule is the one to understand before taking a green card. Permanent residents remain US taxpayers on global income for as long as they hold the status, whether or not they live in the United States, and formally abandoning it can trigger an expatriation tax.

Spain

Correos official (network of delivery points, Citypaq lockers) + private carriers ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Correos ~13,000 attention/pickup points (2,380 offices + rural points + 2,115+ Citypaq lockers, plus new Punto Correos convenience points, end-2025); SEUR, MRW, GLS, DHL, UPS, Correos Express operate nationwide with tracking; 24–48h delivery standard in cities. Locker density lower than the most locker-dense EU markets, so classified 'good' rather than 'excellent'.

Notes

Reliable, tracked 1–3 day domestic delivery with a growing parcel-locker network (Citypaq); to-door and PUDO pickup both common.

United States

United States Postal Service — service commitments and network (Ground Advantage, Priority Mail), alongside UPS, FedEx and Amazon Logistics coverage ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Aug 1, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Classified from carrier service standards: USPS delivers to every address in the country including PO boxes and rural routes, with Priority Mail at 1–3 days and Ground Advantage at 2–5; UPS and FedEx both offer guaranteed next-day air nationwide with real-time tracking as standard; Amazon Logistics reaches a large majority of the population with same-day or next-day delivery. Rated 'excellent' on the strength of nationwide next-day availability and universal address coverage, despite a parcel-locker network that is thinner than Poland's or France's — Amazon Lockers and Hub apartment lockers exist in metros but there is no dense third-party locker estate.

Notes

Cash on delivery is effectively extinct in US consumer e-commerce, unlike Italy or Mexico; card or account payment is assumed. Delivery to the door is the default even in apartment buildings, and package theft from doorsteps is a real and widely reported problem in cities.

Spain

Agencia Tributaria (Aduanas) — envíos hasta 150 euros; EU Reg. 2026/382 removal of the €150 customs-duty exemption ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market, all major carriers). Non-EU imports: the €150 duty-free threshold was removed EU-wide on 2026-07-01 — a temporary flat €3-per-item customs duty applies to ≤€150 consignments (until 2028); VAT already collected at checkout via IOSS since 2021. Predictable but no longer duty-free; DHL/UPS/FedEx/SEUR clear customs routinely.

United States

Executive Order 14324 of 30 July 2025, Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries, continued by Executive Order 14388 of 20 February 2026 (91 FR 9433) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Feb 20, 2026

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

This changed fundamentally in 2025 and is the fact most likely to be out of date in anyone's head. The United States used to have the most generous de minimis threshold in the world — $800 duty- and tax-free per person per day — which made ordering from abroad trivially easy. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries from 29 August 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension in February 2026. Every inbound shipment is now dutiable regardless of value, postal shipments carry duties set by the order, and carriers charge brokerage on top. The carriers themselves are excellent and clearance is quick, so this is friction of cost and paperwork rather than unreliability — but a €40 parcel from Europe now arrives with a bill attached.

Spain

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Spain ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Method

Median of 344 daily country medians, 9,298,577 tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; 2024 file is partial at 86 days with a similar 52.5 Mbps median).

Notes

M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Spain has extensive FTTH coverage; real advertised fibre speeds are far higher than this test-based median.

United States

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for the United States ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Method

Median of the 344 daily country-median download values for US in 2023, which ranged 43.9–89.1 Mbps. M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised or Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public statistics API; the 2024 file stops on 26 March.

Notes

The highest reading of any country in this dataset on this metric — roughly three times Italy's — and it reflects a cable and fibre market that competes on headline speed. What the median hides is the price and the choice: monthly costs for gigabit service run well above European levels, and a large share of addresses have exactly one wired provider. Rural coverage remains the weak spot, though federal broadband funding is being deployed against it.

Spain

EF EPI 2025 (Spain rank 36/123, score 540 — Moderate band) ↗

Research

Data as of

Nov 1, 2025

Verified

Jul 4, 2026

Notes

Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First; Spain score 540, Moderate band, weakest in speaking 462). English is workable in tourist/hospitality zones and among younger urban professionals, but limited in government offices, healthcare, and everyday services outside big cities — a moderate rating for daily life.

United States

Executive Order 14224 of 1 March 2025 — Designating English as the Official Language of the United States (90 FR, doc 2025-03694) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Mar 1, 2025

Verified

Aug 1, 2026

Notes

English is the language of government, healthcare, housing and services throughout the country, and since March 2025 it is also the designated official language at federal level — the first such designation in US history. Spanish is a genuine second language of daily life in parts of the south-west, Florida and large cities, and federal agencies still provide multilingual services, but nothing about daily life requires another language.