ETF

Modelo 720: Your Broker Gave You a Spanish IBAN, But Your ETFs Can Still Require Reporting

September 21, 2026

Your broker sends a notice: “we’ve migrated your account to a Spanish IBAN.” And a rumor spreads, especially in investing forums, that this exempts you from Spain’s modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting form. For the cash account, that’s true. For the ETFs or funds sitting in the same broker’s custody account, it almost never is, and they’re two separate obligations governed by two separate rules.

Mixing the two is the mistake that’s spreading fastest right now among people investing through brokers like Trade Republic, DeGiro or similar, many of which have recently moved their clients’ cash accounts from a German or Dutch IBAN to a Spanish one, while the securities (custody) account stays exactly where it was.

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Index Fund or ETF: Why the Fund Usually Wins in Spain (and the Condition Almost Nobody Checks)

September 8, 2026

If you’ve read anything about passive investing, you’ve probably come across this idea: an index fund and an ETF tracking the same index are, in practice, the same product with a different wrapper. Similar fees, same diversification, same “don’t try to beat the market” philosophy. And up to that point, it’s true.

What almost nobody spells out with the same detail is that, in Spain, they’re not taxed the same at all. One lets you move your money from one place to another without paying tax along the way. The other doesn’t. And the advantage of the first one is only real if a very specific condition is met, one that most people don’t even know exists, let alone check.

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