I’ll preface this by saying I genuinely love Spain and I do recommend it as a place to live. But if you’re on the fence about whether the Digital Nomad Visa is worth pursuing - let me save you some pain.

I’ve done visas for probably 10 countries at this point. I have permanent residency in a few of them. I thought Spain would be straightforward. It has not been.

Seven months in, thousands spent on paperwork, translations, apostilles, appointments, and I’m still not done. The Spanish bureaucratic system is genuinely one of the most outdated I’ve ever encountered. We’re talking ancient government websites, in-person bank visits to pay in cash for appointments, and a process that feels like it was designed in 1987 and nobody has touched it since.

Also; during the appointments it completely depends on what police officer you get. Some will just refuse to give you what you need and won’t explain why. It’s genuinely infuriating.

I’ve seen this visa recommended a lot on here and I get it - on paper it sounds great. But unless Spain is your absolute dream destination and you’re committing to at least 2-3 years minimum, I genuinely don’t think it’s worth the effort.

If you are going to do it, hire someone to handle the paperwork. Yes they charge €2,000-3,000 but it will save your sanity. I made the mistake of doing it myself because I’m busy with work and by the time I looked for help I’d already done 90% of it - so nobody would touch it for less than full price anyway.

Just wanted to share an honest experience because I wish someone had told me this before I started. Happy to answer questions if anyone is considering it.

I’m a CPA based in Turkey working with remote founders and engineers, and there’s a recent change that’s getting a lot of attention locally.

Turkey already had a tax incentive for services provided to clients abroad (software, engineering, design, architecture, etc.).
Previously, 80% of that income was tax-deductible.

Now the proposal is to increase this to 100%.

CPA Evren Özmen

In practical terms:

• If your clients are outside Turkey

• And the service is consumed abroad

• That income may effectively be tax-free in Turkey

Important nuances (this is where most people misunderstand):

• This is not a blanket “0% tax” rule

• It only applies to exported services, not local clients

• Structuring matters (freelancer vs company vs hybrid)

• Substance and invoicing flow are critical (especially for audits)

Who this is relevant for:

• Remote software developers working with US/EU clients

• SaaS founders billing globally

• Designers / engineers with foreign contracts

• People considering relocating to a lower-tax jurisdiction

Reality check:

This is still a technical regime, not a plug-and-play solution.

Most mistakes I see:

• Mixing local and foreign revenue incorrectly

• Wrong invoicing structure

• Ignoring VAT / withholding implications

• Thinking “remote work = automatically tax-free” (not true)

If you’re evaluating Turkey as part of a tax setup or relocation strategy, feel free to ask questions here — I’ll try to clarify how it actually works in practice.

Digital Nomad

Non dome