The Tax Office in an information note explained the concept of the NIF and NIE as well as its differences: the tax regulation uses for tax purposes, peoples´s identification number issued by the Direccion General de Policia.

The Police issues identity cards to foreigners, which are similar to the national identity card or DNI, in the case of foreigner this identification card is called Residency card and it is only issued to foreigners who are granted residency permit, if you are national of a EU member state you will be issued a Tarjeta de Regimen Comunitario, whilst if you belong to a non EU country you will be granted a Permiso de Residencia. In both cases, when you apply for the residency you will be assigned a NIE number which will not be the same as your Residency card one.

On the other hand, you can apply just for the NIE number if you intend to do certain things in Spain but do not wish to set your residency here, whether it is business related or just to have a second or holiday home in Spain.

The NIF number known as Numero de Identificacion Fiscal, is the tax number you will be assigned by the Tax Office for tax puposes and it will match your NIE number, the only diference will be that instead of NIE it will be called NIF.

You can apply for your NIF and NIE Number Online Now!