Wages or bank account still seized after filing for insolvency in Spain

The case, in five lines

What is brought

A written application to each body carrying out a seizure, whether the section of the Tribunal de Instancia (court of first instance) handling the enforcement, the tax authority, the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social (TGSS, Social Security General Treasury) or the local council, with a testimonio (certified copy) of the order declaring the insolvency, so that it suspends the enforcement and orders the payer and the bank to stop withholding; a claim for whatever was withheld from the date of the order, which is void (art. 143.1 TRLC); and a defence before the insolvency judge if the tax authority, Social Security or an employment-claim creditor asks to continue (art. 144). Once the exoneración del pasivo insatisfecho (discharge of unpaid debts) is granted, the lifting of the attachments for the extinguished debts.

Before which court

The insolvency judge, that is, the Sección de lo Mercantil del Tribunal de Instancia (commercial section of the court of first instance) that declared it (art. 87 of the Judiciary Act after Organic Law 1/2025; in provinces without one, the Sección Civil, the civil section, of the court of first instance in the provincial capital): only that judge can declare that a seized asset is not necessary and so open the way for the enforcement to continue (arts. 144 and 146 TRLC). The suspension is asserted before the body that ordered the seizure, judicial or administrative, since that is the body that issues the withholding orders.

Deadline

The suspension applies from the date of the order declaring the insolvency, not from the filing nor from when the seizing body finds out (arts. 142 and 143.1 TRLC); but until it finds out, it keeps withholding. With a complete application, the judge examines it on the day it is allocated or the next working day and declares the insolvency on the following working day (art. 10). In a concurso sin masa (no-asset insolvency), fifteen days from the published notice for creditors to come forward and ten more to apply for discharge (arts. 37 ter and 501.1); if discharge is not obtained, creditors may enforce again once the proceedings close (art. 484.2).

Who can bring it

The debtor in insolvency, who always acts through a procurador (court representative) and with a lawyer (art. 510 TRLC): at Managora, those of the firm. You file nothing and need no digital certificate or Cl@ve (the government login system): you tell us who is seizing, under which case number and who pays your wages or pension. It is the tax authority, Social Security or the employment-claim creditor who ask the insolvency judge to let the enforcement continue (art. 144); only the administración concursal (insolvency practitioner) may apply for seizures to be lifted under art. 143.2.

Financial risk

Suspending is not cancelling: the attachment stays in place and, if the proceedings end without discharge, creditors may enforce again (art. 484.2 TRLC). Administrative seizures are not lifted during the insolvency (art. 143.2), and those of the tax authority or Social Security made before the order may continue if the insolvency judge declares the asset not necessary (art. 144). Art. 143 does not void what was withheld before the order. And discharge does not cover everything: maintenance payments and whatever public debt exceeds its limit are still collected.

Filing stops nothing: the shield arises with the order declaring the insolvency

Art. 142 TRLC sets the starting point beyond doubt: ‘from the declaration of insolvency’ no individual enforcement, judicial or out-of-court, and no administrative collection proceedings, tax ones included, may be started against the assets of the masa activa (insolvency estate). And art. 143.1 suspends, from that same date, the enforcement proceedings already under way and declares void any steps taken afterwards. Neither of them mentions the application: whatever is withheld from you between the day it is filed and the day of the order is a valid deduction.

That is why the first defence against seizure is speed. Art. 10 requires the application to be allocated on the same or the next working day, examined that day or the next, and the insolvency to be declared on the following working day if the documents, taken as a whole, show that the requirements are met. That timetable only works with a complete application: the report on your financial history, the inventory with its charges and the list of creditors with address, amount, due date and any pending lawsuits or seizures. Every week of delay can mean another valid deduction.

The same applies to the concurso sin masa (no-asset insolvency), which is how the great majority of individuals' insolvencies end up (85.4 % of insolvencies in the first quarter of 2026, according to the Colegio de Registradores, the Spanish association of registrars). Its order, under art. 37 ter.1, declares the concurso de acreedores (insolvency proceedings) even if it does so ‘without further rulings’, and the effects of arts. 142 and 143 run from its date. What nobody tells you is that the order is published in the BOE (Official State Gazette) and in the Registro público concursal (public insolvency register), but it does not reach your employer, your bank or the tax authority by itself: whoever withholds from you does so on someone else's order, and carries on until that someone orders them to stop.

Which enforcement proceedings stop and which may carry on

Enforcement by a bank, a lender or a debt collection company through the courts is the general case: it cannot start after the order (art. 142) and, if it was already under way, it is suspended from the order's date (art. 143.1), even if the seizure came earlier. The debt does not disappear: it receives whatever treatment the insolvency gives it, that is, it goes on the list of creditors and, where applicable, into the discharge. The same goes for out-of-court enforcement.

The exception is narrow and lies in art. 144.1: employment-claim enforcement and administrative enforcement proceedings, such as those of the tax authority, the Social Security General Treasury or a local council, may continue, provided that the seizure of that specific asset predates the declaration and that a certified copy of a ruling by the insolvency judge declaring the asset not necessary for the continuity of your professional or business activity is added to the proceedings. Without that certified copy, they too are suspended. If they continue, what is obtained pays their debt and any surplus goes into the insolvency estate (art. 144.2).

Security interests (garantías reales) follow their own rules. Enforcement cannot be started from the declaration against assets necessary for the activity (art. 145.1), and enforcement already begun against any asset of the estate is suspended even if the auction notices had been published (art. 145.2). To proceed against assets that are not necessary, the creditor needs the same certified ruling from the insolvency judge (art. 146). If liquidation is opened, a creditor who did not act before the declaration, or did not start within the following year, loses the right to enforce, and suspended enforcement proceedings are joined to the insolvency as a separate file (art. 149).

The part of your pay that cannot be seized does not enter the insolvency either

The insolvency estate is made up of all the debtor's assets and rights at the date of the declaration and those acquired until the proceedings close, except those that are legally exempt from seizure (art. 192 TRLC). For wages, the line is drawn by art. 607 of the LEC (Civil Procedure Act): whatever does not exceed the salario mínimo interprofesional (SMI, the national minimum wage) cannot be seized; of the next band up to twice that amount, 30 % may be seized; up to three times, 50 %; up to four times, 60 %; up to five times, 75 %; and of anything above that, 90 %. The same applies to pensions (art. 607.1) and to self-employed income (art. 607.6).

The scale has nuances that change the figure. It is applied to net pay, after tax and Social Security deductions (art. 607.5). If you receive several incomes, they are added together so that the exempt minimum is deducted only once, and spouses' wages are also added together if their matrimonial property regime is not separation of property (art. 607.3). With family dependants, the letrado de la Administración de Justicia (court clerk) may reduce the percentages of the first four bands by between 10 and 15 % (art. 607.4). And the tax authority cannot seize what the law declares exempt from seizure either (art. 169.5 of the LGT, the General Tax Act).

What nobody tells you is that art. 123 TRLC, on the right to maintenance, is not what leaves you enough to live on in a no-asset insolvency: it only grants maintenance out of the estate when the estate holds sufficient assets. What you keep is the exempt part, which never belonged to the estate; and a balance that comes from your wages and does not exceed the minimum wage does not create an estate either. If the insolvency does have an estate, the seizable part remains in it, under the supervision of the insolvency practitioner (art. 106). And one exception that matters: in enforcement of child maintenance the scale does not apply, and the court sets how much may be seized (art. 608 LEC).

How it is stopped: one application per seizure, with a certified copy of the order

The suspension arises with the order, but it is asserted seizure by seizure. The first step is the inventory: which body is seizing, under which case number, for which creditor, against which asset and with what date on the diligencia de embargo (attachment order). It is drawn from the notices you have received, from your payslips, where your employer shows the deduction, and from your bank statements. That same inventory goes into the list of creditors in the application, which must include pending lawsuits and enforcement proceedings.

With the certified copy of the order, our procurador files an application in each court enforcement asking for it to be declared suspended from the date of the declaration, for the employer and the bank to be ordered to stop withholding, and for anything withheld afterwards, which art. 143.1 declares void, to be set aside. The tax authority, Social Security or the local council are notified in the same way, stating the date of each attachment order. And your employer receives a copy: it does not decide, but it knows it is about to be ordered to stop.

If a body ignores the application, the dispute goes up to the insolvency judge, who has the last word on enforcement against the debtor's assets and is the only one who can declare whether a seized asset is necessary (arts. 144 and 146). What was withheld before the order is looked at separately: art. 143.1 only voids what was done from the declaration onwards, and what had already been withheld stays in the suspended enforcement, subject to the treatment that debt receives in the insolvency. That is why the deductions made after the order are challenged first: there the law is on your side.

The tax authority and Social Security: the seizure that holds out longest

With administrative seizures the law is harsher. Art. 143.2 allows the insolvency judge to lift and cancel suspended seizures when they seriously hinder the professional or business activity, but only at the request of the insolvency practitioner and never if they are administrative. In a no-asset insolvency there is no insolvency practitioner unless creditors ask for one, so for an individual that route hardly ever exists. A Social Security seizure entered in the Land Registry before the insolvency, for instance, stays there.

What decides is the date, and not just any date: that of the attachment order on that specific asset or right (art. 164.1 LGT). If it predates the order, the tax enforcement has priority over what was seized (art. 164.1.2.º) and may continue with the certified ruling under art. 144 TRLC. If it is later, it is prohibited and void (arts. 142 and 143.1 TRLC). What nobody tells you: if the tax authority issues a new attachment order on your account after the court order, that attachment is later even if the debt is older. And art. 164.2 LGT only allows the enforcement notice to be issued and surcharges to accrue afterwards if their conditions were met before the declaration or if the debts are claims against the estate.

Even if the tax authority carries on, it must respect the scale in art. 607 LEC (art. 169.5 LGT), and whatever it collects is deducted from its claim, which is later discharged within limits. The Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court), in judgments 254/2026 and 260/2026 of 18 February, has held that the limit applies to each public creditor separately: for each one, the first €5,000 is discharged in full and half of the rest, up to a maximum of €10,000 discharged, and subordinated surcharges, interest and penalties are discharged in full (very serious penalties, never). That calculation tells you which part of the administrative seizure may come back once the insolvency ends.

When the insolvency ends: without discharge they return, with it they are lifted

The closing of the insolvency ends the restrictions and the insolvency practitioner's role (art. 483 TRLC), and with them the protection against enforcement. If it ends for lack of assets and you do not obtain discharge, you remain liable for what was not paid and creditors may start individual enforcement; for anyone on the final list of creditors, that entry counts as a final judgment against you (art. 484). That is why, in a no-asset insolvency, the application for discharge within the ten days of art. 501.1 is what turns the pause into a way out.

If a creditor objects to discharge, the objection is decided in an incidente concursal (a separate hearing within the insolvency) and the proceedings cannot be closed until the ruling granting or refusing discharge is final (art. 502.3); the judgment in that hearing may be appealed to the Audiencia Provincial (provincial appeal court). Meanwhile, the insolvency stays open and enforcement stays suspended. Once discharge is granted, creditors of the extinguished debts may not take any collection action (art. 490): with a certified copy of the order, each body is asked to close its enforcement file and lift the attachment, and your employer to stop withholding.

What nobody tells you is that discharge does not settle everything. What remains of each public debt above its limit, maintenance payments and the other debts the law does not discharge keep their remedies, and the tax authority or Social Security may resume the seizure for that part. If you are married under the community of property regime (gananciales), discharge of the joint debts does not extend to your spouse until your spouse obtains it too (art. 491), so your spouse's wages may remain seized. And anyone who stood guarantor for you remains liable.

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   Draw up the inventory of seizures

   Using your notices, payslips and bank statements, each seizure is recorded: body, case number, creditor, seized asset and date of the attachment order. That date, compared with the date of the court order, decides what falls and what may continue.

2. 2

   File a complete application

   Report, inventory and list of creditors with every pending lawsuit and seizure, so that the judge can declare the insolvency within the timescales of art. 10 TRLC. You grant the special power of attorney to the procurador free of charge, in person before the court clerk at any court office, without a digital certificate.

3. 3

   Serve the order on each body and on the payer

   With the certified copy of the order, our procurador files an application in each court enforcement and notifies the tax authority, Social Security or the local council, seeking suspension from the date of the declaration. Your employer and your bank receive a copy.

4. 4

   Check the next payslip and bank statement

   If the deduction continues after the order, it is challenged: it is a void step (art. 143.1 TRLC). We ask for it to be set aside and for whatever was withheld from the date of the declaration to be returned and, if the body does not respond, the matter goes to the insolvency judge.

5. 5

   Defend the limit against the tax authority and Social Security

   If they ask the insolvency judge to declare the asset not necessary so they can continue (art. 144 TRLC), the date of each attachment order is checked and, in any event, the seizure is required to respect the scale in art. 607 LEC.

6. 6

   Apply for discharge and have the attachments lifted

   In a no-asset insolvency, within the ten days of art. 501.1 TRLC. Once it is granted, the certified copy of the order is used to request that each enforcement for extinguished debts be closed and the deductions ended. For what the law does not discharge, payment is planned on real figures.

The law that applies

• Arts. 142 y 143 TRLC. From the declaration of insolvency no individual enforcement, judicial or out-of-court, and no administrative collection, tax included, may be started against the insolvency estate; proceedings under way are suspended from that date and any later steps are void. The judge may lift suspended seizures that seriously hinder the activity, at the insolvency practitioner's request, but never administrative ones. BOE-A-2020-4859
• Arts. 144, 145, 146 y 149 TRLC. Employment-claim enforcement and administrative collection with a seizure predating the declaration continue if a certified copy of the insolvency judge's ruling declaring the asset not necessary for the activity is added; what is obtained pays that debt and any surplus goes to the estate. Enforcement of security interests is suspended even if an auction has been announced, needs that same certified ruling to proceed and, once liquidation opens, the right to enforce is lost if it was not exercised in time. BOE-A-2020-4859
• Arts. 37 bis, 37 ter y 192 TRLC. There is a no-asset insolvency when there are no seizable assets, selling them would cost disproportionately more than their value, the unencumbered ones do not cover the cost of the proceedings or the charges exceed their value; the order declares the insolvency without further rulings and calls on creditors holding 5 % of the debts to seek a practitioner within fifteen days. The insolvency estate does not include assets that are legally exempt from seizure. BOE-A-2020-4859
• Arts. 483, 484, 501 y 502 TRLC. Once the insolvency closes, its restrictions end; the individual debtor remains liable for what was not paid unless discharge is obtained, and creditors may start individual enforcement, with inclusion in the final list treated as a final judgment. In a no-asset insolvency discharge is applied for within ten days; if there is an objection, the insolvency is not closed until the ruling on that hearing is final. BOE-A-2020-4859
• Arts. 607 y 608 LEC. Wages or pensions up to the national minimum wage cannot be seized; the excess is seized in bands of 30, 50, 60, 75 and 90 %, on net pay, adding several incomes together and, outside separation of property, the spouse's wages, with a 10 to 15 % reduction for family dependants. It does not apply to enforcement of maintenance, where the court sets the amount. BOE-A-2000-323
• Arts. 164 y 169 LGT. Tax enforcement has priority over assets seized before the declaration of insolvency, by reference to the date of the attachment order; afterwards an enforcement notice and surcharges are only possible if their conditions were met earlier or if the debts are claims against the estate. The tax authority may not seize assets that the law declares exempt from seizure. BOE-A-2003-23186

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

Frequently asked questions