Property in Spain: the tax for non-residents, Modelo 210

Modelo 210 is the tax return for people who own property in Spain but are not tax resident here. The form is used in several situations. This article covers the simplest one: you own an apartment or a house that you use yourself, lend to family or leave empty for part of the year.

Spain considers that a property that is not let still gives its owner a benefit. The state therefore sets a notional income, the renta imputada, and taxes it. The tax is due even though the property has produced no actual income.

IBI is the annual property tax of the municipality. It is collected by the local tax collection office (Oficina de Recaudación), which sends a bill or charges the amount to a Spanish bank account. Modelo 210 is a state tax that goes to the tax agency, the Agencia Tributaria. No bill is sent for it; the owner files the return and calculates the tax in it.

The basis is the cadastral value of the property, the valor catastral, which is shown on the IBI receipt. It is set by the Spanish land registry office (Catastro) and is usually well below the market value of the property. The notional income is 1.1 per cent of the cadastral value if the value has been revised from 2012 onwards, otherwise 2 per cent.

The tax rate depends on where the owner lives. Residents of the EU, Norway and Iceland pay 19 per cent. Residents of other countries, including the United Kingdom, pay 24 per cent.

An example: an apartment has a cadastral value of 90,000 euros. At 1.1 per cent the notional income is 990 euros. The tax for the year is 188.10 euros for an owner resident in the EU and 237.60 euros for an owner resident in the United Kingdom. At 2 per cent the notional income is 1,800 euros, and the tax is 342 euros and 432 euros respectively.

Where several people own the property together, each owner files a separate return for his or her share. A married couple who own half each therefore file two returns, each for half the amount. If the property was owned for only part of the year, because it was bought or sold, the tax is calculated for the number of days it was owned. A garage or storage room with its own cadastral reference is declared in the same way.

For property that is not let, the return is filed in the year after the tax year. The return for 2025 must therefore be filed and paid by 31 December 2026. When payment is made by direct debit from a Spanish bank account, the deadline is 23 December. From the 2026 tax year, the filing period opens on 1 April of the following year, but the final deadline remains 31 December.

Different rules apply when the property is let. From the 2024 tax year, the rental income for the whole year can be declared on a single return. For the 2025 tax year the deadline for this was 20 January 2026. From the 2026 tax year the deadline moves to 1 to 20 April of the following year. Owners resident in the EU or the EEA may deduct expenses related to the letting; owners resident elsewhere, including the United Kingdom, may not. For the parts of the year when the property is not let, notional income is calculated as described above.

A return filed after the deadline, before the tax agency has asked for it, carries a surcharge of 1 per cent plus 1 per cent for each full month of delay. After twelve months the surcharge is 15 per cent, and interest is added from the day after the twelve months have passed. The tax agency can claim tax for four years back. Returns for earlier years that were not filed at the time can still be filed.

The return requires the NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero, the Spanish identification number for foreigners), the IBI receipt showing the cadastral value and the cadastral reference (referencia catastral), the owner's share of the property and, where relevant, the date of purchase or sale. If the property is let, a statement of income and expenses is also needed.

The form is available on the tax agency's website, sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es, and can be filed and paid from there. The form and its instructions are in Spanish. The return can also be filed on the owner's behalf by a colaborador social. A fuller guide to the Modelo 210 covers the other situations in which the form is used.

Jon W. Olsen runs Olsen Estate in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. He has been a colaborador social of the AEAT since 2006, an arrangement that allows him to file tax returns electronically on behalf of others, and has filed more than 8,000 Modelo 210 returns. Through spaintax.com he files Modelo 210 for property owners throughout Spain.