Non-Resident Property Tax in Spain 2026: Modelo 210, Calculation, and Deadlines

Non-resident property tax in Spain: what imputed income is

First, the part that usually confuses people: the tax is charged on income you never received. The law reasons this way. An apartment without tenants could be rented out, and the owner benefits from it simply by having it available, whether for vacations, for the children, or for the future. The law turns that benefit into a set amount and treats it as the owner's income. This is called imputed income (renta imputada; the rule itself is known as imputación de rentas), and it is taxed under non-resident income tax, IRNR (Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes). In everyday speech the tax is called non-resident property tax, but it is built as a tax on income.

The legal basis is spelled out. Under article 13.1.h of the non-resident income tax act, a non-resident's Spanish-source income includes the imputed income of individuals who own urban real estate in Spain that is not used in a business. Spain's tax agency (AEAT, Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria) explains on its page on imputed income that this covers homes the owner keeps for personal use and empty homes. The tax accrues on December 31 each year (devengo, when the liability arises; article 27.1.c of the same act).

Three limits worth knowing from the start:

• No income arises from a home that is still under construction, or from one that cannot be used for zoning or urban planning reasons: so says article 85.1 of the personal income tax act (LIRPF), which the non-resident act refers to for the calculation rules.
• If you are a Spanish tax resident, Form 210 is not for you. Any one of the conditions in article 9 of the LIRPF makes you a resident, for example spending more than 183 days in Spain in a year, and then the imputed income from a second home goes on the annual resident income tax return (IRPF).
• The rules set no minimum amount below which you can skip the return. The obligation to file rests with the owner (article 4.3 of Order EHA/3316/2010), and in its own example in the instructions for Form 210, the tax agency works through a return with €125.60 of tax due.

Cadastral value: where to find it and what it is not

Every calculation in this article rests on one figure, the cadastral value (valor catastral). The Cadastre (Catastro) is Spain's state register of real estate, and it holds a government valuation for every property. That valuation is made with a single method for a whole municipality at once and revised rarely, so it need not match the price the apartment could sell for today.

You can find the cadastral value in two places:

1. On the bill for IBI, the annual municipal property tax. The tax agency's page on imputed income refers to exactly this figure. You need the Valor catastral line, not Base liquidable: for the first nine years after a general revaluation that raised the value, IBI is calculated on a reduced base, so Base liquidable is lower than the cadastral value (articles 66–68 of the Local Finance Act). As the table below shows, Santa Pola and Benitachell have had a general revaluation in effect since 2025.
2. In the online Cadastre: the Mis inmuebles ("My properties") section of the Sede Electrónica del Catastro, where you search by NIE (Spain's identification number for foreigners) or by address. You have to log in with a digital certificate or through Cl@ve, the Spanish government's electronic identification system. A login is required because article 51 of the Cadastre Act classifies the cadastral value as protected data, and the owner can see it precisely because they own the property.

The bill and the Cadastre also show the apartment's cadastral reference number (referencia catastral), which Form 210 asks for. If a parking space or storage room has its own cadastral reference and its own IBI bill, imputed income is calculated for it as well, and a separate Form 210 is filed for each such property: a single return can combine only income from one and the same property (article 2.1.b of Order EHA/3316/2010). If the parking space or storage room is included in the apartment under the apartment's cadastral reference, its value is already part of the apartment's cadastral value.

If you have neither a certificate nor Cl@ve, take the figure from the IBI bill for the year you are filing for: for 2025, from the 2025 bill. If IBI is paid by direct debit and you have never seen the bill, the office that collects IBI in your municipality will issue a copy (in Torrevieja, for example, SUMA): by phone, if you give your details and the apartment's address, or at its office with your NIE. Without a certificate or Cl@ve, you can request a cadastral certificate in writing from the regional Cadastre office (Gerencia del Catastro) for the area where the apartment is located (the fee for a certificate covering one property is €9.04), or sign the Cadastre's authorization form so that someone you trust can request it for you.

Do not confuse the cadastral value with two other figures. The purchase price plays no part in the calculation. The cadastral reference value (valor de referencia), which the Cadastre also publishes, is used for the tax on buying a resale home; see our article on the costs of buying. For non-resident tax, article 85 of the LIRPF requires the cadastral value specifically.

There is one exception to the rule. If the apartment has no cadastral value on December 31, or the value has not been notified to the owner, 1.1% is applied, but to half of the higher of two amounts: the purchase price or the value the tax agency has set for other taxes.

2% or 1.1%: which percentage applies in your town

The general rule is in article 85.1 of the LIRPF: imputed income equals 2% of the cadastral value. The percentage drops to 1.1% if the municipality has had a general cadastral revaluation (in Spanish, procedimiento de valoración colectiva de carácter general; in practice, a new valuation report for the whole town, a ponencia de valores total) and it took effect in the current year or in one of the previous 10 years. The window moves every year: for income in 2025, a revaluation that took effect in 2015–2025 qualifies; for 2026, only one that took effect in 2016–2026.

Since 2023 there has also been a transitional rule (the 55th additional provision of the same act): 1.1% also applies where a general revaluation took effect on or after January 1, 2012. The law introduced it only for 2023, and for 2024 and 2025 it was extended by royal decree-laws (reales decretos-leyes), government acts that take effect immediately but must be approved by Congress. Congress repealed all three such decrees: decree 9/2024, covering 2024, on January 22, 2025; decree 16/2025, covering 2025, on January 27, 2026; and decree 2/2026, which repeated it, on February 26, 2026. But the tax on imputed income accrues on December 31 and is calculated under the rules in force on that day: on December 31, 2024, decree 9/2024 was in force, on December 31, 2025, decree 16/2025 was, and the repeals do not apply retroactively. So the tax agency, following the position of the Directorate General for Taxes (DGT, the Finance Ministry body that interprets tax law), applies 1.1% to revaluations from 2012 onward both for 2024 (note of March 21, 2025) and for 2025 (note of April 1, 2026). The instructions for Form 210 say the same for non-residents, naming 2023, 2024, and 2025.

One caveat: this is the tax agency's administrative position, not a court ruling. There is no case law on the question, both notes were written for resident income tax, and it is the instructions for Form 210 that carry the same logic over to non-residents.

The year 2026 is different. Royal Decree-law 26/2026 of September 29 extended the relief to 2026 and also changed the calculation itself starting in 2027, but on October 2, that is, before December 31, Congress repealed it. On December 31, 2026, there will be no transitional rule unless a new one is adopted by the end of the year, and for 2026 only a revaluation that took effect in 2016–2026 gives 1.1%.

We checked the year of the last general revaluation against the Cadastre's official table (the Ponencias de valores search, column Año efecto, data as of October 5, 2026):

The Cadastre also lists later partial revaluations for Valencia (2012) and Jávea (2015). Article 85.1 requires a general procedure, and article 28.3 of the Cadastre Act distinguishes a general procedure from a partial one, so a partial revaluation does not give 1.1%. This is our conclusion from the text of the two provisions; we found no official guidance specifically on partial revaluations.

If your municipality is not in the table, look it up in the same Cadastre search: you need the year in the Año efecto column for the general revaluation, while partial ones appear in a separate column (Ponencias parciales).

What I would do. If your town is listed at 2% in the table, calculate at 2%. If the general revaluation in your municipality took effect in 2012–2015, calculate at 1.1% for 2025, budget for 2% for 2026, and check the rule again in spring 2027, before you file.

Tax rate: 19% or 24%

Article 25.1.a of the non-resident income tax act sets a general rate of 24% and lowers it to 19% for residents of other EU countries and the European Economic Area (EEA: the EU countries plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein). What counts is the country where you are tax resident, not your citizenship; Liechtenstein appears in the tax agency's rates table from July 11, 2021.

• United Kingdom. UK tax residents pay 24% on income arising from January 1, 2021: on its page on the consequences of Brexit, the tax agency expressly lists imputed income among the types of income to which the 19% rate no longer applies.
• The US belongs to neither the EU nor the EEA, so its tax residents pay 24%.
• Double taxation treaties do not lower the rate: for income from real estate, as the instructions for Form 210 explain, they leave the right to tax with the country where the property is located, with no cap on the rate.

No expenses are deducted from the tax on imputed income: the tax agency states without qualification that the tax is paid on the base "without deducting any expenses." Neither IBI, nor homeowners' association fees, nor repairs, nor mortgage interest reduce it, and this rule is the same for all non-residents, including EU residents. Expense deductions exist only for rental income, covered below.

How much non-resident property tax you pay: four worked examples

Take an apartment with a cadastral value of €80,000. The formula is always the same: cadastral value × percentage × share of the year × tax rate. Neither 2025 nor 2026 is a leap year, so a year has 365 days; if the apartment was bought on April 1, there are 275 days of ownership left in the year, counting the day of purchase. In its own example of a purchase on April 1, 2026, the tax agency likewise taxes only the period of ownership, not the whole year.

Amounts are rounded to the cent; the tax agency's software may differ from them by a cent.

About the last row. The tax agency calculates each co-owner's income in proportion to their share, and for a married couple's community property, the shares are presumed equal unless there is evidence to the contrary (article 11.3 LIRPF). The Form 210 rules allow a joint return for two people only for a sale (article 2.1.a of Order EHA/3316/2010), so for an empty apartment each spouse files their own. Together, the couple pays the same as a single owner of the whole apartment (€304 at the 19% rate or €384 at 24%), but there are two returns, and lateness is counted separately for each.

If the apartment is rented out

A rented apartment is taxed differently, and it needs a separate return: on Form 210, rental income and imputed income are different types of income and cannot be mixed. The base for a rental is the whole amount the tenant pays, including any charge for furniture rented with the apartment, excluding VAT (value-added tax).

From here, the rules depend on your country of residence:

• EU or EEA residents pay 19% and may deduct expenses directly related to the rental (article 24.6 of the non-resident act): interest on the loan used to buy the property, repairs, IBI and the waste collection fee, insurance, utilities, and property management fees. On top of that, you can claim depreciation of the building of up to 3% a year of the purchase price or the cadastral value, whichever is higher, excluding the value of the land (article 23.1.b of the LIRPF and article 14.2.a of the personal income tax regulations). To claim deductions, you attach a tax residence certificate from your own country to the return; the certificate is valid for one year.
• Residents of the US, the UK, and any other country outside the EU and the EEA pay 24% on the gross rent, with no deductions. This follows from articles 24.1 and 24.6 of the non-resident act and is confirmed by the tax agency's page on rental income and its page on Brexit.

This is exactly the difference the Supreme Court is now reviewing. On July 28, 2025, the National High Court (Audiencia Nacional) ruled in favor of a US resident who rented out an apartment in Spain, finding that the ban on deducting expenses restricts the free movement of capital. The ruling was appealed, and on July 15, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal (order ECLI:ES:TS:2026:7675A). There is no decision on the merits yet, and nobody knows when one will come. Our information about the case comes from a secondary source, an analysis by the law firm Cuatrecasas dated September 16, 2026; we have not read the court's order itself. For now, the law and the tax agency work as written. The right to claim a refund of tax lasts four years (article 66 of the General Tax Act), so discuss with an adviser whether it makes sense to amend past returns before the ruling.

If the apartment was rented for part of the year, rental income is declared for the rental days, and imputed income for the remaining days in proportion, as the tax agency states explicitly. The tax agency does not explain how to split annual expenses between rented and empty periods; a split by rental days seems natural, but that is our reading, not a rule. For returns filed from January 1, 2027, expenses will have to be itemized in a separate annex to Form 210 (Order HAC/623/2026).

The income is taxable even when you rent the apartment to people you know for a week, without a contract and for cash: article 22 of the LIRPF treats any payment for the use of a home as rental income, and it does not make a written contract or payment into a bank account a condition of the tax. A tenant who is a private individual does not withhold the tax for you, so the owner files the return. If, on the other hand, you let relatives stay in the apartment free of charge, there is no rental, but imputed income for those days remains: that is the answer the Directorate General for Taxes gave for resident income tax (ruling V2420-19), and if there is any doubt, it is up to the owner to prove that the home was provided free of charge.

Worked example. An apartment with a cadastral value of €80,000, in a town where 2% applies, was rented from June 1 to September 30, 2026 (122 days), for €4,000. A resident of a country outside the EU and the EEA will pay €960 on the rent (24% of €4,000) and €255.65 for the 243 days without a tenant: 80,000 × 2% × 243 / 365 = €1,065.21 of imputed income, taxed at 24%. An EU or EEA resident will pay 19% on the rent after deducting documented expenses, and €202.39 for the other days.

Modelo 210 deadlines in 2026 and 2027

Order HAC/623/2026 of June 12, published on June 23, 2026, rewrote the Form 210 deadlines for both imputed income and rental income. The tax agency explained the changes in a separate note.

For imputed income, the window now opens on April 1 of the following year instead of January 1, and it still closes on December 31. Income for 2026 is the first to be declared this way; in its note, the tax agency expressly keeps income for 2025 on the old deadlines.

For owners who declare each rent payment separately, income for July through September 2026 was declared October 1–20, 2026. Income for October through December is declared in April 2027, as the tax agency's own example shows. The owner chooses whether to file a separate return for each rent payment or a single return for all of 2026 (article 2.1 of Order EHA/3316/2010 and the final provision of Order HAC/623/2026). So a one-time rental, such as a week in August 2026, could be declared on its own by October 20, 2026; if you did not do that, it is declared together with all your 2026 rental income by April 20, 2027. Since 2024, payments from the same quarter cannot be combined on one return: if the rent is paid monthly, that means three returns per quarter, and the tax on each is paid separately.

How to file: yourself, through a gestor, or on paper

The filer named on the form is always the owner: article 2.2 of Order EHA/3316/2010 requires this, and the tax agency's instructions repeat that only the taxpayer can make this return. A representative can submit it for you: the instructions describe filing under a power of attorney registered with the tax agency (apoderamiento) and through professionals with a collaboration agreement with the agency (colaboración social). That is how a gestor works: an agent who handles a client's paperwork with government offices. This does not contradict the rule about the filer: the owner remains the filer, while the gestor or representative only submits the form online with their own digital certificate, as the instructions for Form 210 require.

To file online yourself, you need a digital certificate or Cl@ve. Getting Cl@ve is not easy for a non-resident: registration by video call is currently open only to Spanish citizens, and at a registration office in Spain you have to appear in person with your NIE and passport. If you have neither a certificate nor Cl@ve, the paper route remains, but it also starts on the tax agency's website:

1. Fill out Form 210 on the tax agency's website (the interface can be switched to English) and print it. Your NIE goes in the tax ID number field; if you do not have one, the form lets you get an identification code as you fill it out. Write your NIE on every printed copy and sign each by hand.
2. If there is tax to pay, you have two options (ways to file and pay). In Spain, a bank that works with the tax agency (a collaborating bank, entidad colaboradora) accepts the form together with the payment, at a branch or through online banking if the bank allows it; ask your Spanish bank whether it is a collaborating bank. If nothing is attached to the return, you do not mail the form afterward. Any attachments are delivered, with the tax agency's copy of the form, to the agency's office for the area where the apartment is located, in person or by mail. From abroad, choose payment by transfer from abroad on the form: the form will give you the tax agency's account details and a payment identifier, which goes in the transfer's reference field with nothing else added. The transfer must be in euros (as the tax agency's page on payment methods requires), made within 30 days while the identifier is valid, and not from an account at a collaborating bank (article 14 of Order EHA/3316/2010): such a transfer, like one without the identifier, will be sent back. Each return needs its own payment with its own identifier. The return counts as filed on the day the money reaches the tax agency's account. The tax agency's online portal issues proof of payment once you verify your identity; the agency does not say how to do that without a certificate or Cl@ve, so keep your transfer confirmation. Attachments to a return paid by transfer are not delivered to the local office: they are sent by regular mail, together with the tax agency's copy of the form, to the National Tax Management Office (Oficina Nacional de Gestión Tributaria, C/ Lérida 32-34, 28020 Madrid; article 14 of Order EHA/3316/2010).
3. If there is nothing to pay or the return shows a refund, file the form in person or by certified mail at the tax agency's local office (Delegación) for the area where the apartment is located. The form goes to the National Tax Management Office in Madrid (address in step 2) only if you have no NIE, got your code through the form itself, and listed neither a representative nor an address in Spain for notices.

If you file online, direct debit is more convenient. Since February 1, 2024, an account at a bank in any of the 36 countries that Order EHA/1658/2009 (article 5 bis) counts as part of the SEPA area (the Single Euro Payments Area) qualifies: the EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the UK, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City. The US is not on this list, so an account at a US bank cannot be used for direct debit. The account must be in the name of the owner the return is filed for (article 2.a of the same order), even if a gestor submits the return: you cannot pay this way from an account held only by your spouse or a relative. If you file online but have no account in these countries, choose payment by transfer from abroad (ways to file and pay, section 2.3). The form will give you the account details and a payment identifier, and the transfer, as in step 2, must be in euros, sent within the identifier's 30-day validity, and not from an account at a collaborating bank. When you pay this way, the return counts as filed on the day you submitted the form, and the tax counts as paid on the day the money reaches the tax agency's account; if the money arrives after the filing period ends, an enforcement surcharge starting at 5% is added to the tax (articles 28 and 161 of the General Tax Act).

An owner from an EU country does not need a tax representative: article 10.1 of the non-resident act does not apply to EU residents, and it does not apply to residents of Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein if rules on mutual assistance in exchanging tax information and collecting taxes are in force between their country and Spain. For owners from other countries, a representative is mandatory when the tax agency requires one, for example because of the size of their income or their real estate holdings; the agency gives no criteria in its public materials. Without such a requirement, a representative is needed only by residents of countries on Spain's list of non-cooperative jurisdictions who own assets in Spain (article 10.1); the UK and the US are not on that list. Some US territories are on that list, including Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands. For owners resident there, a representative is mandatory (article 10.1), and the fine for not appointing one is €6,000 (article 10.4). In all other cases a representative is optional, as the instructions for Form 210 state explicitly, and you do not need to appoint one in advance. For everyone else, if the tax agency does require one and you have not appointed one, the fine is €2,000 (article 10.4).

Getting help. We file the annual Form 210 for owners as part of our legal and tax advisory service: we work out the percentage for your municipality, the days of ownership, and the co-owners' shares from your documents. For owners who rent out their apartment through us, filing the returns is part of rental management. You can message us on WhatsApp: +34 664 02 87 80.

What happens if you do not file modelo 210

What being late costs depends on who notices it first: you or the tax agency.

If you file voluntarily, before any letter from the tax agency, and there was tax to pay, there is no penalty. Instead, article 27 of the General Tax Act charges a surcharge: 1% of the tax plus another 1% for each full month of delay, and after 12 months, 15% plus late-payment interest (4.0625% a year in 2026). If you pay the tax when you file and pay the surcharge by the deadline in the tax agency's notice, the surcharge is reduced by 25%. With tax of €384 and a delay of five full months, the surcharge is 6%, or €23.04, and €17.28 after the reduction. Older guides and articles quote a different scale: article 27 was rewritten by Law 11/2021, and the scale in force is the one described here. If there was nothing to pay, the fine for a return you file late voluntarily is €100 (article 198).

If the tax agency writes first, the surcharge no longer applies. The law treats as a demand any formal action by the tax agency concerning your debt, once you have been notified of it; after a demand, you are charged interest and a penalty. For failing to pay the tax the return should have shown (article 191), the penalty in a minor case is 50% of the unpaid amount; a case is minor when that amount is no more than €3,000, and if it is more, the case is serious and the percentage is higher, because the law treats an unfiled return as concealment (article 184.2). If there was nothing to pay, the fine for a return never filed is €200 (article 198).

The statute of limitations is four years (article 66). It runs from the day after the filing period ends (article 67.1): for income in 2025, from January 1, 2027. If you have missed several years, it pays to file the returns for those years yourself, before any letter arrives: a surcharge of 1% to 15%, even with interest, is less than a penalty of half the tax.

In my news roundup for February 2026, I talked about how the tax agency cross-checks data on digital nomads, and at the end of the episode I said something I will repeat here: "Spain is becoming a transparent market. Off-the-books schemes no longer work" (video, in Russian). The episode was about something else, but the conclusion holds for Form 210 too: hoping that a missed return will go unnoticed is a poor strategy when fixing it yourself costs a few percent.

Selling the apartment raises a separate question. No rule expressly provides for the imputed income tax debt to be taken out of the 3% that the buyer withholds from a non-resident seller: that 3%, and the lien on the apartment that goes with it, cover only the tax on the sale itself (article 25.2 of the non-resident act). But if the 3% turns out to be more than the tax on the sale and you ask for the difference back, the tax agency will offset that refund against your debts to it that are already in enforced collection (articles 71 and 73 of the General Tax Act): for example, tax on a Form 210 return filed without payment, or an unpaid late-filing surcharge. The sale does not clear a debt that the tax agency has not yet assessed either: the agency has four years to assess it. How capital gains tax and the 3% withholding work is explained in our article on selling property as a non-resident.

If you have not filed for past years

The deadline for 2023 ended on December 31, 2024, and the deadline for 2024 ended on December 31, 2025: imputed income for 2025 and earlier years is declared at any time during the following year, as the instructions for Form 210 state. The tax agency can assess the tax for 2023 until the end of 2028, and for 2024 until the end of 2029. It can still assess the tax for 2021 and 2022 as well: the filing deadlines for those years ended on December 31, 2022, and December 31, 2023, and the four-year limitation period runs from the next day (articles 66 and 67.1 of the General Tax Act), so that right lasts until the end of 2026 and the end of 2027, respectively. For 2020 and earlier years, the limitation period has already expired (for imputed income for 2020, at the end of 2025; for rental income, even earlier), unless before then the tax agency took action on those years and formally notified you of it, including by publication in the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado, Spain's official gazette); tax paid for a year that is already time-barred must be refunded (articles 68, 69, and 221 of the same act).

A return for a past year uses the same Form 210 as one for the current year: in the accrual date field (fecha de devengo), enter December 31 of the year in question in day/month/year format, for example 31/12/2023, and in the period field, "0A" and the same year. A separate return is filed for each year and for each co-owner. Take the cadastral value from the IBI bill for the year you are declaring (the Valor catastral line, not Base liquidable): it can change from year to year (article 32 of the Cadastre Act). The percentage for 2023 and 2024 follows the same rule as for 2025: 1.1% applies if a general revaluation took effect in 2012 or later and no later than the income year; otherwise it is 2%. For 2021 and 2022, only the general rule in article 85.1 of the LIRPF applies: 1.1% requires a general revaluation that took effect in the income year or in one of the previous 10 years (for 2021, in 2011–2021; for 2022, in 2012–2022). For the towns in the municipality table, that gives the same percentage as for 2025, except for Santa Pola and Benitachell: their revaluation took effect only in 2025, so for past years you need the year of their previous general revaluation from the same Cadastre search.

You do not need to calculate the surcharge on the form: the tax agency will charge it itself and send a notice after you file. As of October 5, 2026, the surcharge for 2024 is 10% of the tax, each further full month adds 1%, and from January 1, 2027, it will be 15% plus interest. For 2021–2023, it is already 15% plus late-payment interest, which runs until the day you file: for 2023, from January 1, 2026; for 2022, from January 1, 2025; for 2021, from January 1, 2024. If the tax is paid when you file and the surcharge is paid by the deadline in the notice, the surcharge is reduced by 25%, but the interest is not (article 27 of the General Tax Act). For the spouses in the calculations table (tax of €192 each), filing on October 5, 2026, each will pay €211.20 for 2024, or €206.40 after the surcharge reduction; for 2023, about €227, including about €6 of interest, or about €220 after the surcharge reduction. For 2025, while the deadline has not yet passed, it is just €192.

The surcharge notice will arrive in Spanish (Law 39/2015, article 15). If you have no representative, the law treats the address of the apartment itself as the tax address of a non-resident with income from real estate (article 11.1.b of the non-resident act), and the tax agency may send notices there (article 110 of the General Tax Act); Form 210 also lets you give a different address in Spain for notices, but that field is optional. If a letter cannot be delivered, usually after two attempts, a summons is published in the BOE, and 15 days later the notice is treated as delivered (article 112 of the same act). So the deadline for the surcharge reduction can start running while you know nothing about the letter. To prevent that, after you file, check the mail at the apartment yourself or through someone you trust, or appoint a representative. You can also see all notices in the tax agency's online portal with a certificate or Cl@ve, and so can a representative holding your power of attorney. If you miss the deadline in the notice, there is no reduction, and the unpaid surcharge goes into enforced collection with an extra 5%, 10%, or 20% (articles 28 and 161 of the General Tax Act).

If you rented the apartment out in 2023–2025, even for a week to people you know, separate returns are filed for the rental income, and their deadlines have also passed: for 2023, quarterly; for 2024 and 2025, either a separate return for each payment (within the first 20 days of the month after the quarter) or a single return for the year by January 20 of the following year. The surcharge runs from the end of the missed deadline, and there is no imputed income for the rental days. Co-owners also split rental income by their shares (article 11.3 LIRPF): a week rented for €600 at the 24% rate gives €144 of tax, €72 each with equal shares, plus the surcharge and interest. If you rented earlier as well, the four-year limitation period for rental income runs from the day after the deadline for each quarterly return (which had to be filed within the first 20 days of the month after the quarter). For 2021 the limitation period has already expired; for 2022 it expires quarter by quarter: for July–September in October 2026, and for October–December in January 2027.

There is no need to fear that the apartment will be seized right away: a debt goes through several stages first. The tax agency first sends a demand, assesses the tax, interest, and penalty, and gives you a period to pay voluntarily. If you do not pay within that period either, 5%, 10%, or 20% is added to the debt (article 28 of the General Tax Act), an enforcement order (providencia de apremio) is issued, and only if you do not pay under that order either does the tax agency seize assets (article 167). By law, a seizure must be proportionate to the debt: the tax agency takes what is easiest to sell and least burdensome for the debtor, and otherwise follows an order in which money in bank accounts comes first, then securities and rights, then wages and pensions, and only after that real estate (article 169). The law sets no minimum debt below which the apartment cannot be seized. File an overdue return together with payment: a return filed without payment goes into enforced collection the very next day (article 161). If you file and pay voluntarily, before the tax agency writes, there will be no penalty and no enforcement.

Other property taxes an owner pays in Spain

Form 210 is easy to confuse with other payments on the same apartment. Here is what an owner pays besides it.

IBI, the municipal property tax. Every owner pays it to the town hall, resident or not: whoever owns the apartment on January 1 pays for the whole year at once (articles 61, 63, and 75 of the Local Finance Act). It is calculated on the same cadastral value, without multiplying by 2% or 1.1%, and for the first nine years after a general revaluation that raised the value, on a reduced base (base liquidable, articles 66–68); the rate is set by the town hall, as a general rule between 0.4% and 1.10% for urban property (article 72.1). An IBI debt is tied to the apartment itself and passes to the new owner (article 64.1), so when we check a property for a client, we look for IBI debts before the deposit is paid. A town hall may introduce a surcharge on permanently empty homes on its own (article 72.4): up to 50% of the IBI amount, up to 100% if the home has been empty for more than three years, and up to another 50 percentage points on top if the same owner has two or more empty homes in the municipality. The surcharge can apply only to owners of four or more homes, and only after more than two years empty without a justified reason, and a home kept as a second residence counts as standing empty for a justified reason for up to four years in a row.

Waste collection fee. Law 7/2022 on waste (article 11.3) required municipalities to introduce a separate fee for waste management within three years, that is, by April 2025. Each town hall sets the amount.

Wealth tax (Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio). A non-resident pays it only on assets in Spain (Law 19/1991, article 5). The apartment is valued at the highest of three amounts: the cadastral value, the value set by the tax agency, or the purchase price (article 10), and the mortgage debt on it is deducted. For non-residents, the tax-free threshold is €700,000 (article 28; the same figure appears on the tax agency's page for non-residents). A non-resident may also choose the rules of the region where most of their Spanish assets are located (the tax agency's wealth tax manual): in the Valencian Community, the region that includes Valencia and the Costa Blanca, the threshold for 2025 is €1,000,000, and for 2026, Valencian regional Law 5/2026 raised it to €2,000,000. But article 8 of regional Law 13/1997, which sets this threshold, is written for residents of the region, and nothing expressly says whether it applies to a non-resident. For an apartment worth €300,000, this changes nothing: there is no tax under any of the three thresholds, and a return is required only if there is tax to pay or the assets are worth more than €2,000,000 (article 37 of Law 19/1991; this is the general filing threshold and is unrelated to the Valencian one). There is one condition: all your assets in Spain combined, including money in Spanish bank accounts, must be worth no more than €700,000, the lowest of the three thresholds.

The solidarity tax on large fortunes (Law 38/2022) does not affect the owner of an ordinary apartment: its rate rises above zero only for taxable assets over €3,000,000.

Double taxation: how the country where you live treats income from the apartment

Double taxation treaties leave Spain the right to tax income from real estate located in Spain, including income from the owner's own use of a home. How the country where you live treats that income depends on its own law.

• United Kingdom. Spain's right is set out in article 6 of the 2013 convention. Under article 22.2.a, Spanish tax is credited against UK tax on the same income under the rules of UK law. We could not confirm from a primary source at HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs, the UK tax authority) whether this credit comes into play at all for a UK resident's empty apartment.
• United States. Spain's right to tax is set out in article 6 of the 1990 convention: paragraph 1 covers income from real property, and paragraph 3 extends it to income from the direct use, letting, or any other use of the property. The 2013 protocol, in force since November 27, 2019, does not change articles 6 or 24. The US taxes its citizens and residents on their worldwide income, and under article 24.2 it allows a credit against US tax for income tax paid in Spain, subject to the limits of US law. In practice, three things matter:
  • Rent. Actual rent goes on your US return like any other rental income, on Schedule E (IRS Publication 527), with the expenses and depreciation that US rules allow. The Spanish tax on it is claimed as a foreign tax credit on Form 1116, and IRS Publication 514 sets the limit: the credit cannot exceed your US tax multiplied by the share of your taxable income that comes from foreign sources, and any excess can be carried back one year and forward ten. Spain taxes the gross rent while the US taxes the net, so the Spanish tax can exceed that limit, and then the excess carries over. Publication 514 sets two tests: a foreign tax qualifies if it is a net income tax, which generally must allow deductions for significant costs and expenses, or if it is imposed in place of a generally imposed income tax, in which case a tax on the gross income of nonresidents is creditable only if the country's source rules are reasonably similar to US rules. Spain's 24% is charged on gross rent with no deductions, and the IRS pages do not say whether it passes, so have a US tax preparer confirm it.
  • Empty apartment or your own use. Here the US has no income to tax. IRS Publication 527 defines rental income as payments you receive for the use of property, and the Supreme Court said in 1934 that the rental value of a building used by its owner is not income within the meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment (Helvering v. Independent Life Insurance Co., a case about an insurance company's own office building). So the Spanish tax on imputed income has no US tax to offset, and it is not charged on income you actually received, which is the basis Publication 514 describes for a creditable net income tax. We found no IRS guidance on the Spanish imputed-income tax specifically, so do not count on a US credit or deduction for it.
  • Reporting. The apartment itself is not reported to the IRS. The IRS comparison of Form 8938 and the FBAR lists foreign real estate held directly as not reportable on either form, and its Form 8938 questions and answers say a personal residence or a rental property does not have to be reported. A Spanish bank account is different: it goes on the FBAR if your foreign accounts together exceed $10,000 at any time in the year, and on Form 8938 above that form's own thresholds. If you hold the apartment through a company, it is your interest in the company, not the apartment, that goes on Form 8938, once your specified foreign financial assets exceed that form's threshold.

Ask a tax adviser in your own country how to declare this income there and whether the Spanish tax can be credited, especially for an empty apartment. Whatever the answer, the Spanish tax stays the same.

What to do before December 31

If you have not yet filed Form 210 for 2025, you need five figures before the end of the year:

1. The cadastral value (the Valor catastral line) from your 2025 IBI bill or from the online Cadastre; the same documents show the apartment's cadastral reference, which the form asks for.
2. The year of the last general revaluation in your municipality: it decides whether you are at 2% or 1.1% for 2025.
3. The number of days the apartment was yours and not rented out.
4. Your share, if there are two owners.
5. The rate, 19% or 24%: it depends on the country where you are tax resident.

File by December 31, 2026, or by December 23 if you pay by direct debit; if you pay by transfer from abroad, the tax counts as paid on the day the money reaches the tax agency's account, and if you file without a certificate or Cl@ve, the return itself also counts as filed on that day (article 14 of Order EHA/3316/2010), so send the transfer early. The section How to file covers the ways to file, including on paper without a certificate or Cl@ve. For owners who declare each rent payment separately, the deadline for July–September payments comes sooner, on October 20. For 2026, the window opens on April 1, 2027, and before then I would check again whether a new rule on the percentage has appeared.

If you also have not filed for 2021–2024, file those returns first and do not wait for the end of the year: for 2024, each full month adds 1% to the surcharge, and for 2021–2023, interest keeps running until the returns are filed. The section What happens if you do not file modelo 210 explains how to file a return for a past year and what it costs.

If you would rather not deal with this every year, you can hand Form 210 over to us: the service is part of our legal and tax advisory service and, if the apartment is rented out, of our rental management service. You can message us on WhatsApp: +34 664 02 87 80.

Video on this topic

How Spain's tax agency cross-checks data on foreigners, and why not knowing the rules does not let you off the hook: The market is shaking! Airbnb purge, taxes for nomads, and the end of squatters | Spain news 2026 (February 2026 episode, in Russian). It does not cover Form 210: the episode is about digital nomads and the rental market.

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