A second home in Spain: what non-residents really have to declare

It is the most underestimated side of a second home on the Costa Blanca: the tax return that comes with it. Many foreign owners assume they are done once the town hall has collected the IBI, but the Spanish tax office also expects a return of its own every year, even if you only use the house yourself and never earn a euro from it. And the deadlines have just shifted. Here is the overview you need, with the amounts, the dates and the trap most owners fall into.

The basics: IBI plus a return that is easy to forget

Two levies sit side by side. Everyone knows the first: the IBI, the municipal property tax, collected by your town hall each year and usually paid by direct debit. That is not the end of it. As a non-resident owner you also fall under non-resident income tax, the IRNR, which works with a notional income: the tax office treats your property as a form of benefit, even when it earns you nothing. This is called imputación de rentas and goes through form Modelo 210.

The sum is straightforward. The base is 2 percent of your property’s cadastral value, or 1.1 percent if that value has been revised in the current year or the ten years before it. On that amount, residents of an EU or EEA country pay 19 percent. Live outside the EU, in the United Kingdom for instance, and it is 24 percent, which makes a noticeable difference. For an average second home the bill often stays in the low hundreds of euros a year, but it does have to be filed every single year.

Renting out? Then different rules and different dates apply

If you let the property, the rental income is taxed separately, again through Modelo 210. There is a significant advantage here for residents of the EU or EEA: you may deduct the costs linked to the rental period, from community fees and insurance to maintenance and depreciation. Owners outside the EU cannot, and pay 24 percent on gross income. For the periods when you use the house yourself or it stands empty, the notional regime from the previous section applies again, pro rata by number of days.

One for the diary: since tax year 2024 rental income is no longer declared quarterly but once a year, grouped together. Under the new rules that return falls in the first twenty calendar days of April of the following year. Rent out this year and you declare it in April 2027.

What changes about the deadlines from 2026

This deserves attention, because the deadlines shifted under a ministerial order issued last June. For tax year 2025 nothing changes: the return for personal use runs through the whole of 2026 and must be filed by 31 December 2026. If you have not done it yet, you have just under four months left.

From tax year 2026 a different window applies: from 1 April to 31 December of the following year. So for this year you cannot file until 1 April 2027, and not a day earlier. Your adviser will know this, but it explains why you may find yourself unable to file in early spring when you were used to doing exactly that.

Wealth tax: where most owners never get close

Now the return that causes the most confusion online. Yes, Spain has a wealth tax, the impuesto sobre el patrimonio filed through Modelo 714, and yes, it applies to non-residents too. But only on your Spanish assets, and only above an exempt threshold. Nationally that sits at 700,000 euros; the Valencia region applies a higher exempt minimum of 1 million euros in its own regime. With an ordinary apartment or villa you are comfortably below that and it simply does not concern you. Which regime applies in your case is worth checking, as it depends on where you live and where your assets are.

One stubborn misconception can be cleared up right here: the notorious Modelo 720, which requires declaring foreign assets above 50,000 euros, applies to people who are tax residents of Spain. If you are a non-resident, that form is not yours to file. The reverse holds too: move here permanently one day and your whole tax position changes, and that form does come into play.

What it costs to let it slide, and watch out when selling

Doing nothing is not a neutral option. The Spanish tax office links the cadastre, the property register and tax returns, and a missing Modelo 210 brings an assessment with interest and a penalty. Come forward voluntarily before they write to you and the sanction is usually considerably lower than when they take the initiative. Arrears are always cheaper to fix yourself than to sit out.

The sting is often in the sale. Sell as a non-resident and the buyer is obliged to withhold 3 percent of the purchase price and pay it straight to the tax office through Modelo 211. That is not an extra tax but an advance on your capital gains bill; if it turns out you owed less, you get the difference back. You then have four months to file your own return, and the town hall expects the plusvalía municipal within thirty days. Outstanding years almost always surface during a sale, and then they have to be settled with the clock ticking.

Please note: this is general information, not tax advice. Cadastral values, regional rules and your personal situation determine what applies to you. Have your return prepared or checked by a gestor or asesor fiscal who works with non-residents.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.