Spanish tax for non-resident property owners
Buying, owning, renting out, selling. Four moments, and every one of them has a form attached.
A home in Spain and an address abroad means a Spanish tax return every year — even in the years the property sits empty and earns you nothing. Most people find that out late, and the surcharge for finding out late grows with time.
I am Yayi Martín, a chartered economist in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. For more than 25 years I have been filing these returns for people who do not live here: owners in the Canary Islands and on the mainland, who bought, inherited or kept a property in Spain and would rather not spend their evenings reading the Spanish tax code.
In English, if you prefer. You’ll have my answer today. During business hours.
01
Buying
Two things are worth knowing before you sign: what the purchase itself costs in tax, and what starts the day the deed is signed.
The purchase tax depends on where the property is and whether it is new or a resale. In the Canary Islands a new build carries IGIC and a resale carries transfer tax; on the mainland the equivalents are VAT and ITP. The rates are set region by region, so the same price is not the same tax bill in Tenerife as in Málaga.
What starts on the day of the deed is the annual obligation. From the moment the property is yours, there is a Spanish return to file for it every year, whether or not you ever let anyone stay in it.
You need a NIE before you can buy. It is also the number every later return hangs on, so it is worth getting it right the first time.
02
Owning it, even when it is empty
This is the one that catches people. Spanish law does not only tax what you receive: it also taxes having a home at your disposal. If you are a non-resident and your property was not rented out, the tax office treats you as having income from it — imputed income — and you declare it on Form 210.
It applies to a flat, a house, a garage, a storage room or commercial premises. Each co-owner declares their own share, so a couple who own half each file two returns, not one. And it applies just the same to a property you inherited, or to the family home you kept when you moved abroad.
The return for one year is filed during the next, and the deadline is 31 December. Filing late adds a surcharge that grows with time; if the tax office asks first, a penalty is added on top.
03
Renting it out
Rental income from a Spanish property is taxed in Spain, wherever you live and wherever the tenant pays you. Since the 2024 tax year it is declared once a year rather than quarterly, between 1 and 20 January.
In the Canary Islands there is a second layer. Since 1 January 2024 non-resident owners letting holiday accommodation are no longer exempt from IGIC: there are quarterly returns on top of the annual one, and you have to register before you take the first booking. The registration is compulsory even in the periods when no tax ends up being due.
On the mainland and in the Balearics the VAT treatment of short lets has been moving all through 2026, and it is not the same rule as in the Canary Islands. If your property is there, ask me where it stands the week you need to know.
A year with some months let and some months empty is not one return or the other. The months with a tenant are taxed on the rent, and the days the property stood empty are taxed as imputed income.
04
Selling
When a non-resident sells, the buyer does not hand over the full price. Three per cent is withheld and paid straight to the Spanish tax office, on account of the tax on your gain.
What happens next is on you: a return has to be filed that works out the actual gain, and if the 3% that was withheld came to more than the tax due, the difference has to be claimed back. It is not refunded automatically and nobody writes to remind you. There is also the municipal plusvalía on the increase in the land value, which is paid to the town hall and is a separate matter from the first two.
If nobody files, the 3% simply stays where it is. That is the most common way a non-resident loses money on a sale in Spain.
Why people write to me and stay
Because I answer. Write in English and you will have my reply the same day, in business hours — not a ticket number and not a call you have to be awake in Spain to take. Everything in writing, so nothing is lost in translation and you keep a record of what was agreed.
Because I look at your case, not at a template. Two flats on the same street can owe different amounts depending on who owns them, where they live and what they do with them.
And because I am a chartered economist who has been doing this since 1997, from an office in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the Canary Islands and the mainland side by side on the same desk every week.
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Tell me about your property
Where it is, whether you let it, and when you bought it. With those three things I can usually tell you what you owe and what is missing before we ever talk about fees.