Non-resident property tax in Spain: the modelo 210

The flat is empty for most of the year. You rent it to nobody, you earn nothing from it, and Spain still expects an annual return. That is not an administrative error and it is not a penalty. It is how Spain taxes non-resident owners.

People who miss it for a few years usually discover it at the point of sale, when the buyer or the notary asks for proof that the returns were filed.

Spain taxes you even when the property is empty

The charge is on renta imputada, imputed income. The reasoning is that a second home you are free to use yields an economic benefit whether or not a euro of rent ever arrives.

The calculation is mechanical. Take the cadastral value of the property, which is neither the purchase price nor the market value. Of that, 1.1 per cent counts where the municipality has had a general cadastral revision from 2012 onwards, and 2 per cent in every other case. That figure is then taxed.

The liability arises on 31 December. The return may be filed at any point during the following calendar year, which means the 2026 return is not due until the end of 2027. That generous window is precisely why owners forget.

The line that decides your bill is EU or not

Here is the part that matters more than any other, and that most guides written before 2021 still get wrong.

Spain applies 19 per cent to owners resident in another EU member state, or in Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein. Everyone else pays 24 per cent. And under article 24.6 of the Spanish non-resident income tax act, the right to deduct expenses against rental income exists only for those same EU and EEA residents. Owners outside that circle are taxed on gross rent with nothing deductible.

So two owners of identical flats can face very different bills. An owner resident in Ireland is inside the EU: 19 per cent, expenses deductible. An owner resident in the United Kingdom has been outside it since Brexit: 24 per cent, on the gross.

Take a flat let for €12,000 a year with €4,000 of allowable costs. The Irish resident is taxed on €8,000 at 19 per cent, so €1,520. The British resident is taxed on €12,000 at 24 per cent, so €2,880. Same flat, same tenant, and a difference of €1,360 that has nothing to do with the property.

On the imputed income for an unlet property the same split applies: 19 per cent inside the EU and EEA, 24 per cent outside.

Rental income and when to file

Rental income arising from 1 January 2024 onwards may be grouped into a single annual return, filed in the first twenty calendar days of January of the following year. Before that it was quarterly. Imputed income keeps its own timetable, filed across the whole of the year following.

If the property is let for part of the year and stands empty for the rest, both apply: actual rent for the days it was let, imputed income for the days it was not.

What happens at home, and why it is not what continental owners get

This is where owners in the UK and Ireland sit in a genuinely different position from owners elsewhere in Europe, and it is worth being precise about it.

Both the 2013 UK–Spain treaty and the 1994 Ireland–Spain treaty give Spain the right to tax income from property situated there, in article 6(1) of each. What differs is the method the home country then uses. Article 22(2) of the UK treaty and article 23(2)(a) of the Irish treaty both give a credit for Spanish tax paid, not an exemption.

The practical consequence is a top-up. Your home country taxes the Spanish rental profit under its own rules, then allows the Spanish tax as a credit against that liability. If the home tax is higher you pay the difference at home. If the Spanish tax is higher you do not get the excess back: the credit can never exceed the home tax on the same income.

Owners resident in most of continental Europe are treated the other way round, with an exemption rather than a credit, so their Spanish bill is the final bill on the property. Yours is not.

The imputed income trap

There is a sharper edge to the credit mechanism that catches almost every owner of an unlet holiday home.

Neither the UK nor Ireland taxes Spain's imputed income, because neither has any corresponding income to tax. The UK charge is on the profits of a property business computed from actual receipts, and an unlet property produces none. Ireland taxes the foreign rent you expect to receive, which is likewise nothing.

But if there is no home-country income, there is no home-country tax to credit against. The Spanish tax on imputed income is therefore a cost you carry with no relief anywhere. Irish Revenue states it plainly, saying of the tax some countries charge on deemed rental income that you cannot offset it against the amount of Irish tax you owe. The same result follows in the UK from the rule that foreign tax credit relief can never exceed the UK liability on that income.

Worth knowing before you decide whether to let the property at all.

Two changes that have caught British owners out

The furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax. A Spanish holiday let could previously qualify as an EEA furnished holiday letting, with the reliefs that came with it. That route is closed and the income now sits in an ordinary overseas property business.

Second, profits and losses of an overseas property business are kept separate from a UK property business. A loss on the Spanish flat cannot be set against profit on a UK rental. The same ring-fence applies in Ireland, where a foreign rental loss cannot be offset against Irish rental profits.

Irish owners who are resident but not domiciled are on the remittance basis, and are taxed only on foreign rental income brought into Ireland. Reporting is on Form 11, or Form 12 for PAYE taxpayers. In the UK the foreign pages of the self-assessment return carry it, with a £1,000 property allowance below which the pages need not be completed.

What you need in order to file

• Your NIE number, because the return is filed under it
• The cadastral value and the cadastral reference, both on the IBI bill from the town hall
• Your share of the ownership, if the property is held jointly
• For a let property: the rent received and the costs, period by period

If you are still buying rather than owning, these obligations begin at the deed. What the purchase itself involves is in buying property in Spain and the NIE, and if you cannot attend in person, in granting a Spanish power of attorney.

Frequently asked questions

I never let the property. Do I really have to file?
Yes. The imputed income charge exists precisely for properties that are not let. Standing empty is not an exemption.

What happens if I have filed nothing for years?
Spain can assess the years that are not yet time-barred, with interest and a surcharge. More often it surfaces on a sale, when proof of filing is requested.

Is this the same as the IBI?
No. The IBI is the local property tax charged by the town hall. The modelo 210 is the national non-resident income tax. You pay both, and the cadastral value on the IBI bill is the input for the modelo 210 calculation.

Does Brexit really change the rate?
Yes. The 19 per cent rate and the right to deduct expenses both turn on residence in the EU or EEA, not on nationality. A British national resident in an EU country is inside the circle; a British national resident in the UK is not.

Does filing this make me a Spanish tax resident?
No. You file precisely as a non-resident. Tax residence turns on spending more than 183 days of the calendar year in Spain and on where your main interests sit. Actually moving changes the whole regime, which is covered in residency in Spain for EU citizens.

Why Buenaley?

Buenaley is a Spanish law firm working with English-speaking owners across Europe. We look at both sides of the border, because the Spanish return and the one you file at home have to agree with each other.

• Annual modelo 210 for every co-owner of the same property, handled as one file
• The correct rate applied, and deductions claimed wherever the EU and EEA rule allows them
• Missed years put right before they surface on a sale
• Fixed price, agreed in advance

Own a property in Spain and unsure whether the returns have been filed? Send the cadastral details and you will hear what is outstanding and what it costs to put right. Or start at the NIE page.