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By destination · Altea · Alicante

Spanish taxes in Altea

Modelo 210, IBI bonifications, ITP and ISD for property owners in Altea — handled by a licensed colegiado who lives the Costa Blanca.

Quick answer

A gift of an Altea property between the closest family is not a loophole but it is cheap: art. 12 bis of Ley 13/1997 bonifies 99 % of the ISD quota on inter vivos acquisitions by a spouse, parent, child, grandchild or grandparent, provided the gift is made in a public deed and, for cash or art. 12 LIP assets, the origin of the funds is justified.

What property owners in Altea need to know

Altea draws a markedly different owner profile from Benidorm a few kilometres south: Dutch, Belgian, German and French residents, often retired or working remotely, in detached homes across Altea Hills, the Sierra de Altea and the old town. Two consequences follow for the tax work. First, purchase costs matter more when the value is higher: ITP is 9 % but 11 % on the whole value when it exceeds €1,000,000 (art. 13.Uno Ley 13/1997), and the reduced rates of art. 13 are not a general habitual-home discount — they reach only defined categories, at 6 %/8 % or 3 %/4 % depending on whether the value clears €180,000. Second, succession and lifetime gifts come up constantly, because the Spanish villa is often the largest single asset in a Dutch, Belgian or German estate. Art. 12 bis bonifies 99 % of the ISD quota for the closest family on both inheritance and gift, which makes the choice between the two a question of planning rather than of rate.

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Regional tax framework

ITP general rate
9%
ITP reduced rate (vivienda habitual)
6%
AJD (stamp duty)
1,4%
ISD bonification grupo I/II
99%
Autonomic law reference
Ley 13/1997 CV

These rates reflect the autonomic (CCAA) framework in force at the time of writing. Municipal IBI rates and bonifications are set separately by each ayuntamiento and we confirm the current figures from the latest ordenanza tax before any filing.

In Altea: municipal taxes and paperwork

Plusvalía settled with
Ayuntamiento de Altea
IBI billed by
SUMA Gestión Tributaria (Diputación de Alicante)

Municipal plusvalía (IIVTNU) when you sell

Altea's housing stock is weighted towards hillside plots and old-town houses, where the land is a large part of what you are buying — and the plusvalía municipal taxes precisely that land, so it lands harder here than on a coastal apartment. The Ayuntamiento de Altea establishes the IIVTNU in its ordenanza fiscal and fixes its own rate and coefficients under the 30 % ceiling of art. 108 TRLRHL. Legally the seller pays (art. 106.1.b TRLRHL), except that a non-resident seller shifts the obligation onto the buyer as substitute taxpayer (art. 106.2). Long holdings are common in Altea, and the length of ownership drives the objective method's coefficient — which is exactly why both statutory methods should be computed before the price is agreed, not after.

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The 3 % retention and modelo 211

Altea's owners are heavily German, Dutch and Belgian, and a German tax resident selling here is treated exactly like any other non-resident: the buyer withholds 3 % of the price and remits it to AEAT on modelo 211 within a month of the deed. The gain itself goes on modelo 210 at the 19 % EU/EEA rate, with acquisition costs, improvements and the transfer taxes you originally paid deductible from the gain — which is why the purchase escritura and the old modelo 600 receipt matter so much. If the 3 % overshoots the real tax, the excess is refundable through the same modelo 210. Germany then relieves the double taxation under the 2011 Spain-Germany treaty, but that is a German-side credit; it does not reduce what Spain retains at completion.

Guide: selling as a non-resident →

IBI: the annual bill and who issues it

Altea's IBI receipt is issued by SUMA Gestión Tributaria, which collects for the ayuntamiento under the delegation permitted by art. 7 TRLRHL — pay SUMA, appeal to SUMA, but read the Ayuntamiento de Altea's ordenanza fiscal for the rate and the bonifications, because those are the town hall's own annual decision. Altea also has properties classified as bienes inmuebles de características especiales, which carry a separate rate from ordinary urban housing; if your receipt looks out of line with a neighbour's, check the classification before you assume an error. And note the accrual rule: whoever is the registered owner on 1 January owes the entire year (art. 75 TRLRHL), so completion timing decides who carries the receipt, and any pro-rata between buyer and seller is a private contractual matter, invisible to SUMA.

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NIE and empadronamiento

For a German or Dutch buyer the cleanest route to a NIE is the Spanish consulate at home before travelling, or a notarised power of attorney that expressly covers the EX-15 so we can obtain the number while you are still abroad; in Spain it is an appointment in Alicante province, the EX-15 and the €9.84 fee. Empadronamiento at the Ayuntamiento de Altea is a different act and it is only for people who actually live in the municipality: Ley 7/1985 obliges habitual residents to register, and the padrón certificate is what unlocks the health centre, school enrolment and residence-based municipal benefits. If you are dividing the year between Altea and northern Europe, treat the padrón as a deliberate decision rather than an administrative formality — it is part of the factual picture that determines which country taxes your worldwide income.

Guide: how to get a NIE →

Municipal rates, coefficients and bonifications are set by each ayuntamiento in its ordenanza fiscal and revised every year, so none are quoted here. We read the ordenanza in force and confirm the exact figures before any filing.

Specific questions about Altea

I have Dutch tax residency but I bought a villa in Altea. Do I pay tax in NL or ES on rental?

In Spain, and then again in the Netherlands with relief. Under the Spain-Netherlands double-tax treaty income from immovable property is taxable in the state where the property is situated, so the Altea rent is Spanish-source and goes on modelo 210. As a Dutch resident you are resident in an EU Member State, so art. 25.1.a TRLIRNR gives you the 19 % rate and art. 24.6 lets you deduct the expenses directly and inseparably linked to that income. Since Orden HAC/623/2026 the return is annual: the first twenty calendar days of April of the year after the income accrued, whether you declare each let separately or grouped. You then report the same income in your Dutch return and the Netherlands relieves the double taxation under the treaty.

My German parents want to gift me their Altea villa while alive. CV donation tax?

A gift of Spanish real estate is subject to Impuesto sobre Donaciones in Spain, and the Comunitat Valenciana rules apply. Art. 12 bis of Ley 13/1997 bonifies 99 % of the quota on inter vivos acquisitions by the spouse, parents or adopters, children or adopted, grandchildren and grandparents of the donor — parent to child is squarely inside it. Two conditions carry real weight: the gift must be made in a public deed, and where the object is cash or assets listed in art. 12 of the Wealth Tax Act the origin of the funds has to be justified. Germany taxes the same gift under its own law and gives relief under its domestic rules; we model the gift against the inheritance alternative, including what each does to your future capital-gains base, before the deed is signed.

I work remotely from Altea for a German company 9 months/year. Am I Spanish tax resident?

The test is in art. 9 of Ley 35/2006 and it is not about your employer. You become resident if you spend more than 183 days of the calendar year in Spain, or if the main core or base of your activities or economic interests is here — and either limb is enough. Nine months in Spain clears the first limb on its own, which makes you resident and taxable on worldwide income under IRPF plus the Comunitat Valenciana scale. There is an alternative worth checking before you assume the worst: the special regime of art. 93 Ley 35/2006, widened by Ley 28/2022 to cover work performed remotely using exclusively computer and telecommunications means, taxes Spanish employment income at 24 % up to €600,000 and 47 % above, for the tax period of the change of residence and the five following ones. We test both routes before anyone moves.

I have owned my Altea house for twenty years. Does that make the plusvalía bigger?

Not automatically. Under the objective method the base is the cadastral land value multiplied by the coefficient for the years held, and the statutory table caps the period at twenty years, so holding longer stops increasing the coefficient. The real-gain method, available since RDL 26/2021, uses the actual difference between purchase and sale prices apportioned to the land — on a long holding that is often the cheaper of the two, and if there is no gain at all no tax is due. The Ayuntamiento de Altea applies its own rate to whichever base you elect.

Recent regulatory changes

For an Altea owner the two moves that matter are both autonomic. Ley 6/2023 de la Generalitat took the ISD bonification for groups I and II to 99 % of the quota, for chargeable events from 28 May 2023, and it reaches gifts as well as inheritances under art. 12 bis — which is why the gift-versus-inheritance conversation is now about timing, basis and control rather than about the Spanish rate. Ley 5/2025 then took the general ITP rate on immovable property from 10 % to 9 % and AJD from 1.5 % to 1.4 % for chargeable events accruing from 1 June 2026, leaving the 11 % rate for homes above €1,000,000 in place — worth knowing in a market where that threshold is reached. The Altea ordenanza fiscal, which fixes IBI and plusvalía, moves on its own annual cycle and is not quoted here.

Official sources

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