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By destination · Orihuela Costa · Alicante

Spanish taxes in Orihuela Costa

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

Quick answer

Orihuela Costa is not a municipality. It is a coastal district of Orihuela, so IBI, plusvalía municipal and every other local tax are settled with the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela under its ordenanza fiscal — not with Torrevieja next door. The autonomic taxes (ITP 9 %, AJD 1.4 %, 99 % ISD bonification for groups I and II) are the Comunitat Valenciana’s, the same as anywhere on this coast.

What property owners in Orihuela Costa need to know

Orihuela Costa — Playa Flamenca, Cabo Roig, Campoamor, Villamartín — is one of the most internationally owned stretches of the Alicante coast. The distinction that trips up new owners is administrative: despite the name, Orihuela Costa is not its own municipality. It is part of Orihuela, whose town hall sits some twenty-five kilometres inland, and it is that ayuntamiento whose ordenanza fiscal fixes the IBI rate and the plusvalía municipal coefficients, and to whom those taxes are paid. Torrevieja, five minutes up the road, has nothing to do with them. What Orihuela Costa shares with the rest of the coast is the autonomic layer — ITP, AJD and ISD under Ley 13/1997 — and the state layer, modelo 210, where the rate turns on tax residence: 19 % with expenses for EU and qualifying EEA residents, 24 % on gross for everyone else, the United Kingdom now included.

Top services for Orihuela Costa

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 Orihuela Costa: municipal taxes and paperwork

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

Municipal plusvalía (IIVTNU) when you sell

Orihuela Costa is a coastal district of the municipality of Orihuela, whose town hall sits some twenty-five kilometres inland — and it is that ayuntamiento, not the beach urbanisation, that levies the plusvalía municipal and sets its rate in the ordenanza fiscal. The IIVTNU falls on the increase in land value, which in the low-density urbanisations of the south costa is a larger share of the price than in an apartment block. The seller is the taxpayer under art. 106.1.b TRLRHL, but for a non-resident seller art. 106.2 shifts the obligation to the buyer as substitute taxpayer. Two calculation methods have coexisted since RDL 26/2021 and the taxpayer takes the lower; a sale below the purchase price triggers no tax at all, which after the 2008-2013 correction is still a live scenario here.

Plusvalía calculator →

The 3 % retention and modelo 211

Orihuela Costa turns over a lot of second-hand villas and townhouses owned by British, Irish, Scandinavian and Belgian sellers, and virtually all of them are non-residents — so the 3 % retention is the norm at completion. The buyer keeps back 3 % of the price and files modelo 211 with AEAT within a month of the deed; the seller settles the actual gain on modelo 210 at 19 % (EU/EEA) or 24 %. Two local traps recur. First, joint owners: each non-resident co-owner files their own modelo 210 for their share, and the 3 % is apportioned the same way. Second, the community and IBI arrears that surface during the pre-completion checks — they do not affect the retention, but they do delay the refund because AEAT expects the seller to be current on the property's own obligations.

Guide: selling as a non-resident →

IBI: the annual bill and who issues it

IBI in Orihuela Costa is billed by SUMA Gestión Tributaria, not by the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela: the municipality delegated assessment and collection to the Diputación de Alicante's tax body under art. 7 TRLRHL, so the receipt, the direct-debit mandate and any appeal all go through SUMA. The rate and the bonifications remain the ayuntamiento's own decision in its ordenanza fiscal and are revised annually, so the current figure has to be read from the live ordenanza. Two things are worth knowing here. Cadastral values in the coastal urbanisations were set in valuation exercises that do not always match what the property is worth today, and correcting a wrong cadastral description is a Catastro procedure, not a SUMA one. And because IBI accrues on 1 January (art. 75 TRLRHL), a purchase completed in June still leaves that year's whole receipt with the seller unless the contract says otherwise.

IBI calculator →

NIE and empadronamiento

You will need a NIE before you can sign anything in Orihuela Costa, and the practical route for a buyer who is still abroad is either the consulate in your own country or a Spanish power of attorney that expressly authorises the EX-15 application, so the number is ready on completion day. In Spain it is the EX-15, the €9.84 fee on form 790 code 012, and an appointment in Alicante province. Empadronamiento is the municipal register kept by the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela and covers residents of the coastal district as well as the inland town. It matters more here than people expect: the padrón is what proves habitual residence for municipal bonifications and services, and — because the register drives the town's funding and its foreign-resident representation — the ayuntamiento actively encourages coastal residents to sign on. It is required only of those who actually live here; holiday owners do not register.

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 Orihuela Costa

Is Orihuela Costa a separate municipality for tax purposes?

No. Orihuela Costa is administratively part of the municipality of Orihuela. Every municipal tax — IBI, plusvalía municipal, licences and tasas — is settled under the ordenanza fiscal of the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela, not Torrevieja’s. Two practical consequences follow. The rate and bonifications you should be looking up are Orihuela’s, and they change every year, so we read the version in force rather than quote one. And who actually issues your IBI receipt is a separate question again: arts. 7 and 77.8 TRLRHL let a town hall delegate the management and collection of the tax, so check the body named on the receipt itself before you go anywhere.

My urbanisation charges a fee — can I deduct it from rental income?

Only if you are tax resident in an EU Member State, or in an EEA state with effective exchange of tax information. Art. 24.6 TRLIRNR reserves the deduction of expenses to those residents, and requires each expense to be directly and inseparably linked to the income earned in Spain — community fees on a let property qualify, apportioned to the days it was actually let. If you are resident anywhere else, the United Kingdom included, art. 24.1 taxes the gross rent and the cuotas are not deductible at all. Since Orden HAC/623/2026 the return is annual, filed in the first twenty calendar days of April of the following year, so the expenses are itemised once for the whole year rather than quarter by quarter.

Brexit + Orihuela Costa: what changed for British owners?

The rate and the deductions changed, and not in the owner’s favour. Art. 25.1.a TRLIRNR gives the 19 % rate to residents of an EU Member State or of an EEA state with effective exchange of tax information; art. 24.6 reserves the deduction of expenses to the same group. Since the United Kingdom left the EU it is in neither category, so a UK-resident landlord on Orihuela Costa is taxed at the general 24 % on the gross rent, with no expenses deductible — no bilateral arrangement on information exchange changes that, because the articles are drafted by membership, not by cooperation. Two things did not change: the 19 % of art. 25.1.f still applies to capital gains on a sale whatever your residence, and the imputed income of an unlet property is computed the same way as before.

Do I deal with the Orihuela town hall or with SUMA for my Orihuela Costa property taxes?

Both, for different taxes. IBI is billed and collected by SUMA Gestión Tributaria under the delegation the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela granted it (art. 7 TRLRHL), so payments, direct debits and IBI appeals go to SUMA. The plusvalía municipal on a sale or an inheritance is settled with the ayuntamiento, which also sets the IBI rate and bonifications each year in its ordenanza fiscal. Check the issuing body printed on your receipt before you pay anything: it tells you which counter your file sits behind.

Recent regulatory changes

The plusvalía municipal that Orihuela charges on a sale here was rewritten nationally, not locally. RDL 26/2021 rebuilt the tax after the Constitutional Court struck down the old objective base: art. 104.5 TRLRHL now leaves a transfer outside the tax altogether where the land produced no increase in value and the owner proves it with the two deeds, and where there is a gain the taxpayer may compute the base by either the objective method or the real increase and pay on the lower. The rate itself is Orihuela’s, capped by art. 108.1 TRLRHL at 30 %, and set in an ordenanza fiscal revised every year — so we read the version in force rather than publish a figure. The declaration deadline is statutory: 30 business days from the deed for a sale, six months extendable to a year for an inheritance (art. 110.2).

Official sources

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