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By destination · Torrevieja · Alicante

Spanish taxes in Torrevieja

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

Quick answer

A Torrevieja home that you do not let still owes tax every year: imputed income of 2 % of the cadastral value, or 1.1 % where the municipality’s cadastral values were revised in a general valuation that took effect in the tax period or the ten before it (art. 85.1 Ley 35/2006). It is declared on modelo 210 between 1 April and 31 December of the following year.

What property owners in Torrevieja need to know

Torrevieja is the densest British and Northern European enclave on the Costa Blanca, and the municipio where we file most of our modelo 210 returns. Two things drive the workload. The first is imputed income: a home that is not let still produces a taxable imputed rent every year — 2 % of the cadastral value, or 1.1 % where the municipality’s cadastral values were revised in a general collective valuation that took effect in the tax period or the ten preceding ones (art. 85.1 Ley 35/2006, applied to non-residents through art. 24.5 TRLIRNR). That condition is decided municipality-wide, not street by street, so it either applies to your flat or it applies to none of them. The second is the post-Brexit rate. Arts. 24.6 and 25.1.a TRLIRNR reserve the 19 % rate and the deduction of expenses for residents of an EU Member State, or of an EEA state with effective exchange of tax information. The United Kingdom is neither, so a UK-resident landlord here is taxed at 24 % on gross rent with nothing deductible — the single most expensive misunderstanding we correct for owners arriving from a previous adviser.

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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 Torrevieja: municipal taxes and paperwork

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

Municipal plusvalía (IIVTNU) when you sell

Torrevieja is a resale market: most of what changes hands here was bought once already, so the plusvalía municipal comes up in nearly every transaction. The IIVTNU taxes the increase in the value of the land only — not the building — and it is settled with the Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja, which fixes the rate and the coefficients in its own ordenanza fiscal within the 30 % ceiling of art. 108 TRLRHL. The seller is the taxpayer, but where the seller is a non-resident individual art. 106.2 TRLRHL turns the buyer into the substitute taxpayer, so in practice the sum is held back at the notary and paid over on the buyer's side. The declaration window for a sale is 30 business days from the deed (art. 110.2); for an inheritance it is six months, extendable to a year.

Plusvalía calculator →

The 3 % retention and modelo 211

Most Torrevieja sellers are non-residents, so the 3 % retention applies to most sales here. The buyer withholds 3 % of the price at completion and pays it to AEAT on modelo 211 within a month of the deed; the seller receives 97 % and a stamped copy of the form. That 3 % is an advance on the seller's IRNR, not the tax itself: the real capital gain goes on modelo 210 within roughly three to four months, at 19 % for EU/EEA residents and 24 % for everyone else. British owners who bought in the boom years and are selling now frequently find the 3 % exceeds the tax actually due and the difference is refundable — but only through a filed modelo 210, and only if the earlier deemed-income returns are in order.

Guide: selling as a non-resident →

IBI: the annual bill and who issues it

Torrevieja's IBI receipt does not come from the town hall: the ayuntamiento has delegated assessment and collection to SUMA Gestión Tributaria, the Diputación de Alicante's tax body, as art. 7 TRLRHL allows. You pay SUMA, you appeal to SUMA, and it is SUMA's office in Torrevieja that holds your file. The rate and any bonifications — direct debit, large families, solar panels — are still the ayuntamiento's decision, set each year in the ordenanza fiscal, so the current figure must be read off the live ordenanza rather than assumed. Since IBI accrues on 1 January (art. 75 TRLRHL), whoever owns the flat on that date owes the full year regardless of a sale in March. For an owner living in the UK, Norway or the Netherlands the only safe arrangement is a Spanish direct debit: unpaid receipts accumulate surcharges and, under art. 64.1 TRLRHL, follow the property to the next buyer.

IBI calculator →

NIE and empadronamiento

Nobody buys in Torrevieja without a NIE: the notary will not authorise the escritura without one, and neither the modelo 600 nor the later modelo 210 can be filed. The application is the EX-15 with the €9.84 fee (790/012), by prior appointment at the Oficina de Extranjería or an authorised National Police station in Alicante province, or at your consulate before you travel. Empadronamiento is separate. Torrevieja has one of the largest foreign-born populations of any Spanish town, and the padrón is what turns that into services: registering at the Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja is what gives access to the local health centre, a school place and the municipal bonifications that require proof of habitual residence. Registering also changes nothing about your tax residence on its own — but combined with days spent in Spain it is evidence the AEAT can and does read.

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 Torrevieja

What is the IBI rate in Torrevieja for a non-resident with a holiday flat?

IBI falls on whoever owns the property on 1 January, resident or not, and is charged on the cadastral value (art. 75 TRLRHL). The rate is not something we — or any website — can honestly quote: each ayuntamiento fixes it in its ordenanza fiscal within the band of art. 72.1 TRLRHL (0.4 % to 1.10 % on urban property, before the art. 72.3 increments) and revises it every year. So ask for the ordenanza in force before you sign. And read the issuing body off the receipt itself: arts. 7 and 77.8 TRLRHL let a town hall delegate the management and collection of IBI to another entity, and whether a given municipio has done so varies — we will not send you to the wrong counter on a guess.

Do I need to file modelo 210 every year if my Torrevieja flat is empty most of the year?

Yes. A property at your own disposal produces an imputed income every year whether you use it or not: 2 % of the cadastral value, or 1.1 % where the municipality had a general collective revaluation take effect in the tax period or the ten preceding ones (art. 85.1 Ley 35/2006 via art. 24.5 TRLIRNR). It goes on modelo 210 and, under art. 5.b of Orden EHA/3316/2010, the filing window runs from 1 April to 31 December of the year after the income accrued. Skipping it is the single most common omission we find when a Torrevieja owner changes adviser.

I rent my Torrevieja flat for the summer only. How is the rental income taxed?

Since Orden HAC/623/2026 the rental modelo 210 is annual, not quarterly: returns with tax to pay are filed in the first twenty calendar days of April of the year after the income accrued, whether each let is declared separately or grouped. The months the property sat empty are still declared as imputed income on the separate annual 210. The rate follows your tax residence, not your passport: residents of an EU Member State, or of an EEA state with effective exchange of tax information, pay 19 % on the net rent and may deduct the expenses art. 24.6 TRLIRNR allows. Everyone else — the United Kingdom included since Brexit — pays 24 % on the gross rent with nothing deductible (art. 25.1.a TRLIRNR).

Who actually pays the plusvalía when I sell my Torrevieja property as a non-resident?

Economically the seller, legally the buyer. Art. 106.1.b TRLRHL makes the seller the taxpayer, but art. 106.2 makes the buyer the substitute taxpayer whenever the seller is a non-resident individual, so the Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja will pursue the buyer if it goes unpaid. In practice the buyer retains the estimated amount at the notary and files it, and the sale contract records the arrangement. Get the figure calculated before completion — the retention should reflect the lower of the two statutory methods, not a round number.

Recent regulatory changes

The changes that actually reach a Torrevieja owner this year are state and autonomic, not municipal. Orden HAC/623/2026 replaced the quarterly rental modelo 210 with a single annual return, filed in the first twenty calendar days of April of the following year. Ley 5/2025 de la Generalitat takes the general ITP rate on immovable property to 9 % and AJD to 1.4 % for chargeable events accruing from 1 June 2026, and the ISD bonification for groups I and II has stood at 99 % of the quota since Ley 6/2023. Torrevieja’s own IBI rate, its bonifications and its payment calendar are in none of those laws: they sit in the town’s ordenanza fiscal, published in the BOP de Alicante and revised annually, and we read the version in force before quoting anyone a figure.

Official sources

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