Spain Non-Resident Rental Income Tax and Licence 2026

Do I pay tax in Spain if I rent out my Spanish property?

A non-resident who rents out a home in Spain pays Non-Resident Income Tax (IRNR) on the rental income and, for the days the property was not let, a deemed income calculated on the cadastral value. Both are declared on the same modelo 210, but with different codes and different deadlines. Declaring only one of the two is the single most repeated mistake among foreign owners.

On top of that state charge come the local property taxes — council tax (IBI) and the waste collection charge — and, when you let to tourists, a second block of obligations: a regional licence, a registration number in your advertising, guest reporting to the Ministry of the Interior and, in certain cases, VAT at 10%. The real tax bill on a Costa Blanca rental almost never stops at the IRNR percentage.

The IRNR regime is identical whether you let long term or by the night: the base and the rate depend on your tax residence, not on the type of letting. What does change radically with the type of letting is VAT, the licence and the risk of a penalty. The licensing and penalty rules that follow are those of the Valencia region (Comunitat Valenciana) and cannot be transferred to Madrid, Andalusia or Catalonia.

Long lets, seasonal lets and holiday rentals: what changes under each regime

In the Valencia region a tourist-use dwelling (vivienda de uso turístico) is the whole property, transferred for a price for tourist purposes for a period of ten continuous days or less to the same tenant. From eleven days onwards it is no longer a tourist-use dwelling but a seasonal let, with different rules and a different penalty risk. That threshold is the first thing to settle before you publish an advert.

A long let under the Urban Leases Act (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos) needs no tourist licence, is exempt from VAT and carries no guest-reporting duty, because it is not accommodation in the hospitality sense. It is still taxed under IRNR and still requires a modelo 210, but it operates within a far lighter administrative framework. It is the option most owners who do not live in Spain choose.

A holiday let inverts that equation: higher potential income per night, but a town planning compatibility report, a declaración responsable, a registration number in every advert, a guest report on each check-in, possible VAT and a very severe regional penalty scale. Each of those obligations has its own enforcement regime. Ley 15/2018 also expressly bans letting individual rooms for tourist purposes in the Valencia region.

Non-resident tax rates: 19% for the EU and EEA against 24% on gross rental income

The IRNR rate on rental income is 19% for taxpayers resident in another Member State of the European Union or in the European Economic Area with which there is an effective exchange of information — in practice Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein — and 24% as a general rule for everyone else. The real difference, however, lies less in the rate than in the base it is applied to.

Article 24.1 of the TRLIRNR provides that the taxable base is the gross amount, with no expenses deducted and no reductions applied. Only article 24.6 opens an exception for individuals resident in the EU and the EEA, who may deduct the expenses set out in the personal income tax act provided they can evidence a direct and inseparable economic link with the income obtained in Spain.

For British owners this is decisive: since the end of the Brexit transition period they are taxed at 24% on gross income, with no deduction for IBI, community fees, insurance, interest or depreciation, and the 2013 double taxation treaty does not correct that difference — it only prevents paying twice, by way of a tax credit in the United Kingdom. Residents of the United States and of Russia start from the same position. Nor is the personal income tax reduction for residential letting ever available.

Which expenses are deductible, and how to apportion them if you only let part of the year

Expenses can only be deducted by an owner resident in the EU or the EEA, and the catalogue depends on who that owner is: an individual applies the expenses for income from immovable property under Ley 35/2006, while a corporate owner applies the expenses deductible under Spanish corporate income tax rules. They cover IBI and the waste collection charge, the community of owners fee, home insurance, utilities paid by the landlord, platform commissions, management fees, upkeep and repairs, and interest on the purchase loan.

Interest and repair and upkeep costs have a limit of their own: they cannot exceed the gross income from the property, and the excess is deducted over the following four years. To those you add depreciation, at 3% a year on the higher of two figures — the acquisition cost actually paid or the cadastral value — always excluding the value of the land. Without the land/building split on the IBI bill you cannot calculate it properly.

Where the property is only let for part of the year, expenses are deducted in proportion to the days actually let: an annual insurance premium of €300 on a home let for 120 days is not deducted at €300 but at the corresponding fraction. To apply the 19% and deduct expenses, the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT) also requires proof of tax residence in your home country by certificate, valid for one year; without it, it can reassess you at 24% on the gross amount.

The days you do not let are taxed too: Spain's deemed income of 1.1% or 2%

For the days the home is not let, the non-resident declares a deemed income equal to 2% of the property's cadastral value, apportioned over those days. The percentage drops to 1.1% where the cadastral value has been revised through a general collective valuation taking effect in the tax period itself or in the ten preceding years; it is worth checking this on the IBI bill or at the Cadastre's e-office, because in many Costa Blanca municipalities the last valuation exercise predates that window and the 2% applies. It is declared on modelo 210 under income type code 02.

If the property has no notified cadastral value, the imputation is calculated at 1.1% on 50% of the higher of the value verified by the authorities and the purchase price. The deemed income accrues on 31 December each year, unlike rental income, which accrues when it becomes payable or on the date of collection if that is earlier.

The practical consequence is that someone who lets their home for four months a year files two returns for the same property and the same year: one for the income from those four months and another for the imputation covering the remaining eight. Filing only the first is an easy breach for the Agencia Tributaria to spot, since it knows at all times who owns the property at the cadastre.

When is modelo 210 due for rental income, and how often do you file it?

For income accrued in 2026 with tax to pay, modelo 210 is filed during the first twenty calendar days of April of the following year, that is from 1 to 20 April 2027, with direct debit of the payment from 1 to 15 April; if the return comes out at nil the deadline is still 1 to 20 January 2027, and if it comes out as a refund it can be filed from 1 February 2027. This was set by Orden HAC/623/2026 of 12 June, which amended Orden EHA/3316/2010 and shifted the calendar that almost every website still repeats.

For income accrued in 2025 the grouped annual return was due between 1 and 20 January 2026. Annual grouping has existed for income accrued from 2024, under Orden HFP/1338/2023, and for income accrued in 2026 it is still an option: the first three quarters are declared within the first twenty days of April, July and October 2026, but the fourth quarter of 2026 is already filed from 1 to 20 April 2027, and from income accrued in 2027 the April deadline applies to separate and grouped returns alike. Income not subject to withholding is grouped even where it comes from different payers, using code 35 instead of 01.

The deemed income follows its own calendar. Income accrued in 2025 is declared throughout 2026, until 31 December. Income accrued in 2026 is declared from 1 April to 31 December 2027, with direct debit until 23 December. It is worth keeping the two calendars apart in your tax diary, because they run alongside each other all year.

If the tenant is a company, a professional or a business, they are obliged to withhold 19% or 24% on the gross amount, without applying the article 24.6 expenses; a private tenant never withholds. An EU owner recovers the excess by claiming a refund on modelo 210, from 1 February of the following year and within a four-year window.

VAT: when a holiday rental stops being exempt and moves to 10%

Letting residential property is exempt from VAT under article 20.Uno.23.º b) of Ley 37/1992, and the exemption extends to garages, annexes and furniture let together with the home. That exemption holds even where you let by the night: simply handing over the property generates no VAT, however short the stay. In return, an exempt landlord cannot deduct the VAT borne on refurbishment, furniture or utilities.

The exemption falls away when the landlord undertakes to provide any of the ancillary services typical of the hotel industry. The act itself mentions restaurant service, cleaning, laundry and others of a similar nature. In that case the letting becomes taxable and not exempt, and it is taxed at 10% by application of the reduced rate for hospitality services.

The practical dividing line has been drawn by the Directorate-General for Taxation (Dirección General de Tributos). Typical of the hotel industry are cleaning and linen changes during the stay, permanent reception and customer service, catering and laundry. Not typical are cleaning and linen changes on arrival and departure, cleaning of common areas, technical maintenance and handing over keys.

For VAT purposes, article 69.Tres of Ley 37/1992 treats any property exploited by way of letting as a permanent establishment, whether or not hotel-type services are provided; what does depend on those services is whether the letting becomes taxable rather than exempt and, with it, the compliance burden: the non-resident owner must then register with modelo 036, charge the tax and file the quarterly 303 and the annual 390, with no scope for the reverse charge. Nor is there a minimum exempt threshold for invoicing little, because the small business franchise scheme in Directive (EU) 2020/285 has not been transposed in Spain.

When holiday letting becomes an economic activity

Providing services typical of the hotel industry does not automatically mean you have a permanent establishment for IRNR purposes. Where there is no organisation of resources — no staff on the payroll, no dedicated premises, no in-house management — the non-resident continues to be taxed without a permanent establishment, even though VAT at 10% does apply. In that case article 24.2 of the TRLIRNR allows staff costs, materials supplies and utilities to be deducted.

Where there is an organisation of resources — your own staff, premises from which the business is run, a stable structure — the activity is treated as carried on through a permanent establishment. The regime changes completely: you are taxed at the corporate income tax rate — the 25% general rate, together with the reduced rates for micro-enterprises and small entities in force since 2025 — and the return is no longer modelo 210 but modelo 200, with its own accounting and registration duties.

A frequent case on the Costa Blanca is the owner who hands the home to a management company that sublets it as a holiday rental. That letting to the manager is not VAT-exempt, because the act excludes letting for the purpose of subletting from the exemption, and it is taxed at the standard 21% rate, not at 10%; the tenant company is also obliged to withhold 19% or 24% on the gross amount. An EU owner then recovers the excess with a modelo 210 refund claim.

The tourist licence in the Valencia region: what the rules require in 2026

To let to tourists in the Valencia region you must file a declaración responsable with Turisme Comunitat Valenciana and enter the property in the Registry of Tourism, which assigns a number in the format VT-000000-X. The self-registration procedure is online, requires a digital signature and is free of charge on the Generalitat's e-office; the real cost is the municipal fee and the technical certificates.

The requirement that blocks most registrations is the municipal town planning compatibility report. Since Decreto-ley 9/2024 it has been an essential prior condition for the declaración responsable, and the Directorate-General for Tourism is deregistering listed properties that cannot evidence it. You apply for it at the town hall — Torrevieja and Orihuela each have their own procedure — and you must pay the relevant municipal fee, the amount of which is set by each local tax ordinance.

The property also needs a single, individualised cadastral reference, an energy performance certificate, the minimum equipment set out in annex III of Decreto 10/2021 — in force in 2026 with the amendments made by Decreto-ley 9/2024 — a distinctive plaque, complaint forms and a declared operating period. Registration is valid for five years, renewable by a new declaración responsable, and requires the exact location and the registration number to appear in all forms of advertising.

The community of owners agreement and municipal caps

Since 3 April 2025, article 17.12 of the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal) has required the express agreement of three fifths of the owners and of the ownership shares in order to approve, limit, condition or prohibit holiday letting in a building under horizontal property ownership. The provision governs the majority and does not literally say that the activity cannot be started without that agreement, but the prevailing administrative reading is that prior authorisation is needed, and the Generalitat itself requires the agreement to be evidenced when you register. In practice, silence in the statutes is no longer enough.

The rule is not retroactive and tourist-use dwellings that were already operating before that date carry on. But for any new registration in an urbanisation in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa or Guardamar, obtaining that agreement has become the real bottleneck of the project, especially where a large share of the owners are non-resident foreigners.

On top of that comes the municipal power introduced in article 64 bis of Ley 15/2018: town halls can limit the number of tourist-use dwellings per building, sector or area through town planning, on overriding grounds of general interest. It is the legal basis for the neighbourhood caps already applied in some Valencian cities and for future limits on the Costa Blanca.

Which registration number must you display on Airbnb or Booking today?

For a property on the Costa Blanca, the number that must appear in adverts today is the VT-000000-X from the Registry of Tourism of the Valencia region, together with the exact location of the property. Regional law requires it, and it is also the identifier that platforms check and display under the European rules applicable since May 2026.

The national Single Rental Registry created by Real Decreto 1312/2024, which took effect from 1 July 2025 and led thousands of owners to apply for a national number, was annulled by judgment 620/2026 of the Supreme Court, of May 2026, because the State had no competence to create it. What survives is the Digital Single Window for lettings and the platforms' information duties, which now draw on the regional registers.

The mirror-image mistake is more dangerous than the original one: the annulment of the national register does not mean you no longer have to register. Regional and municipal rules are untouched, and Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, applicable since 20 May 2026, requires platforms to check and display the registration number wherever one exists. Without a regional number, the advert is illegal and can be penalised.

Modelo 179, DAC7 and reporting guests to the Ministry of the Interior

Modelo 179, the old information return on the transfer of homes for tourist purposes, is no longer in force: the Agencia Tributaria itself warns that for 2024 onwards that form is not filed. It has been replaced by modelo 238, filed by the platforms in compliance with the DAC7 Directive, brought in by Real Decreto 117/2024 and Orden HAC/72/2024, normally during January of the following year.

The change does not reduce the information reaching the tax authorities — quite the opposite. In the DAC7 exchange there is no threshold for property lettings: all of them are reported, with no minimum number of transactions or amount. The Agencia Tributaria receives from the platforms a breakdown of what each owner has been paid, which makes not declaring rental income unworkable in practice.

In parallel, Real Decreto 933/2021 requires accommodation providers, tourist-use dwellings included, to collect the details of every traveller and report them through SES.HOSPEDAJES immediately and, in any event, within 24 hours of the booking or the signing of the contract — or its cancellation — and of the start of the stay, with the traveller details required by annex I: full name, sex, identity document and its support number, nationality, date of birth, habitual residence, telephone numbers, email address and the relationship where minors are involved, plus the details of the contract, the stay and the means of payment. Failure to comply is penalised under public safety law: omitting the compulsory reports or lacking the documentary record is a serious infringement carrying a fine of €601 to €30,000, and reporting late or with defects is a minor infringement of €100 to €600. Long lets fall outside this, because they are not accommodation of that kind.

IBI, waste charge and community fees on a let property

IBI is set by each town hall within the legal band of the tax: for urban property the minimum and default rate is 0.4% and the maximum 1.10% of the cadastral value, and each local tax ordinance fixes its own. It is worth checking the bill and the municipality's ordinance in force rather than taking general percentages at face value, because the difference between Costa Blanca municipalities is appreciable.

The waste collection charge has stopped being optional: Ley 7/2022 requires every town hall to introduce a specific, separately identified charge that is not run at a loss, with a deadline from April 2025. That explains the increases recorded in 2025 and 2026 in municipalities such as Torrevieja and Orihuela. The actual amounts vary by ordinance and by type of property, so they have to be checked case by case.

IBI, the waste charge, community fees, insurance and utilities are deductible expenses for an owner resident in the EU or the EEA, always apportioned by days let; for a non-EU owner they are pure cost that does not reduce the IRNR base. There is no regional tourist tax in the Valencia region: the act that created it was repealed before it ever applied. An IBI surcharge for unoccupied housing can apply, which requires four or more residential properties and prolonged vacancy without justified cause.

Fines for letting without a licence and what to check in Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa

Ley 15/2018 of the Valencia region grades fines in three tiers: up to €10,000 or a warning for minor infringements; €10,001 to €100,000 and closure for up to six months for serious ones; and €100,001 to €600,000, with cessation of the activity, for very serious ones. The figures of €90,000 circulating online reflect old wording.

The classification matters more than the amount. Carrying on, marketing, offering or simply advertising a tourist activity without a declaración responsable or without meeting the requirements is a very serious infringement. Failing to state the registration number in advertising, including adverts on platforms, is a serious infringement. It is enough for the advert to be published: no guest ever has to arrive.

For an owner in Torrevieja or Orihuela Costa, the practical order is always the same: first check with the town hall that tourist use is compatible and obtain the planning report; then secure the three-fifths agreement of the community, which in large urbanisations takes months; and only then file the declaración responsable and publish the advert with the VT number visible. Reversing that order is the quickest route to a penalty file.

On the tax side, the annual routine comes down to four things: keeping a calendar of days let and days available for your own use, keeping invoices and the land/building split from the IBI bill, filing modelo 210 for the rental income and another for the deemed income, and keeping your tax residence certificate current. Many non-EU owners also appoint a fiscal representative in Spain.