Costa Blanca IBI · municipal simulator

Who pays it

Whoever holds the property on 1 January owes the whole year. The law has no proration in a sale: any split between buyer and seller is a private agreement in the deed that the town hall does not recognise. Where there is a usufruct, for example after an inheritance, the usufructuary pays the IBI, not the bare owners.

The debt follows the property. If a previous owner left bills unpaid, the home can be pursued even though it is now yours, and those debts remain enforceable for four years.

How it is calculated

The base is the cadastral value, not the price you paid and not the reference value. Each town hall sets the rate in its tax bylaw, within a statutory band of 0.4% to 1.10% for urban property. That is why there is no single rate for Torrevieja, Jávea or Dénia: what counts is that year's bylaw, which is the rate printed on your bill.

The bill then applies whatever bonuses the bylaw has created, such as the large-family bonus of up to 90% or the solar-energy bonus of up to 50%. Almost all of them have to be applied for.

Deadlines and payment

Bills are announced by public edict in the official gazette, not by letter: not having received one does not excuse non-payment. Where no other calendar is set, the voluntary payment period runs from 1 September to 20 November, but each municipality can change it, so the collection notice is the only reliable reference.

A direct debit order must reach the collecting body at least two months before the collection period starts. If you pay late, a surcharge of 5%, 10% or 20% applies depending on when you pay, plus late-payment interest in the last case.

In the province of Alicante the provincial collection body is SUMA Gestión Tributaria, but each municipality decides what it delegates to it. Check the issuer printed on your bill before setting up a direct debit, appealing or requesting a certificate.

How we help

With the calculator you estimate the bill from your cadastral value and your municipality's bonuses. If you consult us about your case, we read the bill line by line —cadastral value, taxable base, rate applied, bonuses and surcharges— and tell you which bonuses in the bylaw you could apply for. Before a purchase, the prudent step is to request a certificate of outstanding debt on the cadastral reference. And if the cadastral value does not match your home, we tell you how to correct it: a cadastral declaration on modelo 900D or the discrepancy-correction procedure.

Common mistakes

• Confusing the cadastral value with the reference value: they are different figures, and correcting one does not correct the other.
• Signing a purchase without an IBI debt certificate on the cadastral reference.
• Relying on a clause in the private contract: it protects you against the seller, never against the town hall.
• Assuming your municipality collects through SUMA because the one next door does.
• Forgetting that, if you do not live in Spain, a wrong cadastral value also inflates the deemed income on modelo 210, at 2% or 1.1% of that value.