By destination · Torrevieja · Alicante
Spansk skatt i Torrevieja
Modelo 210, IBI-rabatter, ITP og arveavgift (ISD) for boligeiere i Torrevieja — håndtert av en lisensiert colegiado som selv bor på Costa Blanca.
What property owners in Torrevieja need to know
Torrevieja is the densest British and Northern European enclave on the Costa Blanca — roughly 75 % of property transactions involve foreign buyers, with British, Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian residents dominating. The town's IBI ordenanza fiscal includes a domiciliación bonus that's often missed by remote gestores, and the volume of UK pensioners filing modelo 210 every December makes this our highest-frequency municipio. We file IRNR for several hundred Torrevieja property owners annually and know which Torrevieja calles fall under valor catastral revised <10 años (1.1 % rate) vs unrevised (2 %).
Top services for Torrevieja
Regional tax framework
- ITP general rate
- 9%
- ITP reduced rate (vivienda habitual)
- 6%
- AJD (stamp duty)
- 1,4%
- ISD bonification grupo I/II
- 50%
- 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 fiscal 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?
Torrevieja's urban IBI rate for residential property is set by the municipal ordenanza fiscal and is paid annually by every owner — resident or non-resident — based on cadastral value. The town hall offers a small direct-debit bonification (typically 5 %) that we activate automatically when we take on a new Torrevieja client. We confirm the exact current rate from the latest ordenanza published in BOP Alicante.
Do I need to file modelo 210 every year if my Torrevieja flat is empty most of the year?
Yes. Imputed rental income (1.1 % or 2 % of cadastral value depending on whether it was revised in the last 10 years) is filed every year by 31 December of the year following the income year, even if the property sits empty. Skipping it is the single most common error we fix for new Torrevieja clients arriving from a previous gestor.
I rent my Torrevieja flat for the summer only. How is the rental income taxed?
You file modelo 210 quarterly for the rental quarters and the annual imputed-income 210 for the empty months. EU/EEA residents (post-Brexit UK retained the regime by treaty) pay 19 % on net rental income with expenses deductible. Non-EU residents pay 24 % on gross rental income with no deductions.
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
Torrevieja's IBI ordenanza fiscal was updated for 2025 with refreshed bonification categories. The town hall participates in the regional pilot for cadastral value updates affecting the urbanisations of Punta Prima, La Mata and Aguas Nuevas — owners in these zones should expect a revised reference value within 2026-2027.