If you own a property in Spain, you owe a Spanish tax return every year
It is called Modelo 210. It is due whether or not you let the property, whether or not it earns anything, and whether or not anyone has ever told you about it. A great many British owners have never filed one.
Why there is tax on a house that earns nothing
Spanish law treats an empty second home as producing a notional income for its owner — renta imputada — calculated from the rateable value on your council tax bill. That notional income is then taxed. It is a small sum on most properties, usually a few hundred euros. The problem has never been the amount. It is that the return is annual, it is obligatory, and the Spanish tax office knows exactly which properties are owned by non-residents.
If you let the property, even for a few weeks a summer, a different calculation applies to the rent you receive, and since Brexit British owners can no longer deduct their costs against it.
What happens if you have never filed
Usually nothing, for years. Then one of three things forces it into the open: you sell, you die, or a letter arrives. All three are worse than the return.
At a sale, the buyer’s lawyer checks the position and unfiled years surface at the worst possible moment, with the sale waiting. On a death, the heirs inherit the problem along with the flat, and the Spanish inheritance process stalls until it is cleaned up. And the Spanish tax office does write, in Spanish, with a deadline.
Unfiled years can generally be regularised, with a surcharge that rises the longer you leave it and is considerably lower if you come forward before they write to you. We charge £110 for each year owed, on top of the tax itself. Four years behind is a routine job, not a crisis. Tell us how many and we will clear them.
What we do
- Work out what is owed from your title deed and rateable value — you send us a photo of the documents, once.
- Prepare and file the return with the Spanish tax office each year.
- Arrange payment of the tax, which goes directly to the Spanish tax office and never through us.
- Send you the stamped confirmation for your records. Keep them: the buyer’s lawyer will ask for them when you sell.
- Tell you, before the deadline, if anything about your situation has changed the figure.
£180 a year, one property, not let
£280 a year if the property is let. £90 for each further property in the same ownership. Renews automatically each year and you can stop it any time. Years you never filed are £110 each, on top of the tax.
Paid securely by card. You have the right to cancel within 14 days; if you ask us to start sooner, you will be charged for the work done up to the point you cancel.
Questions people ask
I already pay Spanish council tax. Isn’t that it?
No. The council tax, IBI, is a local charge on the property and is separate. Modelo 210 is a national tax on you as a non-resident owner. Paying one has no effect on the other.
My property is in joint names.
Then each owner files their own return for their share. Two owners, two returns. Our fee covers both.
Do I also declare it in the UK?
Rental income from Spain is reportable on your UK tax return, with relief for the Spanish tax paid under the UK–Spain double tax treaty. Notional income on an empty property is not UK-taxable. Your UK accountant deals with the UK side; we give you the figures they need.
When is it due?
The deadlines differ for notional income and for rent, and they are not the same as the UK tax year. We track yours and tell you in advance. That is most of what you are paying for.
I am about to sell. Is it worth starting now?
Yes, and urgently. Unfiled years are the single most common thing that delays a Spanish sale for a British owner, and they are much cheaper to fix before a buyer’s lawyer finds them.