Apportionment by nights let
What you need in front of you
Two numbers, and both have to be real rather than remembered. The annual cost for the item you are testing — one line at a time works better than a lump sum, because not every cost is treated the same way. And the nights the property was actually let during the year, counted from your booking records rather than estimated from the season.
The formula it applies
Deductible share = cost × (nights let ÷ days in the period). With 120 nights in a full year, an electricity bill of 600 € produces 197.26 € of deductible cost and 402.74 € that is not deductible at all. The denominator is 365 for a full year, and the days you actually owned the property if you bought or sold partway through.
Reading the result
The figure that comes out is the part of that cost you may set against your rental income. The remainder is not a loss and not carried forward: it is simply personal expenditure on an asset that was at your disposal. If the number surprises you, it is almost always because the night count is lower than the feeling of a busy summer suggests.
Which costs go through this calculation
| Apportioned by nights | Deductible in full |
|---|---|
| IBI, the annual local property tax, and the refuse charge | Cleaning between guests |
| Service charge to the owners' association | Booking platform commission |
| Electricity, water, gas, internet | Laundry of linen used by bookings |
| Buildings insurance | A repair caused by a particular guest |
| Depreciation of the building and the furniture | Guest consumables and welcome packs |
The rule in one line: if the cost would exist with the flat standing empty, apportion it; if it only exists because a guest came, take it in whole. Putting the cleaning or the commission through the calculator is giving away deduction you are entitled to.
How the nights are counted
Nights, not calendar days: 28 March to 2 April is five nights, because the departure day does not count. A stay straddling two periods splits, with each night counted where it falls, rather than going wholly to the quarter it started in or the quarter you were paid. The counting rules in full are in nights let and apportioning costs.
They do not go in the numerator, and if you are not resident in Spain they add to the days at your disposal that produce the deemed-income charge. It is the correction most often missing from a count done by memory, and the first one checked when the property is somewhere the owner is likely to holiday.
Days advertised but empty
There is a long-running argument that a property advertised and available all year should count as wholly used in the business. The settled administrative view is the opposite: real occupancy counts, not commercial availability. Until that changes, apportioning by nights actually let is the prudent position, and it is the one we apply. We would rather say that plainly than have you defend the other one.
Why it matters in three taxes at once
| Tax | What the apportionment decides |
|---|---|
| Income tax, or form 210 for a non-resident | What share of each cost reduces your rental income |
| The deemed-income charge | How many days count as at your disposal and produce notional income |
| VAT, if you ever charge it | What share of the input VAT you may recover |
A 10 % error in the night count moves money in all three places simultaneously, and always in the same direction: count too many nights and you deduct too much everywhere.
A full year, worked
Take a busier property than the one in the guide: a two-bedroom flat on the coast, let 219 nights of the year. Its standing costs run to property tax 415 €, community charge 840 €, utilities 1,120 € and insurance 260 €. On top of that it pays 2,640 € for changeover cleaning and 3,150 € in platform commission — 8,425 € spent across the year.
- Letting proportion: 219 ÷ 365 = 60 %.
- Standing costs, apportioned: 415 + 840 + 1,120 + 260 = 2,635 € → deductible 1,581 €.
- Cleaning and commission, deductible in full: 2,640 + 3,150 = 5,790 €.
- Total deductible: 7,371 € of the 8,425 € spent.
Run the same year through a single percentage — 60 % of everything — and the deduction comes out at 5,055 €. The gap is 2,316 €, and it exists entirely because the cleaning and the commission were never standing costs: they were incurred booking by booking, and no part of them belongs to the nights the flat stood empty.
What the calculator cannot know
It applies one rule to two numbers. It does not know whether that invoice is in your name, whether the works were repair or improvement, whether one of two co-owners paid for everything, or whether the property was only in the letting business for part of the year. For several properties, each one carries its own count, and costs shared between them are split between properties first and apportioned second. Those are the points where a real file stops looking like a calculator, and they are covered in deductible costs on a holiday let.
Keep the evidence, not just the number
An apportioned deduction survives a review when you can show three things chained together: the invoice for the cost, the booking register the night count comes from, and the calculation joining them. When the middle link is missing, the deduction falls in its entirety rather than in the part being questioned. That register is worth keeping even in a bad year: it is more useful in defending you than the invoices themselves. If you would rather it were built for you each quarter, that is what the monthly service does, and you can ask us about your case.
146 nights and six costs
A second year, closer to the average holiday flat: let for 146 nights, with these annual costs.
| Cost | Amount | Treatment | Deductible |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBI | 320 € | Apportioned: 146 ÷ 365 = 40 % | 868 € of 2,170 € |
| Community charges | 660 € | ||
| Utilities | 980 € | ||
| Insurance | 210 € | ||
| Cleaning between guests | 1,840 € | In full | 3,940 € |
| Platform commission | 2,100 € | ||
| Total | 6,110 € | 4,808 € |
Apportion everything at 40 %, cleaning and commission included, and the deduction drops to 2,444 €: tax paid on 2,364 € that was never profit.
Four kinds of day in a year
| Kind of day | Counts towards the apportionment? | Produces imputed income? |
|---|---|---|
| Let for payment | Yes | No |
| Empty but advertised | No | Yes |
| Used by you or your family | No | Yes |
| Closed for works | Depends on whether the works are needed to keep letting | Usually yes |
The last row is the one argued about. Essential maintenance done in the low season is easy to defend; a full refurbishment lasting eight months, much less so.
Where the rule comes from, and where it is contested
Only a cost needed to earn the income is deductible. If a property earns income for part of the year and is at the owner's disposal for the rest, costs that exist all year round are only needed in that proportion, and days are the most objective measure available. The tax office applies this routinely in holiday let reviews and the courts have upheld it. Challenging the principle rarely gets anywhere; challenging the count — which days qualify and which do not — often does.
The count comes from one register per property and per booking: arrival, departure, nights, platform and amount. Platform statements already carry each stay with its dates; direct bookings have to be noted by hand, the only manual job we ask of clients, at about two minutes a booking. And where the flat joined the letting business partway through the year, costs from before that date are not deductible against it, even if you paid them.