A whole year that fits into six or seven weeks
Between carnival, Semana Santa and the summer months, a flat in the old town can invoice in under two months what a flat in Sevilla invoices in six. The income is not the problem. The cost is.
When a property is let for only a few weeks, its costs are not deducted in full. They are split by days: those falling in the period when it was genuinely let are deductible, and those falling in the rest of the year are not. That applies to IBI, the annual local property tax, to the community fees, to the insurance, to the utilities, to the interest on the loan and to the depreciation of the building. And the days the flat stood empty are not neutral days: they produce imputed property income, computed on the cadastral value, which is the administrative value the Spanish cadastre gives the property, and declared even though nothing was received.
Deducting twelve months of costs on a flat that was let for eight weeks. It is a cheap check to run — the declared income is simply compared with the calendar — and it is exactly the check that arrives. If it has already reached you, we take it from replying to the tax office.
One flat, three different contracts
All three coexist in the old town and none of them is taxed like the others. A residential letting, with a tenant who makes the flat their home, gives the landlord the reduction in net income that the Spanish personal income tax act provides for residential letting. A seasonal letting — the one signed by the month, for a posted worker or somebody between homes — does not meet anybody's permanent housing need, so the reduction does not apply. And letting by the night, provided no services of the hotel trade are supplied, remains income from immovable capital, but with no reduction and with the apportionment above.
The line is crossed when hotel services appear: a reception desk, cleaning during the stay, a periodic change of linen, meals. From that point it is no longer income from immovable capital but a business activity, with registration through Modelo 036, the census declaration that opens your tax obligations, with VAT charged to the guest and with quarterly interim payments. It is not a label you choose: what counts is what is genuinely being supplied.
VAT in Cádiz: 10 % on short stays, with no date for now
A holiday let without hotel services is exempt under article 20.Uno.23 of the Spanish VAT Act, and that is still the rule. Royal Decree-law 26/2026, in the BOE of 30 September, would have changed it from 1 December 2026, putting stays of up to 30 nights at the reduced rate of 10 %, like a hotel room, unless the home is the landlord's own main residence; Congress voted it down on 2 October. As things stand, Carnival 2027 is still invoiced without VAT where no hotel services are supplied. The change remains pending, with July 2028 as the limit under Directive (EU) 2025/516: once it arrives you register, charge 10 %, file Modelo 303 each quarter and deduct the VAT on your costs. It is developed in holiday lets.
There is a wrinkle that catches nearly everybody. Even while your letting is exempt, the commission the platform charges you is a service received from a company established in another member state of the European Union. That obliges you to register on the ROI, the Spanish register of intra-EU operators, to self-account for the tax and to file Modelo 349, the recapitulative statement of intra-EU transactions. It is the route by which a good number of owners appear in a data cross-check without having done anything wrong.
Who writes to us from Cádiz
| Who | What it usually turns on |
|---|---|
| Owner of a flat in the old town letting at carnival and in summer | Apportioning costs by days, imputed income for the rest of the year and Modelo 349 on the commission |
| Somebody alternating a term-time tenant with nights in August | Two regimes in one return, and the reduction that fits only one of them |
| Self-employed in hospitality with a strong season | Very uneven quarters, and the room to pay the bad one in instalments |
| Heir to an old house in Santa María or Viña | The reference value, the six-month deadline and plusvalía municipal |
| A local working at sea or outside Spain | Where tax residence falls that year, and which income it drags in |
Working with Cádiz, remotely
Remotely, and in writing. You do not have to come to an office: you have a folder to drop your documents into, and email if that is easier. We read them, we show you the figures before anything is filed, and then we file. If a deadline is already running, that is dealt with first and the rest waits.
We are lawyers, not a counter-service gestoría, and the difference shows when the answer is not obvious: we tell you which part of a position is open to argument and why, and we do not promise you a result. With a season shaped like this one, the useful conversation happens in January, while the year can still be organised, and not in June when it cannot. Tell us about your case.
A bar in the old town of Cádiz with a strong summer: Modelo 130 quarter by quarter
A restaurant or bar owner taxed under estimación directa (actual income minus actual costs) pays each quarter an advance of 20 % of the net income accumulated since 1 January, minus what was already paid in earlier quarters. With a year as uneven as the one in Cádiz — a weak winter, carnival, a summer that carries everything and an autumn that drops again — no quarter looks like the one before.
| Quarter | Income | Costs | Accumulated net income | Modelo 130 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January–March | 18,000 € | 22,000 € | −4,000 € | 0 € |
| April–June | 52,000 € | 34,000 € | 14,000 € | 2,800 € |
| July–September | 78,000 € | 48,000 € | 44,000 € | 6,000 € |
| October–December | 16,000 € | 20,000 € | 40,000 € | 0 € |
In the fourth quarter the calculation gives −800 € (20 % of 40,000 € is 8,000 €, and 8,800 € had already been paid), but Modelo 130 does not refund: it is filed at zero and the 800 € comes back in the annual income tax return. What hurts is October: the 6,000 € of the third quarter is paid just as cash starts to fall, together with the summer's VAT and the withholding on the August waiters' wages. Setting aside in September what will be paid in October is half the job of running a seasonal business. The full mechanics are in Modelo 130.
What a Cádiz hospitality business files, and when
| Form | What it covers | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 303 and 130 | Quarterly VAT and the income tax advance | 1 to 20 April, July and October; the fourth quarter, until 30 January |
| 111 | Withholding on the wages of seasonal staff | 1 to 20 April, July, October and January |
| 390 and 190 | Annual summaries of VAT and of withholding | January |
| 347 | Suppliers or customers with whom 3,005.06 € is exceeded in the year | February |
| Income tax return | The whole year, with what was paid on account | April to the end of June |
The withholding on Modelo 111 is the workers' money, paid in on their behalf, and the law does not allow it to be deferred like other tax debts: if October looks tight, it is planned beforehand. It is covered in debts that cannot be deferred.
The VAT of that summer is not flat either. Food and drink served on the premises carries 10 %, but the rent of the premises, the accountant, the machinery and a good part of the utilities come in at 21 %. In quiet months Modelo 303 may show a balance to carry forward, and in the third quarter everything charged in July and August is paid in one go. Keeping the VAT collected in a separate account, untouched, stops October being financed with November's cash.
Many beach venues pull down the shutters from November to March and assume there is nothing to file. As long as you remain registered, Modelos 303 and 130 are filed even when they come out at zero, and failing to file carries its own penalty even when no tax is due. Deregistering and registering again every season is possible, but it has consequences for Social Security and the tax register that are worth measuring first. If you want us to handle your whole year, start with the self-employed form.