Six weeks of income and twelve months of bills
The flat by the beach earns in July, in August and on the odd long weekend. The bills, by contrast, arrive in all twelve months: IBI, which is the annual local property tax, the community fees, the insurance, the special levies the owners vote for works, the utilities. The temptation is to deduct the lot, and that is precisely what cannot be done.
Costs are deducted in the part corresponding to the period in which the property was genuinely let. The rest does not vanish: it stays as a non-deductible cost, and on top of that the empty days generate imputed property income computed on the cadastral value, the administrative value the Spanish cadastre gives the property. With short occupancy the deductible proportion is small, and the result of the letting usually comes out far below what the owner had worked out.
The booking calendar, the invoices for cleaning between stays and the platform's statements. With those, the split by days is explained in two pages. Without them, it is argued blind. Keeping them costs nothing and it is the difference between answering a request and accepting a proposed assessment.
Depreciation, which almost nobody separates
There are two different depreciation charges and they do not go together. The one on the building is computed on the value of the construction — land is not depreciated — taking the greater of the acquisition cost and the cadastral value of the construction. The one on furniture and appliances follows its own tables and its own useful life, which is far shorter.
And both are apportioned in the same way by days of letting. There is also a detail that surfaces years later: there is a minimum depreciation which is taken into account when the gain is computed on the day you sell, even if you never deducted it. That is why it is worth deducting it properly from the start: otherwise you pay twice for the same oversight. It is explained in minimum depreciation on a sale.
Neither charge is optional in the way owners sometimes assume. Depreciation is a deduction you are entitled to, and taking it is what makes the letting show its real result. Leaving it out does not make the eventual sale any cheaper, for the reason just given, so the only thing skipping it achieves is a higher tax bill in the meantime.
Living in another region and owning the flat here
A lot of holiday property here belongs to families from Madrid, from Castilla y León or from outside Spain. If you are resident in Spain, your annual return is filed with the scale and the deductions of the community where you have your habitual residence, even though the flat is in Asturias: where the property sits does not change the scale that applies to you.
If you are resident outside Spain it is a different matter: Modelo 210, the non-resident income tax return, one per property and per owner, at 19 % with deductible costs if you are resident in the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, and at 24 % on the gross with nothing deductible in every other case, under articles 24 and 25 of the Non-Resident Income Tax Act. It is in non-residents.
And a warning that is not a tax one but ends up being one: letting by the night requires entry on the regional register of tourist accommodation, and not having it does not relieve you of declaring the income. Having the administrative problem does not erase the tax obligation; the normal outcome is to end up with both.
Who writes to us from Gijón
| Profile | What gets sorted first |
|---|---|
| A beach flat let in July and August | Apportionment by days, imputation for the rest and the booking calendar |
| An owner from Madrid with an apartment here | Where they file, which scale applies and how it is run at a distance |
| Somebody letting without being on the register | Putting the income right and the administrative front, separately |
| A local with a Swiss pension and a flat here | Which country taxes the pension and what is declared in Spain |
| Siblings holding their parents' apartment | Income attribution by percentage and Modelo 184 |
How we work with clients in Gijón
By building the split once, properly, and reusing it every year. With a seasonal property what matters is not the return in June: it is having the calendar and the costs in order from January, which is when it can be done without effort.
Remotely and at a fee agreed for the whole year, with no surprises. If what you have is a formal request about a year already filed, we start there, because that is what carries a deadline, and the rest waits. We will tell you how strong the file is and where it is thin; we will not tell you the review will be dropped.
The flat on San Lorenzo beach in Gijón sold after ten summers let
A family from Madrid bought a seafront flat in 2016 for 180,000 €, with 14,000 € of taxes and costs, and has let it every year for about 56 days in July and August. In January 2026 they sell it for 260,000 €, with 8,000 € of selling costs. The valor catastral attributes 55 % of the total to the building, so the depreciable base is 106,700 € and the annual depreciation at 3 %, 3,201 €.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual depreciation of the property | 3,201 € |
| Share for the 56 days let (15.34 %) | 491 € a year |
| Depreciation accumulated over ten years | 4,910 € |
| Acquisition value (194,000 € − 4,910 €) | 189,090 € |
| Transfer value (260,000 € − 8,000 €) | 252,000 € |
| Capital gain | 62,910 € |
The key is in the third row: those 4,910 € reduce the acquisition value whether or not they were deducted in each year's return, because the law requires the minimum depreciation to be counted. Anyone who never deducted it pays twice for the same oversight: they did not deduct it while letting, and now it raises the gain. The four years not yet time-barred can still be corrected to recover part of it. The furniture, which depreciates at 10 % with its own table, is treated separately and only if there are invoices. It is set out in minimum depreciation on a sale.
When the Gijón flat belongs to several siblings
If three siblings inherited the beach flat, the summer letting belongs to a comunidad de bienes (a co-ownership treated as a unit for tax reporting), even if nobody signed anything, and each declares their share in their own return, on the scale of the region where they live.
| When | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| January | Modelo 184, if the year's income exceeds 3,000 € | The co-ownership, with its own NIF |
| The quarter after the platform commissions | Modelo 349 and self-assessment of the commission | The co-ownership |
| April to the end of June | Their percentage of income, costs, depreciation and imputed income | Each sibling |
If instead of selling it they give it to a child, the calculation does not disappear: a gift of real estate also produces a capital gain for the donor, calculated on the flat's market value instead of a price, and the minimum depreciation reduces the acquisition value just the same. On top of that come the gift tax paid by the child and the municipal plusvalía. Many families find out after signing.
The sofa bed, the appliances and the crockery bought for letting depreciate over about ten years, apportioned by the summer days, but only if there is an invoice in the owner's name. Whatever was bought in cash at a furniture shop on the avenue, without an invoice, never depreciates. In a flat refurbished every few years, it is an item lost entirely. If you want us to review your split, write to us from the tourist rental form.