Wealth tax: three figures worth having clear
Spanish wealth tax has a state exempt threshold of 700.000 €, and the main home is exempt up to 300.000 €. On top of that, there is a duty to file the return when the value of your assets and rights exceeds 2.000.000 €, even where the amount payable comes out at zero.
That last one is what gets overlooked most: not filing because nothing is payable is a formal breach, not a saving. We develop it in wealth tax.
And on top, the tax on large fortunes
The state solidarity tax on large fortunes starts from 3.000.000 €. Its practical effect is the one people least expect: where an autonomous community has cut or rebated its own wealth tax, the state tax picks up what that community has given up. The bill, then, does not go down; it changes recipient.
That is why wealth planning that looks only at the regional rules is incomplete. The comparison between the two is in wealth tax or the tax on large fortunes and in the solidarity tax.
The house bought through a company
This is a frequent structure here, often inherited from advice received in another country. It is worth reviewing calmly, because it usually brings effects nobody explained when it was set up: the use of the dwelling by the shareholder is not free of charge for tax purposes, the company may fall inside the shareholder's wealth through the value of the shares, and if the entity is foreign but directed from Spain the risk of it being treated as resident here is real.
There is no single answer. There are structures that hold up and structures that held up when they were set up and do not today. What we do is tell you which of the two you are in, with the risks attached, and not sell you the idea that yours is perfect.
One clarification on how the two taxes on wealth sit together, because it is what we are asked about most here. They are separate taxes with separate rules, both charged on the same assets, and the state one takes into account what has already been paid under the regional one. That is why looking at either of them in isolation produces a figure that is almost always wrong, in one direction or the other.
Someone who does not live in Spain is taxed on a limited basis: on the assets and rights located here. A villa in Marbella enters that computation. And when it comes to applying the regional rules there are particular provisions worth looking at before deciding how the property is held.
One more thing the taxes on wealth make unavoidable here: an accurate valuation. Property, listed securities, unlisted shares and debts each have their own valuation rules, and a portfolio valued casually gives the wrong answer to the prior question of whether the filing threshold was crossed at all. It is a dull exercise, done properly once and updated every year.
Who writes to us from Marbella
| Who | What they usually face |
|---|---|
| Owner of a villa with a foreign company behind it | Whether the structure holds, where the company is resident and what value counts for wealth tax |
| Newly arrived resident with an international portfolio | Modelo 720 or 721 depending on the assets, and worldwide income from the first year |
| Executive relocated to Spain | The article 93 regime of the Spanish income tax act and its six-month window to apply |
| Family wanting to pass things on early | Giving now or leaving it in a will, with plusvalía municipal and the capital gain in the equation |
| Non-resident with two or three properties | One Modelo 210 per property and per owner, plus wealth tax on a limited basis |
How we work with clients in Marbella
With an inventory before any advice. We sit down to list what there is, where it is and in whose name, and only then do we talk about options. In international portfolios, half the problems come from an asset nobody mentioned.
We are lawyers who work on tax, and we work with Spanish rules. On the law of your own country your adviser there will give the opinion: what we do is coordinate with the adviser you appoint so that the two pieces fit, and warn you about the risks we see here without promising you any outcome before the tax authority.
The work itself is unglamorous: an annual review of what is held and where, the returns that follow from it, and a written note each time something changes enough to matter. What we ask in exchange is that nothing is left off the list. An account, a trust or a company that surfaces two years later does not merely add work; it can undo the analysis everything else was built on.
A Marbella resident with three million: what is declared and what is paid
A case of the kind we see every season, with rounded figures. Tax resident in Marbella for years, no debts, everything in his own name and not through companies. Property is valued at the highest of the cadastral value, the value checked by the administration for another tax, and the purchase price.
| Assets at 31 December 2026 | Value |
|---|---|
| Villa, main home | 1,500,000 € |
| Let apartment in Puerto Banús | 400,000 € |
| Securities portfolio with a Luxembourg broker | 900,000 € |
| Current accounts | 250,000 € |
| Total assets, exempt ones included | 3,050,000 €: above 2,000,000 €, so Modelo 714 is due |
| Less the main-home exemption | − 300,000 € |
| Tax base | 2,750,000 € |
| Less the tax-free allowance | − 700,000 € |
| Taxable base | 2,050,000 € |
The wealth tax bill comes from applying to that base the scale and regional rebates in force on 31 December, which we check every year. In the solidarity tax on large fortunes, the scale only starts to bite when the taxable base passes 3,000,000 €: with 2,050,000 € there is nothing to pay, but with another million in the portfolio there would start to be. If your wealth is close to that point, the form is the one for wealth tax; how each asset is valued is in valuation for wealth tax.
The tax year of a large Marbella estate
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 1 January to 31 March | Modelo 720 for the broker and accounts abroad, if the thresholds are exceeded or the 20,000 € rule is met; Modelo 721 if crypto-assets are held in custody abroad |
| From April to 30 June | Income tax return for the previous year and Modelo 714 |
| July | Modelo 718 for the solidarity tax, if it reaches him |
| All year | Keeping the 31 December value of each asset with its supporting document |
On top of that, income tax and wealth tax share a joint ceiling that can reduce the wealth tax bill when the year's income is low relative to the assets; we explain it in the joint limit.
The date that decides everything is 31 December. Balances, market prices and values all refer to that day, and it is the day on which, where relevant, it is measured whether someone has crossed the two or the three million. Transactions made on 2 January to «get out» of a threshold do not change the previous year's snapshot; those made in December with no substance should not either, and that is what we tell anyone who suggests it.
The main-home exemption only reaches a home that is yours. If the villa in the example belonged to a company, what you declare is shares, valued at their book value according to the last balance sheet, and there is no exemption to subtract. With a book value equal to the villa's, the taxable base would rise to 2,350,000 €, and your use of the house would still be income to be declared. It is the sum almost nobody did when setting up the structure, and the first one we do when reviewing it.