The planning-compatibility report goes first
Valencian tourism law requires proof that tourist use is compatible with the municipality's planning before the dwelling can be entered on the regional tourism register. It is the city council that says so, not the Generalitat Valenciana — the regional government — and what it says depends on how your building is classified and on the area it stands in. We do not invent here which neighbourhoods are closed or at what percentage: the municipal ruling is requested and read, case by case, against the by-law in force on that particular day.
When that report is missing, what normally follows is a requerimiento de subsanación, a formal notice to put the file right within a short deadline, and, if it goes unanswered, cancellation of the registration. The activity, meanwhile, has generated income that has to be declared all the same. Not declaring because "this is going to lapse anyway" is the most expensive way of resolving it.
For a reader outside Spain the running order is worth stating plainly. The city council rules on the use; the regional tourism register then takes the property in; the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax authority, records the activity through Modelo 036; and only after that does the quarterly cycle begin. Skipping the first step does not simply delay the others, it makes them fragile, because the registration they all rest on can be cancelled later.
What changes in your taxes depending on how it ends
If the activity continues, you have the full tourist-letting calendar: VAT where services proper to the hotel industry are supplied, income treated either as property income or as business income under article 27.2 of the Spanish income tax act, and the apportionment of costs by the days actually let.
If the activity is switched off, there are three things to close and all three get forgotten: the deregistration in the census of taxpayers, the final Modelo 303 for VAT, and the imputed property income for the period in which the flat is no longer let. All of that sits in tourist rentals and in apportionment by days let.
Modelo 037, the simplified census return, was abolished by Order HAC/1526/2024 with effect from 3 February 2025. Everything to do with the census of taxpayers now goes through Modelo 036. If somebody tells you to file a 037, they are working from old papers.
Gifts under Valencian rules
The Comunitat Valenciana has its own reliefs in inheritance and gift tax for transfers between close relatives. They are generous and, for exactly that reason, they are formalistic: they tend to depend on requirements of kinship, of residence, and of how the handing over of the money is documented. We do not put the percentage here, because it changes and because the one that matters is the one in force on the day of the gift; what we do is check it before signing rather than afterwards.
The mistake we have had to repair most often is always the same: money transferred first and the deed drawn up later, or no deed at all. We tell that story in giving during your lifetime or leaving it in a will.
Who writes to us from València
| Who | What they usually face |
|---|---|
| Owner in the Carme or Cabanyal quarters | The planning-compatibility report and, alongside it, VAT, income tax and the municipal charge |
| Someone served with a notice to put the tourism registration right | Answering in time with documents, and deciding the fallback if it lapses |
| Parents helping a child buy a flat | A documented gift, self-assessment within thirty working days and the conditions attached to the relief |
| Designer or software freelancer with clients abroad | Modelo 130, Modelo 303, the ROI and the exchange rate on invoices in foreign currency |
| Foreign owner with a flat by the beach | Modelo 210 per property and per owner, and imputed income for the empty months |
How we work with clients in València
We start by looking at which papers you have, not by selling a plan. In València that nearly always means asking you for three things: the tourism registration, the latest IBI receipt — IBI is the annual municipal property tax, and its receipt carries the cadastral reference and value we need — and the municipal ruling if there is one. With those we already know whether the problem is a tax one, a planning one or both.
After that, routine: documents into your folder as they are issued, figures in front of you before anything is filed, and a single person to talk to. If you have a deadline running, it goes ahead of everything else and we tell you so the same day.
There are two things we do not do, and we say them at the start. We do not promise that a registration under challenge will survive, because that is for the administration and, if it goes further, for the courts to decide. And we do not advise on the tax law of your own country: where a case needs it, you appoint the adviser there and we work alongside them so that the two halves of the answer fit together.
A Valencian developer with a single client in the United States: the first year
The profile that has grown most in València in recent years: a programmer who registers as self-employed (autónomo) in January, invoices a single company in California and is paid in dollars. There is no VAT on the invoices, because the service is treated as supplied where the business client is, but there is a Modelo 303 every quarter, where those transactions are declared as not subject to Spanish VAT. And since the client is not Spanish, nobody withholds income tax: the Modelo 130, the quarterly income tax prepayment, is entirely his to make.
| Quarter of 2026 | Cumulative income | Cumulative costs | Cumulative profit | Modelo 130 for the quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 9,000 € | 2,100 € | 6,900 € | 1,380 € |
| Second | 19,000 € | 4,300 € | 14,700 € | 1,560 € |
| Third | 27,500 € | 6,300 € | 21,200 € | 1,300 € |
| Fourth | 38,500 € | 8,600 € | 29,900 € | 1,740 € |
Each Modelo 130 is 20 % of the profit accumulated since January, minus what was already paid in earlier quarters: by the end of the year he has paid 5,980 € in advance, which is credited in his 2026 income tax return. Among the costs are the 86 € a month of the flat-rate Social Security contribution for his first year, his equipment, the coworking space and the share of utilities he can justify. Income is converted into euros invoice by invoice; why the exchange rate is not the one your bank applies is explained in invoices in a foreign currency.
The tax year of a València freelancer who invoices abroad
| Month | What he files |
|---|---|
| January 2026, before starting | Census registration on Modelo 036 and registration in RETA, the self-employed Social Security scheme, with the flat rate |
| 1 to 20 April, July and October | Modelos 303 and 130 for the previous quarter |
| 1 to 30 January 2027 | Modelos 303 and 130 for the fourth quarter, and the Modelo 390 annual VAT summary |
| From April to 30 June 2027 | Income tax return for 2026, subtracting the 5,980 € paid through the Modelos 130 |
The second year changes one thing and not another. The flat rate can only be extended if profits stay below the threshold set by the contribution rules, which is checked at the time; otherwise the contribution comes to depend on actual income. And the 2026 income tax return will show, for the first time, the full figure for the year: if the Modelos 130 were worked out correctly, the difference will be small in either direction.
If this sounds like your situation and you want us to handle it from the first quarter, the form is the one for international freelancers.
Many are paid through a payments or international contracting platform that keeps a percentage. That commission is a deductible cost, but it is not neutral: if the entity invoicing it is in another European Union country, it is a service you receive as a business and it is self-assessed in your Modelo 303 under the reverse charge, which requires being registered in the ROI, the Spanish register of intra-EU operators, and declaring it on Modelo 349. It costs no money, because the VAT is charged and deducted in the same return, but failing to file can cost a formal penalty. Which entity invoices you we check with the platform's first invoice. It is in registering in the ROI.