The rule
A non-resident letting Spanish property is taxed under the non-resident income tax. Residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein pay 19 % of the net: gross rent less the costs attributable to the letting, apportioned to the days actually let. Everybody else pays 24 % of the gross, with no deduction of any kind. Not the mortgage interest, not the community charges, not the IBI, not the repairs, not the platform commission.
That second sentence does most of the damage. A higher rate on the same base would be a modest difference; a higher rate on a much larger base is a different order of magnitude.
The same property, two owners
An apartment lets for 200 nights a year and takes 21,000 € of gross rent. Annual costs attributable to it — community charges, IBI, insurance, utilities, cleaning, platform commission, depreciation — come to 9,000 €, of which the part corresponding to the days let is 9,000 × 200/365 = 4,932 €.
| Owner living in France | Owner living in the United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross rent | 21,000 € | 21,000 € |
| Deductible costs | 4,932 € | Nil |
| Taxable base | 16,068 € | 21,000 € |
| Rate | 19 % | 24 % |
| Spanish tax on the rent | 3,053 € | 5,040 € |
A difference of 1,987 € on one property in one year, before adding the imputed income on the 165 days it was at the owner's disposal, which neither owner may reduce by any costs at all. Over a decade, and across two properties, it is the price of a car.
What can legitimately be done
- Keep the residence certificate current. It is issued for a specific year and it lapses. Without a valid certificate the higher treatment can be applied regardless of where you genuinely live, and we see files taxed at 24 % because of an expired piece of paper rather than an actual address. Put the renewal in the calendar the day it is issued.
- Evidence the costs anyway, even from outside the EU. Two reasons. The rules may change — see below. And costs of acquisition and improvement reduce the gain on an eventual sale for everybody, wherever they live, which is often the larger figure of the two.
- Read your own country's treaty with Spain. It does not change the Spanish rate on property income, which stays where the property is. It does determine how your home country relieves the Spanish tax, and whether you are actually getting that relief is worth checking with whoever files there.
- Get the apportionment right. For an EU resident, costs are deductible in proportion to the days let. Claiming the full year's costs against a property let for 200 nights is an error that surfaces in exactly the review you did not want.
You cannot declare yourself resident somewhere you do not live. Residence is established on facts — days, home, centre of economic interests, family — and tax authorities now exchange property, banking and platform data as a matter of routine. A residence certificate obtained on a false basis converts a tax difference into a much more serious problem, and it is the taxpayer who signs.
The case that is currently open
Whether excluding residents outside the EU from deducting their costs is compatible with the free movement of capital — a freedom which, unlike the others, applies to third countries as well — is a serious question, and the Spanish Supreme Court agreed by order of 15 July 2026 to examine it. Nothing is decided and we are not going to predict it.
What follows from it is a practical point about preparation rather than a prediction. Filing correctly under the current rules, while keeping full evidence of costs and, where appropriate, applying to rectify, keeps a year open and preserves the position should the law change. That is a decision to take deliberately, year by year, and it is described on our non-resident property tax page.
The British case, which is the common one
On this coast the largest single group of owners is British, and they moved from one side of this line to the other. Owners who had been deducting costs for years stopped being entitled to, and a significant number carried on filing exactly as before. Those years are now either wrong or unfiled, and both are fixable — on the express condition that you move first. Filing late of your own motion costs the surcharge of 1 % plus 1 % per complete month, becoming 15 % and interest after a year. Being found first costs penalties instead. The route is in catching up on unfiled Modelo 210.
The part that is the same wherever you live
Two obligations do not vary with residence, and both are frequently missed. Imputed income for the days the property was at your disposal is due from every non-resident owner, at 1.1 % or 2 % of the rateable value depending on whether that value has been revised in the last ten years, apportioned by ownership share and days — and no costs are deductible against it by anybody. And the reverse charge on platform commission applies to owners inside and outside the EU alike, with the registration described in joining the EU VAT register.
So an owner outside the EU who assumes that the 24 % on the gross is the whole story is usually wrong in both directions: there is more to file than they thought, and there is a cost folder worth keeping even though none of it is deductible from the rent today.
What tips the balance on your Spanish property
For most people, nothing. You live where you live, and the rate follows. What the rate should change is the decisions around the property rather than the property itself: how heavily to finance it, given that interest is not deductible from outside the EU; whether to let it at all in a year when it will be used by the family for much of the season; whether to hold it personally, which is the subject of buying personally or through a company; and how carefully to keep the improvement invoices that will reduce the gain when you sell.
It should also change how seriously you take the residence certificate, which is the one line on this page where a small administrative habit is worth thousands of euros. We track ours for clients and tell them before it lapses; the arrangement is on the pricing page.
Pierre and Richard, neighbours on the same landing
Pierre and Richard bought twin apartments in the same Mijas development in the same year. They list them on the same platform at the same price, and each collects about 18,000 € a year for some 180 nights. Pierre lives in Lyon; Richard in Manchester. Each flat has 8,000 € of annual costs — community, IBI, insurance, utilities, cleaning, commissions and depreciation — and a recently revised rateable value of 110,000 €. For the other 185 days each flat is at its owner's disposal.
| Same flat, one year | Pierre (France) | Richard (United Kingdom) |
|---|---|---|
| Rental income | 18,000 € | 18,000 € |
| Deductible costs (8,000 × 180/365) | 3,945 € | 0 € |
| Base of the rental return | 14,055 € | 18,000 € |
| Rate | 19 % | 24 % |
| Tax on the rent | 2,670 € | 4,320 € |
| Tax on imputed income (base 613 €) | 116 € | 147 € |
| Total a year | 2,786 € | 4,467 € |
| Over ten years | 27,860 € | 44,670 € |
The imputed income base is the same for both: 110,000 × 1.1 % × 185/365 = 613 €. The difference, 1,681 € a year, comes mainly from the base, not the rate: the more a flat costs to keep, the more being outside the Union weighs.
The cheaper side is not free
Pierre's depreciation comes back on the day he sells. What he deducts each year reduces the acquisition value of the flat and increases the gain by the same amount; at 19 % on both sides, that is more a deferral than a saving. It is still worth claiming, but the running total has to be kept, as explained in minimum depreciation when you sell.
What the expensive side can still decide
Richard cannot change the rule, but he can change two decisions that depend on it. Financing: mortgage interest is not deductible from outside the Union, so extending the loan to refurbish has to be costed without that relief, which Pierre would have. And his own use: at 24 % on the gross, every let week leaves less, and for some owners outside the Union letting less and using the flat more comes out better than it looks.
When moving country fixes nothing
Some owners outside the Union consider changing residence. If the move is real — you retire and go to live in Portugal or in Spain — Modelo 210 changes, but so does far more: your new country of residence taxes your worldwide income. Move to Spain and you stop being a non-resident altogether, with all your pensions, accounts and investments inside Spanish income tax and its reporting obligations. Nobody should move house for the sake of one apartment's Modelo 210, and anyone moving for other reasons should look at the whole picture before fixing the date. The comparison of the two certificates you may meet along the way is in ordinary or treaty residence certificate.