A property sale by someone who is not resident in Spain does not create one formality: it creates four clocks that start on the same day and stop at different moments, before three different authorities and with two different people responsible. On signing day at the notary everyone leaves happy, and from then on deadlines start running that nobody remembers. This guide is the complete calendar, with example dates, and with the steps that are not about tax but get forgotten all the same.
The overall picture
| Clock | Who meets it | Before whom | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modelo 211, paying in the 3 % withheld | The buyer | Agencia Tributaria (the Spanish tax agency) | One month from the transfer |
| Plusvalía municipal (the town hall's tax on the increase in land value) | The buyer, as substitute for the non-resident seller | The town hall | Thirty working days for transfers between living persons |
| Modelo 210 for the capital gain | The seller | Agencia Tributaria | The three months following the end of the 211 period |
| Refund of the excess withheld | The administration | — | General period of six months from the end of the filing period |
A sale signed on 12 March, day by day
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 12 March | Escritura, the public deed signed before a notary. 3 % of the price is withheld and the seller receives 97 %. Every deadline starts counting. |
| From 13 March to around 25 April | Thirty working days for the plusvalía municipal. The count is in working days, leaving out Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, local ones included, so the exact date depends on the town's calendar. |
| 12 April | Last day to file and pay Modelo 211. One day later and there is a surcharge. |
| 12 April to 12 July | The three-month window for the seller's Modelo 210 on the gain. |
| 12 July | Last day for the 210. From here on, a surcharge if there is tax to pay. |
| Until 12 January of the following year | General six-month period for the refund to be made, if there is one. |
| Following year | Modelo 210 for imputed property income for the days of that year on which you were still the owner. |
| Four years | The limitation period, which runs both ways: for the administration, and for your right to claim a refund. |
It starts when the buyer's deadline ends, whether the buyer has filed or not. If the buyer is late, your clock runs anyway. That is why it is worth asking them for the 211 receipt without waiting for them to remember: you need it to close your return, and they do not always know they have to give it to you.
The forgotten clock: imputed income for the year of the sale
This is the step that drops out of almost every calendar. While you owned a property in Spain that was not let, imputed property income arises every year, and it is declared on a Modelo 210 of its own the following year. The year you sell is no exception: you have to declare the imputed income for the days of that year on which the property was still yours, and that return is filed in the following year, when nobody remembers the sale any more. If the property was let right up to the sale, what is due is the rental income for those months, with its own filing rhythm. It is explained in the guide on imputed income.
What is not about tax but has to be done anyway
- Change of owner in the Catastro, the land registry for tax purposes. When the transfer is made by public deed and the notary sends the information on, the Catastro usually updates itself, but it is worth checking: if it does not, next year's IBI (the annual municipal property tax) will still come to you.
- The IBI for the year of the sale. The tax falls due on 1 January and is owed by whoever was the owner on that day, although it is common to agree an apportionment in the contract. If it was agreed, it has to be carried out; if it was not agreed, it will not appear by itself.
- Utilities and the community of owners. Cancelling or transferring electricity, water and gas, and telling the community's administrator. A forgotten direct debit keeps charging for months.
- The Spanish bank account. Do not close it until the refund, if there is one, has been paid.
- Home insurance. It is cancelled on the sale, and sometimes refunds the unused premium.
What happens if each deadline is missed
| Deadline missed | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Modelo 211 | A late-filing surcharge payable by the buyer, and the property stays charged with the debt until the situation is put right. |
| Plusvalía municipal | A surcharge or a penalty depending on how the local bylaw collects it, and where the seller is non-resident, the one answerable to the town hall is the buyer. |
| Modelo 210 with tax to pay | A surcharge for a late return filed without a prior request, which starts at 1 % and rises by one point for each full month of delay, under the rules of article 27 of the General Tax Act (LGT) explained in its own guide. |
| Modelo 210 showing a refund | No surcharge, because there is no debt, but the right to claim the refund expires after four years. |
And it drops by 25 % if it is paid within the period given in the surcharge notice and neither the debt nor the surcharge itself is appealed. The difference between filing late on your own initiative and waiting for the request to arrive is the difference between a surcharge and penalty proceedings: as soon as there is a prior request, the surcharge door closes.
The order in which it makes sense to do it
The legal calendar is one thing and the sensible order of work is another. This is the one we follow:
- Before the deed. Check each seller's tax residence, set out in the contract who withholds, who pays in the 211 and who pays the plusvalía municipal, and ask for the latest IBI bill. This is what prevents 90 % of later problems, and it takes an afternoon.
- The week of the deed. Gather the original purchase deed, the receipts for the costs back then and the invoices for building work. It is the moment when they can still be found.
- First month. The buyer files the 211 and hands the copy to the seller. The plusvalía municipal is filed, or applied for, depending on what the town's bylaw requires.
- Second and third months. The gain is calculated with every item and it becomes clear whether the 210 ends in a payment or a refund.
- Fourth month. The 210 is filed without leaving it to the last day, because problems with identification details and the bank account show up precisely then.
If you are already late
Being late closes no door, it only makes things more expensive, and there is still a very large difference between putting things right on your own initiative and waiting. The first step is to fix the exact date of the transfer, because every deadline hangs on it; the second, to see which obligations are still open and which are time-barred; and the third, to order the regularisation so that no new front opens before the previous one is settled. The page on voluntary regularisation sets out the general approach, and the guide on the limitation period explains how the four years are counted.
If you would rather we handled it, the starting point is the property sale intake form: with the date of the deed we can already build your real calendar, with the specific dates of your transaction instead of the ones in this guide. What we cannot do is promise that a late filing will have no consequences: what can be done is to reduce them and document them properly.
When there are several owners, or the seller has died
The deadlines do not change, but the files multiply and preliminary steps appear that eat up weeks.
| Situation | What is added to the calendar |
|---|---|
| A married couple selling 50/50 | Two Modelo 211 and two Modelo 210, with two tax residences that may differ and two different rates. And two destination bank accounts |
| Several siblings, one of them resident in Spain | Withholding applies only to the non-residents' share, once the one who lives here has proved it. The resident declares their gain on their own income tax return, on a different calendar |
| The owner has died and the heirs are selling | Before selling, the estate has to have been accepted and allotted and the Inheritance Tax settled, which has its own period of six months, extendable. The sale does not start until that is done |
| A non-resident sells through an attorney under a power | You have to check that the power of attorney also covers the tax steps that come afterwards, not only signing the deed. It is a very common oversight and leaves the 210 impossible to file |
Many powers of attorney are granted with only the notary in mind. If the seller then leaves and cannot sign or identify themselves to the administration, the return on the gain and the refund stay blocked until a new power is granted from abroad, with its legalisation or apostille and its translation. It is the most avoidable delay in the whole transaction, and it is avoided by reviewing the power before signing.
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