10 % VAT on holiday lets: start date uncertain · outer limit July 2028. On 2 October 2026 Congress voted down Royal Decree-law 26/2026, which had set 1 December 2026, so that date no longer stands. The outer limit comes from Directive (EU) 2025/516: July 2028. We have it ready for whenever it comes in. Meanwhile we keep handling what is already compulsory today: Form 303 for the reverse-charge VAT on Airbnb and Booking fees, the EU VAT number (ROI) and Form 349.
Why this distinction is still worth money
The line described here decides two things: whether a stay, short or long, is exempt or taxed, and whether, for income tax, the letting is property income or a business. Article 7 of Royal Decree-law 26/2026 would have taxed lets of up to 30 nights at 10 % whether or not hotel-type services were provided, but Congress rejected it on 2 October 2026; that rule now has an uncertain start date and an outer limit of July 2028. See the 10 % VAT on holiday lets.
Article 20.Uno.23 of Act 37/1992 exempts the letting of residential property, but expressly excludes from the exemption lettings in which the landlord undertakes to provide services typical of the hotel trade. Provide them and your letting is a taxable supply at 10 %. Do not, and it is exempt. There is no middle ground, and the label on the contract is irrelevant: what matters is what you have bound yourself to do.
The test: during the stay, not around it
The settled administrative criterion comes back to the same idea: what characterises a hotel is attention to the guest while they are staying. Preparing the property before arrival and cleaning it after departure is what any landlord does between tenants. Attending to the guest during the stay is hospitality.
| This does NOT break the exemption | This DOES break it |
|---|---|
| Cleaning before arrival and after departure | Periodic cleaning during the stay |
| Bed linen and towels provided on arrival | Changing the linen during the stay |
| Handing over keys, a smart lock, online check-in | A reception or concierge available to the guest |
| Wifi, television, working appliances | Breakfast, half board, room service |
| Repairing a fault that arises during the stay | Laundry, ironing or washing the guest's own clothes |
| Leaving tourist information or a map | Luggage storage, or a transfer service you provide |
What changes if you cross the line
Crossing it is not a disaster, it is a different business. You charge 10 % on the accommodation, file form 303 every quarter, keep VAT registers, and — the compensation — recover the VAT on your costs, including the platform commission that is a dead cost to an exempt owner. For short stays this will be the position of every holiday let once the 10 % VAT comes in. Until then it is a choice: with high running costs the recovery side can be worth a surprising amount, which is why some owners cross the line deliberately. What you should not do is cross it by accident and discover it three years later.
Three real situations that confuse people
1. Long stays with a clean every fortnight
A flat let for five or six weeks with cleaning every two weeks is providing a service during the stay. That points towards a taxable supply at 10 %, not to exemption. The length of the let does not rescue it; the service inside it is what counts.
2. Cleaning the guest arranges separately
If the guest contracts the cleaning directly with a company and you have undertaken nothing, your letting remains exempt. The key is who is bound by the contract. Putting a cleaning company's card in the welcome folder is not the same as promising a mid-stay clean.
3. The managing agent who provides the services
If you are the one letting the property but your agent provides hotel-type services in your name and on your behalf, you are providing them. Read your management contract, because a great many of them include a mid-stay clean or a concierge line without drawing attention to it, and the owner signs without registering what it means for VAT.
The question is what you have obliged yourself to do, in writing or in practice. A listing that promises daily housekeeping obliges you even if no guest has ever asked for it. Conversely, a favour done once for a guest who was unwell does not convert your letting into a hotel. Consistency between your listing, your management contract and what actually happens is the best protection there is.
What happens to the rest of your tax position
Crossing into hotel-type services changes the VAT treatment and nothing else automatically — but two consequences tend to follow. The income may be reclassified from property income to business income for income tax purposes, which changes what you may deduct and can bring social security registration into play. And the activity code on your census record should be changed to match, because a census that describes a passive letting while you run a serviced apartment is a visible inconsistency.
The grey zone, and how to live in it
Between the two columns of the table there is a strip of arrangements that do not answer themselves. A weekly towel drop left in the hallway. A key-holder who lives nearby and will come out if the boiler fails. A WhatsApp number answered at any hour with restaurant recommendations. None of these is a reception desk and none is room service, but each of them is somebody attending to a guest during a stay, and a reviewer reading your listing will see them together rather than one at a time.
The sensible way to handle the grey zone is to decide deliberately which side you want to be on and then make everything consistent with that decision. If you want to stay exempt, do not advertise anything that happens mid-stay, keep the management contract free of it, and deal with genuine emergencies as emergencies. If the economics push you the other way — high costs, a serviced product, corporate guests who want an invoice with VAT on it — then go there properly: change the census record, start filing, and take the input VAT you are now entitled to. What does not work is an exempt position on paper and a serviced operation in practice.
Who decides, and how the question gets asked
Nobody rules on this in advance. There is no certificate that says your letting is exempt. The position is one you adopt when you file — or when you do not file — and it is tested only if somebody asks. The question usually arrives in one of three ways: a routine review of an owner whose declared income does not match platform data, a request triggered by a VAT refund claim, or a guest who asks for an invoice with VAT because their employer is paying. That last one catches more owners than the other two combined, because it forces an answer on the spot.
If you have crossed the line without knowing
The worst thing to do is carry on as though nothing has happened. There are voluntary regularisation routes that carry a surcharge and no penalty, and those routes close the moment the Spanish tax office writes to you first. The surcharge starts at 1 % and rises by a point per complete month, to 15 % plus interest after a year; a penalty starts at 50 % of the tax not paid. The arithmetic of moving first is in the surcharge calculator, and if you want somebody to look at your contract before you decide, write to us.
Questions we get asked about your holiday let
What if I only offer breakfast as an optional extra?
Optional does not save it. If you have undertaken to provide it when the guest asks, you are providing a hotel-type service.
I put fresh sheets out for every guest. Does that make my let taxable?
No. That is preparing the property for the next letting, not attending to a guest during their stay.
Is the rate 10 % or 21 %?
10 %. Hotel-type accommodation is taxed at 10 %, and that is the rate Royal Decree-law 26/2026 would have extended to every holiday stay of up to 30 nights before Congress voted it down. See the 10 % VAT on holiday lets.
Does the regional tourism licence decide this?
No. Tourism registration and VAT are separate systems with separate criteria. Holding a licence proves nothing either way about your VAT position.