Why this lands on the buyer
Where the seller of Spanish property is not tax resident in Spain, the law requires the buyer to withhold 3 % of the price and pay it over to the tax office on form 211. That 3 % is a payment on account of the seller's tax, not a tax of yours: you hand the seller 97 % and the remaining 3 % goes to the Spanish treasury in the seller's name.
The deadline is one month from the date of the transfer, and it does not bend. Afterwards you give the seller a copy of the filed form, which is what they need in order to declare their gain and reclaim anything withheld in excess.
The property becomes security for the seller's tax. In plain terms, the tax office can pursue the house you have just bought, even though you paid the full price and did nothing wrong. It is a liability that travels with the deed, which is why it matters to the next buyer as well as to you.
How to tell whether the seller is non-resident
This is not a question of nationality, and it is not answered by the identity document the seller produces at the notary's office. A Spaniard who has lived in London for ten years is non-resident. A German who has lived in Málaga for ten years is resident. The passport tells you nothing.
- What proves residence is a certificate of tax residence issued by the Spanish tax administration — not municipal registration, and not a residence card. We explain the document on its own page.
- If the seller does not produce that certificate, the prudent course is to withhold. The exposure for failing to withhold is yours; the exposure for withholding when you did not have to is the seller's, and it is resolved by them reclaiming from the tax office.
- The notary usually flags it, but it is not the notary's obligation to carry out the withholding. The obligation is the buyer's, and so is the consequence.
- Where there are several sellers, look at each one. Withholding is applied on the share belonging to those who do not live here, not on the whole price.
The figure the 3 % is applied to
It is 3 % of the agreed consideration — the purchase price in the deed. Costs and taxes are not deducted from it, and the fact that the seller may end up with no taxable gain at all makes no difference to your obligation. If the seller expects a refund, the route to it is their own form 210, filed after yours and within three months of the end of your one-month window.
Where the price is paid in instalments, or part of it is retained in escrow, the withholding is still calculated on the full agreed consideration. Where the transaction is an exchange or a contribution rather than a sale, the rules differ and it is worth checking the specific case rather than assuming.
Put it in the deposit contract, not in the deed
The practical moment to deal with this is months before completion. Spanish purchases normally run through a private deposit contract first — the arras — and that is the document in which to record that 3 % of the price will be withheld and paid over on form 211, and that the seller will produce either a residence certificate or nothing at all. Sellers who learn about the 3 % at the notary's desk tend to argue about it there, which is the worst possible place and time.
The same contract is where to settle the municipal tax on the land, which in a sale by a non-resident is also legally the buyer's to pay over. Two obligations, both the buyer's, both usually a surprise.
Our part in the 3 % on your purchase
- Before completion, we check the seller's position and tell you whether there is a withholding and on exactly what figure.
- We prepare form 211 from the details of the deed and tell you how and when to pay it.
- We file it inside the month and give you the receipt, together with the copy the seller needs.
- We leave the file with you, because that receipt is the proof that the property no longer answers for anything. Keep it: the next buyer's lawyer will ask for it.
And if what you have done is sell rather than buy, the other side of this is selling Spanish property when you live abroad.
Your case, in two minutes
What applies to the 3 % on your purchase, in two minutes
The form for this service asks only what matters here. At the end you have your map of obligations, the deadlines running against you and a fixed price.
What the 3 % on your purchase costs
| Work | Price |
|---|---|
| Form 211: preparation, filing and receipt | 210 € |
| Checking the seller's residence position beforehand | included |
| Where the month has already passed and the position has to be corrected | from 290 € |
| Municipal land tax as substitute for the seller | 175 € per property |
Taxes included. Sending us the deed is enough to start.
If the month has already gone
File as soon as possible. Filing late on your own initiative attracts the surcharge under article 27 of the General Tax Act, which starts at 1 % and rises by one point for each full month of delay, and it removes the charge over the property. Waiting until the tax office raises it instead produces a penalty on a much larger base. The comparison, and the way we work through it, is set out on filing late.
Where the 3 % sits in the whole sale
It helps to see the sequence, because the two sides have different deadlines and each depends on the other. Day zero is the deed. Within one month, the buyer pays over the 3 % on form 211 and hands the seller a copy. Within three months of the end of that month, the seller files form 210 on the real gain, using the 211 as the credit against it. Only then does any refund start running, and the administration has six months from the end of the filing period before it begins paying interest.
Which means a buyer who files late does not merely risk their own position: they hold up the seller's return and the seller's refund, and that is where the arguments start. It is worth doing inside the month for that reason alone.
The situations that complicate it
- Several sellers with different residence positions. Withholding applies to the share of those who are non-resident. A married couple where one spouse has moved back to Spain and the other has not is more common than it sounds.
- An inherited property. Heirs living abroad selling what they inherited are non-resident sellers like any other, and the inheritance tax position has to be settled and registered before the sale can complete at all.
- A price partly retained. Retentions for outstanding community charges or for works do not reduce the agreed consideration, so the 3 % is still calculated on the full figure.
- A mortgage taken over by the buyer. It forms part of the consideration and therefore part of the base.
Questions we are asked about the 3 % on your purchase
The seller assures me they are resident. Is that enough? Ask for the certificate of tax residence issued by the Spanish tax administration. Without that document, prudence says withhold, because the person answering for a failure to withhold is you.
Does the 3 % come out of my pocket? No. It is deducted from the price you pay the seller: they receive 97 % and you pay 3 % over in their name.
I have missed the month. What now? File immediately with the surcharge. It is far cheaper than waiting to be chased, and it clears the property.
What figure is the 3 % calculated on? The agreed consideration, meaning the sale price. Neither costs nor taxes are deducted.
I am buying off-plan, or from a non-resident company. Does it still apply? The obligation arises where the transferor is a non-resident without a permanent establishment, whether an individual or a company. There are particular cases — contributions, reorganisations — that are worth looking at one by one.