Registration in Andalusia
The property is declared to the Consejería de Turismo of the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, by responsible declaration, and the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía issues a code which in this province reads VUT/CO/00000. It belongs in every listing. Supreme Court judgment 620/2026 annulled the national single register and left the Andalusian one untouched.
In the historic centre there is a layer above the register: the municipal plan, which governs what a building may be used for, and heritage protection, which governs what may be done to it. Both are local decisions, both evolve, and both are checked from the deed and the planning certificate for the specific address rather than summarised in general terms.
The return, and the rate
| Your position | What you file |
|---|---|
| Resident in Spain | Net rental profit inside your income tax return |
| Self-employed for this activity | Modelo 130 and Modelo 303 quarterly, Modelo 390 in January |
| Non-resident | Modelo 210 per property and per owner, with imputed income for the days at your disposal |
Non-residents pay 19 % with costs deductible if resident in the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, and 24 % on the gross with no deductions otherwise. Córdoba ownership is largely local, so most files run through the personal income tax return, but the city has attracted foreign buyers into restoration projects and those files need both halves of the rule.
VAT: the courtyard house and the plain flat
A restored courtyard house with five bedrooms, breakfast served and someone on site has always been lodging rather than letting, and pays VAT at 10 %. The simpler flat round the corner is exempt. Royal Decree-law 26/2026 was to put them on the same footing for short stays by applying 10 % to every let of up to 30 nights; Congress voted it down on 2 October 2026.
The choice of model therefore decides the VAT as well as the invoicing and staffing: a let is exempt only without hotel services. For the plain flat the benefit to come is deduction: once short stays are taxed, the VAT on restoration work and running costs invoiced to you from then on can be recovered. When that will be is unknown, with July 2028 as the limit set in Brussels. The reverse charge on Airbnb and Booking commissions continues through the ROI register and Modelo 349. The same text would have opened the door to a municipal IBI surcharge on tourist homes in stressed residential market areas — up to 50 %, and up to 100 % or 150 % for owners of two or more and four or more — and that provision has gone with the rest.
A calendar with one enormous peak
Spring is the season: Semana Santa, the courtyard festival in May, the fair, and then a steep decline as the temperature rises. Autumn recovers some of it, and winter is quiet. The result is very high rates across a few weeks and very thin demand across several months.
The tax consequence is worth stating plainly, because it surprises people: deductible costs are apportioned by nights let, not by the money those nights produced. A fortnight in May that generates a third of the annual revenue contributes only fourteen days of cost apportionment. The revenue concentration does not buy you a larger deduction, so improving occupancy in the quiet months is the only lever that moves both sides of the calculation.
Restoration, and how the money comes back
Almost every letting project in the old city begins with substantial works. Repairs and maintenance are deducted in the year they are paid, apportioned by nights let. Improvements are not: they increase the value of the asset, are recovered through depreciation over many years, and raise the acquisition value when the property is eventually sold, reducing the gain. Neither treatment is inherently better, but the invoices have to describe the work accurately and a mixed job should be broken down before the builder issues a single line saying "works". We look at the quotes while the wording can still be changed.
Houses without communities, and bills from the city hall
Since 2025 a community of owners can limit or condition tourist letting with three fifths of the votes and quotas. A great many Córdoba properties are independent houses with no community at all, and in those the question simply does not arise. It is one of the structural advantages of the courtyard house over an apartment, and it is rarely mentioned when the two are compared on price.
Waste tariffs and the planning treatment of tourist properties are municipal, vary between councils and change over time, and an assessment that looks wrong can be challenged within a short window. We read the ordinance applying to your address.
Heat, electricity bills and what is deductible
Air conditioning in a Córdoba summer is not a luxury, and the electricity bill of a house with a courtyard and thick walls in July is a serious number. Supplies are deductible in proportion to the nights actually let, like every other running cost, which means that a property let intensively in May and lightly in August deducts a small share of exactly the months when the bills are largest. Two practical consequences: keep the supply contracts in the owner's name so the invoices match the person claiming the deduction, and take meter readings at the start and end of periods of personal use if the family stays there, because that is the evidence that separates your own consumption from the activity's.
Our role in it
Recurring tax compliance, with the restoration spend classified correctly from the start, the costs apportioned honestly against a spiky calendar, and the returns prepared, shown to you and filed on time. From 60 € a month plus VAT, and no tie-in. Pricing · Tell us about the house.
Elena's courtyard house in Santa Marina and its 72,000 € of works
The traditional houses of the old city are enormously attractive to visitors and almost never ready to let. Roofs, wiring, bathrooms and cooling all need doing, inside a protected historic ensemble where works require a licence and must respect the protection. Elena bought one of these houses in 2025 and restored it before letting. She spent 72,000 €: about 12,000 € repairing the roof and repainting, and 60,000 € on new bathrooms, full rewiring and air conditioning in every room. The line between repairing and improving decides how much comes off in year one and how much over many years.
| Work | What it is | How it is deducted |
|---|---|---|
| Fixing roof leaks with the same tiles | Repair | In the year, by the share of nights |
| Painting walls and limewashing the patio | Upkeep | In the year, by the share of nights |
| New, higher-capacity wiring | Improvement | Added to value, depreciated at 3 % |
| Air conditioning in every room | Improvement (installation) | Depreciated over years |
| Two bathrooms where there was one | Improvement | Depreciated |
| Furniture, beds, kitchenware | Furnishings | Depreciated, normally at 10 % |
What restores the house to its former state is a repair and is deducted that year; what makes it better or bigger is an improvement, added to its value and recovered through depreciation. Installations and furniture may carry higher rates than the building under the official tables, which we apply case by case.
Year one, with figures
Elena lives in Córdoba and files her income tax here. In 2026 the house sold 140 nights at an average of 115 €: 16,100 €, with May (the crosses, the courtyards, the fair) contributing a large slice. Direct costs: 15 % commission, 2,415 €, and thirty-five cleans at 50 €, 1,750 €. The year's general costs were IBI 900 €, insurance 420 €, supplies 2,600 € (the cooling shows), the roof and paint repair at 12,000 €, and depreciation of 5,400 € (3 % of 180,000 € of building), 1,800 € (3 % of the 60,000 € improvement) and 800 € (10 % of 8,000 € of furniture). In all 23,920 €, of which 140/365 is deductible: 9,174.79 €. Net rental income: 16,100 − 2,415 − 1,750 − 9,174.79 = 2,760.21 €.
Two details. The repair, although paid in full in 2026, is deducted only by the share of nights let: 4,602.74 €, not 12,000 €. And financing interest plus repair and upkeep costs cannot, together, exceed that property's income for the year; any excess carries forward to the next four. It does not bite for Elena, but with few nights and a big job it would.
With a 72,000 € invoice in hand, the urge is to subtract it in the year it was paid. Even apportioned by nights, Elena would deduct 27,616.44 € and her return would show a loss. A large loss on a freshly restored tourist house draws attention, and the correction brings the difference, interest and very probably a penalty. Before work starts, ask the architect or builder to quote repair and improvement separately: a single invoice for «full refurbishment» has to be unpicked later, and a reviewer will lean towards treating anything unidentified as improvement.
Register once the builders leave, and decide the VAT before they arrive
The responsible declaration for the VUT/CO code is filed when the house already meets the requirements, which means after the works are finished and the dwelling is fit to live in. On VAT, a restored house invites extras such as breakfast in the patio or daily cleaning, and those extras are what move the letting from exempt to 10 %: the decree that would have taxed short stays with or without them was rejected by Congress on 2 October 2026. The mirror image is that, with VAT charged, the VAT on the works could become partly or wholly deductible. That arithmetic belongs before the works, not after; see hotel services and VAT.
On an eventual sale, the gain starts from the purchase price plus the 60,000 € of improvements and the costs of buying and selling, minus every euro of depreciation taken on house and works. The repairs, already deducted, are not added to cost. Invoices filed by category from day one are what make that calculation possible twenty years later.