The tourism register
A responsible declaration to the Consejería de Turismo of the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, brings the property onto the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía and produces a code of the form VUT/MA/00000, which must appear in your advertisements. Judgment 620/2026 of the Supreme Court annulled the single state register and did not touch this one.
Note what the register covers: short tourist stays marketed as such. A six-month winter let to the same person under an ordinary residential lease is a different animal, outside the tourism rules, and with its own tax treatment. Many Fuengirola owners do both in the same year, which is where the confusion starts.
One flat, two kinds of income
Income from a long residential let and income from a tourist let are not added together and taxed the same way. They are computed separately, the deductible costs are apportioned to the period each one covers, and the rules on reductions differ. If you are not resident, the days under neither let still produce imputed income. Splitting the year properly is usually worth more than any single deduction.
Which return, and at what rate
| Your position | What you file |
|---|---|
| Resident in Spain | Both kinds of rental income inside your income tax return, each on its own basis |
| Self-employed for this activity | Modelo 130 and 303 quarterly, Modelo 390 in January |
| Non-resident | Modelo 210 per property and per owner, with imputed income for the days the flat was at your disposal |
For non-residents the rate is 19 % with deductible costs if you live in the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, and 24 % on the gross with nothing deductible otherwise. British owners have been in the second group since 2021, and Fuengirola has a very large British and Irish ownership, so this is the single biggest number on most of the files that reach us from here. It cannot be argued away, but it can be planned around, and the planning starts with who holds the title.
VAT: summer weeks and winter months, both exempt today
The exemption in Article 20.Uno.23 of the VAT Act covers holiday lets without hotel services, and it still does. Royal Decree-law 26/2026 tried to change that for stays of up to 30 nights in a furnished home, taxing them at 10 % and leaving longer lets exempt; Congress rejected it on 2 October 2026 and the split never happened. It will come, and it will matter in a town where many flats switch to winter lets for long-staying visitors: the timetable in Directive (EU) 2025/516 runs out in July 2028.
The upside then, if you keep your paperwork, will be deduction: the VAT on cleaning, utilities, repairs and platform commissions can be offset once your short lets are taxed, provided each invoice carries your name and tax number. Alternating short and long lets in the same flat will mean apportioning that input VAT. Airbnb's commission from Ireland and Booking's from the Netherlands already require an EU VAT number on the ROI register and Modelo 349. Which quarterly return will be the first to carry VAT on the rent itself, nobody can tell you yet.
Seasonality is the arithmetic
Fuengirola's season is unusually long because of the winter residents, but it is not uniform. Nightly rates in August and monthly rents in January are different businesses, and the costs have to follow the days each one occupies. Community fees, IBI, the waste charge, insurance, supplies, mortgage interest and depreciation are apportioned across the year according to what the property was doing.
The practical rule we give clients here: keep one calendar, mark every night as tourist let, long let, own use or empty, and keep it contemporaneously. A calendar reconstructed in April for the previous year is worth far less if the tax office asks, and here it often does, because the mixed pattern attracts questions.
The community, and the local bills
Since 2025 three fifths of a community can limit or condition tourist letting in the building. Fuengirola blocks tend to mix permanent residents, winter visitors and holiday flats, and the permanent residents are usually the ones who call the meeting. Read the statutes and recent minutes before you commit, and take advice on a resolution that has already been passed instead of assuming it applies to you automatically.
On waste charges and planning classification, both are set by the city hall, both vary, and both can treat a tourist property differently from a home. We look at the ordinance in force at your address.
Two names on the deed, two sets of returns
Fuengirola properties are very often held jointly, by a married couple, by siblings or by parents and an adult child. Spanish tax follows the deed, not the household. Each owner declares their own share of the income and their own share of the costs, and a non-resident couple owning half each files two Modelo 210 returns, not one. The same applies to imputed income for the days the flat was available. British couples in particular arrive expecting a joint return because that is how they think of the property, and the first year usually needs unpicking. Where the ownership split does not match the reality of who pays and who receives, it is worth fixing on paper before it is questioned rather than afterwards, and any change of ownership between spouses has its own tax cost that should be modelled before it is done.
What we do with Fuengirola
We take over the recurring filings and the arithmetic behind them: splitting the year between the types of letting, apportioning costs by days, preparing the drafts for you to approve, and filing on time. From 60 € a month plus VAT, and no tie-in. Pricing · Send us the case.
Aino's year, month by month
Aino, from Tampere, bought a 1970s flat in the Boliches district in 2009. From November to March she lets it to fellow Finns for one or two months each, usually through the community's own networks. In July and August it goes on a platform to families by the week. In October she comes herself for four weeks. The rest of the year it is closed. Living in Finland, she pays 19 % and may deduct costs; all of it goes on Modelo 210.
| Period | Use | Days | Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| November to March | Seasonal, by the month (1,100 € a month) | 151 | 5,500 € |
| July and August | Tourist, by the week (650 € a week) | 56 | 5,200 € |
| October | Her own use | 28 | — |
| Rest of the year | Closed | 130 | — |
Income 10,700 €. Direct costs: summer platform commission of 780 € (15 % of 5,200 €) and twelve departure cleans at 60 €, 720 €; the winter tenants arrive through the community, so there is no commission. Annual bills (community 960 €, IBI 390 €, insurance 210 €, supplies 1,200 € and depreciation of 1,815 €, being 3 % of 60,500 € of building) come to 4,575 €, of which 207 let days' worth is deductible: 2,594.59 €. Net: 10,700 − 780 − 720 − 2,594.59 = 6,605.41 €; at 19 %, 1,255.03 €. Imputed income covers 158 days, her 28 plus the 130 closed. The 58,000 € cadastral value has not been revised recently, so 2 % applies: 58,000 × 2 % × 158/365 = 502.14 €, or 95.41 € of tax. The year costs 1,350.44 €, rent filed in April 2027 and imputed income later that year, with a Finnish tax residence certificate supporting the 19 %.
This belief produces more fines here than any other. The winter months may not need registration, but once the flat is advertised by the week in summer it is a tourist dwelling and needs its VUT/MA code. That breach is against the Junta's tourism rules, not the tax rules, and is pursued separately. Running two regimes in one flat also means keeping the winter contracts: they are the only proof that those months were not tourist lets.
Winter rent paid in cash, and the heating bill
Between acquaintances, cash or a transfer from a Finnish account is common. However it arrives, it is income. Put the price in the winter contract and make the payment leave a bank trail. Winter tenants here often pay the electricity separately, because heating from November to March is costly. If a tenant reimburses what the meter shows, the reimbursement is rental income and the supplier's bill a cost of that period; if the bill goes straight into the tenant's name, it never enters your accounts. Either works, but choose one and write it into the contract.
When the flat passes to children in Finland
Many flats in the Finnish community were bought thirty or forty years ago, and the question now is what happens when the owner dies. Children living in Finland inherit a Spanish property and have duties here even if they never lived in Fuengirola. Each heir files Spanish inheritance tax on the flat; since the Court of Justice of the European Union held the old treatment of non-residents discriminatory, they can apply the regional rules, and Andalusia has a very broad reduction for children and spouses which, when its conditions are met, leaves many estates owing little or nothing. The town hall assesses the municipal plusvalía, with whatever allowances its ordinance provides. If the heirs keep letting, each files Modelo 210 for their share from the date of death, and the register entry must change holder. What Finnish law says about the estate is for the family's adviser in Finland; we handle the Spanish side. More in inheritance and gift tax.