The register applies here too
Any dwelling in Andalusia let to tourists is declared to the Consejería de Turismo of the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, through a responsible declaration, and receives a code from the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía. In this province it reads VUT/J/00000 and it has to appear in your advertising. Supreme Court judgment 620/2026 annulled the national single register; the Andalusian one remains in force. Owners inland sometimes assume the register is a coastal affair. It is not.
Which of the three cases is yours
| 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, plus imputed income for the days at your disposal |
Non-residents pay 19 % with deductible costs if resident in the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, and 24 % on the gross otherwise. In practice almost every Jaén file is a Spanish-resident file, which means the letting result goes into the personal income tax return and the whole exercise turns on documentation.
Low occupancy makes every deduction count
Demand in Jaén is real but modest: weekend visitors, cultural tourism, oil-related business travel, university families, and a season that never spikes. A property letting fifty or seventy nights a year is normal. Because deductible costs are apportioned by the nights actually let, that means only a sixth or a fifth of the annual IBI, insurance, community fees, waste charge, supplies, mortgage interest and building depreciation reaches the return.
The conclusion is not to give up on deductions but the opposite: when the fraction is small, leaving out the largest cost line makes a proportionally bigger difference. Depreciation of the building is that line, and it is the one most often omitted. It is computed on the construction value from the deed and the cadastral split, not on the price paid, and it needs setting up once.
VAT: the stay, and the experience around it
Inland lettings are frequently sold as an experience — an olive-mill visit, a tasting, breakfast, a guided walk. Those services put the VAT exemption at risk. Under Royal Decree-law 26/2026 the stay itself was to carry VAT at 10 % whenever it ran to 30 nights or fewer, but Congress rejected the decree on 2 October 2026, so the design question remains what you supply yourself and who invoices each part. Where a third party invoices the guest directly the position differs.
A let with no services is exempt at any length. A first Modelo 303 for VAT on the rent is not on the calendar: the measure has no start date, and Directive (EU) 2025/516 gives July 2028 as the limit. The reverse charge on platform commissions applies meanwhile: Airbnb from Ireland, Booking from the Netherlands, through the ROI register and Modelo 349.
Empty months and imputed income
For a Spanish-resident owner, the nights nobody books are simply nights nobody books. For a non-resident, every day the property stands at your disposal produces imputed income calculated on the cadastral value. Inland cadastral values are lower than coastal ones, so the figure is smaller here, but it is still a return that has to be filed and a bill that has to be paid, and it arrives whether or not anybody stayed.
Communities, houses and municipal charges
Since 2025 a community of owners can limit or condition tourist letting with three fifths of the votes and quotas. Where the property is a house with no community, which is common in the older parts of the province, no such restriction can be imposed. Where there is a community, read the statutes and the recent minutes before committing money.
Waste tariffs and the planning treatment of tourist properties are municipal decisions, they vary between councils and they change, and an assessment that looks wrong can be challenged within a short window. We check the ordinance in force at your address rather than repeating one from a larger city.
If you have let for years without declaring it
It happens more inland than on the coast, usually because the sums felt too small to matter. The way out is to come forward before the tax office writes to you: the cost is then a surcharge that grows with the delay, rather than a penalty. Since the platforms report bookings, the letters are generated automatically, and the difference between the two routes is substantial on several years of unfiled returns.
Guests who want to pay in cash
In a low-volume inland market a good proportion of bookings still arrive by telephone and want to settle in cash, and there is nothing unlawful about being paid that way within the legal limits on cash payments. What is unlawful is not recording it. The income exists whether or not it passed through a bank, and a letting that shows deductible costs across a season but declares income only for the weeks booked through a platform describes a pattern that does not make sense on its own terms. Keep a simple record of every stay with the dates, the amount and the guest, issue a receipt, and bank the takings. It costs nothing while it is happening and it is the difference between a file that answers a query and one that invites a second.
What we cover
Recurring compliance for inland owners: depreciation set up, costs apportioned honestly against a modest season, imputed income handled where it applies, drafts shown to you, filings on time. From 60 € a month plus VAT, and no tie-in. Pricing · Tell us about your case.
Fifty-five nights by the Cathedral: let it, or lock it?
Manuel lives in his own house in Jaén and inherited a flat two streets from the Cathedral from his mother. In 2026 he let it for 55 nights at 70 €: 3,850 €. At that occupancy the real question is not how to fill in the form but whether letting is worth it at all.
- Per-stay costs. Commission at 15 %, 577.50 €; eighteen cleans at 30 €, 540 €.
- Annual bills. IBI 350 €, community 420 €, insurance 180 €, supplies 800 € and depreciation of 1,500 € (3 % of 50,000 € of building value): 3,250 €, of which 3,250 × 55/365 = 489.73 € is deductible.
- Net rental income. 3,850 − 577.50 − 540 − 489.73 = 2,242.77 €.
- Imputed income for 310 unlet days. Cadastral value 60,000 € at 2 %: 1,200 × 310/365 = 1,019.18 €.
- Total the flat adds to his return. 3,261.95 €.
| Scenario | Income | Taxable base | Tax at 30 % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat closed all year | 0 € | 1,200.00 € | 360.00 € |
| Let for 55 nights | 3,850 € | 3,261.95 € | 978.59 € |
| Difference | 3,850 € | 2,061.95 € | 618.59 € |
Closed, the flat would still have produced imputed income for the whole year, 1,200 €. What the letting really adds is 2,061.95 € of base: about 619 € of tax against 3,850 € of takings, before counting Manuel's time and the wear on the flat. The fuller comparison is in let it or leave it empty.
Two levers that are easily confused
Over Easter Manuel could charge considerably more, and some owners here earn almost their whole year in that week. A higher price per night raises the profit without touching the cost split, which depends only on the number of nights. More nights at a lower price, on the other hand, cut imputed income and raise deductible costs. Know which lever you are pulling.
The inheritance value, and a farmhouse among the olive groves
Manuel's depreciation starts from the value at which the flat entered his estate: the inheritance tax figure plus the costs and taxes of the inheritance, land excluded. If that figure was low, so is the depreciation, and today's market value cannot replace it; as with any property, the 3 % applies to the higher of that cost or the cadastral value, both without land. Many families here also own a house out in the country. That is not a tourist dwelling in the sense of the Andalusian rules, which are built around homes on residential land: rural lodgings have their own regulation and requirements, and whether the building's planning status fits depends on the plot.
Selling instead, or stopping properly
Many heirs end up considering a sale. The gain is computed with the inheritance value as cost, plus expenses, minus the depreciation that could have been deducted while letting, even if it was not: another reason to apply it every year. The municipal plusvalía is added, calculated by two methods with the lower one payable; see municipal plusvalía. If Manuel instead decides letting does not pay, taking the advert down is not enough. The VUT/J entry should be cancelled with the Junta, and his registration in the EU operators register, if he took one out for platform commissions, withdrawn on Modelo 036. From then on the flat simply produces imputed income for the whole year, and coming back later means a fresh responsible declaration, examined under whatever rules then apply.