The register and the code
A property let to tourists in Andalusia is declared to the Consejería de Turismo of the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, through a responsible declaration (declaración responsable). The Registro de Turismo de Andalucía returns a code which, for the province of Málaga, reads VUT/MA/00000, and that code must appear in your advertising. Judgment 620/2026 of the Spanish Supreme Court annulled the single state register; the regional one was not affected and remains the only register that counts.
Nerja has a high proportion of small buildings and terraced houses rather than large complexes, which means the registered holder is usually the owner in person rather than a management company. That is simpler, and it also means nobody else is watching the deadlines for you.
Which return lands on you
| Your position | What you file |
|---|---|
| Resident in Spain | The 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 | A Modelo 210 per property and per owner, with imputed income for the days it stood at your disposal |
German, Dutch, Belgian and Nordic owners are inside the 19 % band as residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, and they deduct the running costs of the letting. That band is the reason a Nerja file usually produces a smaller bill than an equivalent British-owned property, which pays 24 % on gross rent with nothing deductible. Same flat, same guests, different arithmetic.
VAT: the line is still cleaning during the stay
For years the dividing line has been the stay itself: cleaning before arrival and after departure keeps the Article 20.Uno.23 exemption, cleaning while the guest is there does not. Royal Decree-law 26/2026, published in the BOE on 30 September 2026, would have made that line irrelevant for short stays by taxing a furnished home let for up to 30 nights at the reduced rate of 10 %, exactly like a hotel room.
Congress did not ratify it. The vote of 2 October 2026 went against the decree-law, so the 10 % has no start date; what exists is a ceiling, July 2028, in Directive (EU) 2025/516. When a new text is approved, we adjust your file the same day. Our note on holiday let tax explains what the change will mean for your returns.
The reverse charge on platform commissions stays. Airbnb invoices from Ireland and Booking from the Netherlands; the Spanish VAT on those commissions is accounted for by you, which requires an EU VAT number on the ROI register and a Modelo 349. It was the obligation we most often found missing on otherwise tidy files. Until the rent is taxed that VAT does not wash out on the return, and the forms still have to be filed.
Eight months on, four months off
Nerja's season is long by Spanish standards but it is not the whole year, and the shape of it drives everything in the accounts. Deductible costs are apportioned by the nights actually let, so a property working 200 nights carries well over half of its community fees, IBI, insurance, waste charge, supplies, mortgage interest, repairs and building depreciation into the return, while one working 90 nights carries under a quarter.
The corollary for a non-resident is the winter. Every day the property is at your disposal and not let generates imputed income on the cadastral value. Nobody enjoys paying tax on an empty flat in January, but that is the design of the system, and the only lawful way to reduce it is to let more nights or to stop having the property available.
Small buildings, and a three-fifths vote that is easy to reach
Since 2025 a community of owners can limit or condition tourist letting with three fifths of the votes and participation quotas. In a block of eight flats, three fifths is five owners, and five owners can be found around a table. That makes the community question sharper in Nerja than in a 200-unit complex where assembling any majority is a project. Read the statutes before buying, read the minutes before refurbishing, and if a resolution has already been passed, have it looked at rather than assuming it binds you automatically.
What the town hall charges, and what it classifies
Waste tariffs and the planning treatment of tourist properties are municipal decisions. They differ between councils, they change, and in some places the waste tariff applied to a holiday flat is closer to the hotel rate than to the residential one. We read the ordinance in force at your address rather than repeating a figure from a neighbouring town, and if a bill looks wrong we say so in time to do something about it, because the window to challenge an assessment is short.
Refurbishments, and the deduction people miss
Old-town properties in Nerja need work, and there is a distinction worth understanding before the builder starts. A repair that keeps the property in use is deducted in the year it is paid, apportioned by the nights let. An improvement that extends the life of the building or adds something new is not; it increases the value of the asset and is recovered through depreciation over many years, and it also raises the acquisition value when you eventually sell. Neither treatment is better in the abstract, but they have different cash-flow consequences and the invoice has to describe what was actually done. We look at the quotes before the work, when the wording can still be corrected.
What our clients hand over
We run the recurring compliance for owners in Nerja and the Axarquía: platform statements in, costs apportioned against real occupancy, imputed income calculated for the closed months, drafts shown to you before anything is filed. From 60 € a month plus VAT, and no tie-in. See the pricing or tell us about the property.
Aoife's 9,000 € refurbishment near the Balcón de Europa, split three ways
Much of Nerja's housing went up between the 1970s and the 1990s in low blocks around the centre, in Burriana and on the slopes towards the coves: good terraces and locations, kitchens and bathrooms of their time. Owners compete with modern apartments on platforms where every photo counts, and sooner or later they refurbish. Aoife, from Cork, bought a one-bedroom flat in 2004. In spring 2026 she repainted, fixed the bathroom, installed air conditioning in the living room and bedroom and changed the furniture. She let it for 110 nights, spent two months there herself and left it closed the rest of the year. Living in Ireland, she files Modelo 210 at 19 % with costs deductible.
For tax, a refurbishment is not one thing. Repairs and upkeep that restore the property are deducted in the year. Improvements that add something new or extend its life are depreciated year by year. Furniture and installations depreciate at their own rate, faster than the building.
| Item | Amount | Treatment | Annual expense |
|---|---|---|---|
| Painting and bathroom repair (replacing what was there) | 2,800 € | Repair and upkeep | 2,800 € in 2026 |
| Air conditioning in two rooms (none before) | 3,600 € | New installation, 10 % a year | 360 € |
| New furniture | 2,600 € | Furniture, 10 % a year | 260 € |
| Total | 9,000 € | 3,420 € in 2026 |
Not even those 3,420 € are deducted whole, because the flat was not let all year: they join the pool of annual costs apportioned by days let. The repair/improvement split also matters on sale, since improvements add to the acquisition value; see improvement or repair.
The error we meet most in Nerja: deducting all 9,000 € in the Modelo 210 for the year of the works. The result comes out negative or close to nil, the return looks fine, and years later the tax office rejects the part that was improvement or furniture, with tax, interest and often a penalty. Keep invoices broken down by item; a single invoice for a «full refurbishment» makes the genuine repair very hard to defend.
A façade levy is upkeep; a new lift is not
In the older blocks, community levies are as frequent as private refurbishments and follow the same logic. If the community repairs the façade, waterproofs the roof or fixes the downpipes, Aoife's share is deducted in the year paid, in proportion to days let. If it installs a lift where there was none, her share adds to the building value and depreciates at 3 %. The administrator's bill usually just says «levy»; ask for the minutes of the meeting that approved it, because they say what the money was spent on. Interest and repairs together cannot exceed that year's rental income; the excess is not lost but carried into the next four years, so someone has to keep count.
Aoife's Modelo 210 for 2026, works included
- Income: 110 nights at 105 €, 11,550 €.
- Direct costs: 15 % commission, 1,732.50 €, and 25 cleans at 50 €, 1,250 €.
- Annual costs: community 840 €, IBI 360 €, insurance 220 €, utilities 1,300 €, building depreciation 1,740 € (3 % of 58,000 € of building value), the 2,800 € repair and 620 € depreciation on air conditioning and furniture. Total 7,880 €; for 110 days, 2,374.79 €.
- Net: 11,550 − 1,732.50 − 1,250 − 2,374.79 = 6,192.71 €. At 19 %, 1,176.61 €.
- Imputed income: 255 days between her two months there and the closed months. Cadastral value 62,000 € at 2 %: 866.30 €, which at 19 % is 164.60 €.
Total: 1,341.21 €. Deducting the whole refurbishment would have cut that year's bill considerably and left a review open for four years. For a repair to count, the invoice must be in the owner's name with the right NIE, the flat's address and a description of the work, and in both names where there are two owners; cash paid to a builder without an invoice cannot be deducted, however visible the work.
Country houses towards Maro
A reform that changes capacity or layout does not require a fresh registration, but the register's data must keep matching reality. Farmhouses in the municipality, towards Maro and the sierra, are another matter: a rural property may fit a different category, the rural tourist dwelling, under its own decree and requirements, and before that the house needs a planning status that allows its use as a dwelling. And note that the VAT Aoife paid on the works could not be recovered while her letting was exempt: it is part of the expense or of the depreciable value.