The tourism register, and the layer above it
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 in the VUT/MA/00000 format for the province of Málaga. The code goes in every listing. Supreme Court judgment 620/2026 annulled the state-wide single register and left the Andalusian one in force.
In a protected historic centre there is a second layer to check before the first guest: what the building is allowed to be used for under the municipal plan, and whether any heritage protection attaches to it. Neither is a tax question, both are municipal or regional, and both can stop a project that is otherwise sound. We confirm the position from the deed and the planning certificate.
The return follows your residence
| 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 303 quarterly, Modelo 390 in January |
| Non-resident | Modelo 210 per property and per owner, plus imputed income for the days it was available to you |
Non-residents in the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein pay 19 % and deduct their costs; everyone else pays 24 % on the gross with no deductions. Ronda's ownership is mixed, with a notable presence of northern European buyers who restored a town house, so both halves of that rule get used here.
VAT: letting or lodging, a gap that is still open
A restored town house with four bedrooms, breakfast on the terrace and a member of staff on site is the textbook case of lodging rather than letting: it pays VAT at 10 % while the plain holiday let next door is exempt. Royal Decree-law 26/2026 would have closed that gap by putting stays of up to 30 nights at 10 % in both cases, but Congress rejected it on 2 October 2026.
So the distinction is intact. It decides whether a let is exempt, whatever its length, and it bears on how the income is taxed. What will change for everyone, once the EU-driven reform arrives (by July 2028 at the latest), is the paperwork: an invoice for each stay, a quarterly Modelo 303, and deduction of the VAT on renovation and running costs incurred from then on. The reverse charge on platform commissions applies as before: Airbnb from Ireland, Booking from the Netherlands, through the ROI register and Modelo 349. Nothing has changed for the plain let without services, which remains exempt.
One night at a time
The Ronda booking is typically one or two nights, often booked late, frequently in spring or autumn and thin in the depths of winter. That produces a high number of changeovers relative to nights sold, so cleaning, laundry and consumables weigh heavily in the cost base, and a pricing model built on a coastal weekly rate will not survive contact with it.
For tax, the relevant consequence is that deductible costs follow nights actually let. A property selling 130 nights across 70 bookings recovers roughly a third of its annual IBI, insurance, supplies, community fees where they exist, mortgage interest and building depreciation. Improving that ratio is mostly a commercial exercise, but it has a direct tax dividend.
Restoration work, and how it is recovered
Almost every letting project in the old town starts with building work, and how that spend is treated matters more here than almost anywhere. Repairs and maintenance that keep the property usable are deducted in the year they are paid, apportioned by nights let. Work that improves the property or extends its life is not deducted immediately: it increases the value of the asset, is recovered through depreciation over many years, and raises the acquisition value when the property is eventually sold. The invoices have to describe the work accurately for either treatment to hold up, and a single invoice for a mixed job should be broken down before it is issued.
Communities, and the bills from the town hall
Since 2025 three fifths of a community of owners can limit or condition tourist letting. Many Ronda properties are independent houses with no community, in which case the point is moot and that is worth knowing when comparing an old-town house with an apartment. Where a community exists, read the statutes and the recent minutes before you spend.
Waste tariffs and the planning classification of your address are decided by the town hall, vary between municipalities and change over time. If a bill looks wrong it can be challenged within a short window, so it is worth reading rather than paying blind. We look at the ordinance that governs your address.
The records the deduction depends on
Everything on this page assumes you can prove what you are claiming. In practice that means four things kept from the start: the purchase deed, which fixes the acquisition value and feeds the depreciation calculation; the occupancy calendar, which fixes the proportion in which every cost is deducted; the invoices, issued to the owner rather than to a spouse or a company and describing what was actually done; and the platform or agency statements showing gross bookings and each commission separately. None of it is difficult while it is happening and all of it is painful to reconstruct three years later. A file assembled contemporaneously survives a query in a fortnight; the same facts without documents can take a year and still lose.
Our part of it
We handle the recurring compliance: the register and planning position confirmed at the outset, the restoration spend classified correctly, costs apportioned against real occupancy, and returns filed on time with the draft shown to you first. From 60 € a month plus VAT, and no tie-in. Pricing · Tell us about the property.
Carmen's three guest rooms above her own home in San Francisco
A two-storey house by the old walls in the San Francisco quarter, inherited by a Ronda resident who lives on the ground floor and lets the three rooms upstairs, each with its own bathroom. Since 2025 she serves a home-made breakfast included in the price, because guests asked for it and the reviews show it. The Andalusian tourism rules distinguish between letting a whole dwelling and letting rooms, with different caps on guest numbers; both are registered with a VUT/MA code. Adding services changes the analysis twice. On the tourism side, depending on what is offered, the accommodation may stop being a tourist dwelling and fit another class of establishment, something to check before advertising breakfast. On the tax side the effect is immediate: breakfast is a hotel-type service, so from the day she offered it Carmen charges VAT at 10 %, files Modelo 303 each quarter and Modelo 390 each January, and in return deducts the VAT on her purchases. Her 2026:
| Item | Base | VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 420 room-nights at 75 € plus VAT | 31,500 € | 3,150 € charged |
| Breakfast shopping | 3,200 € | −320 € paid |
| Laundry of sheets and towels | 2,400 € | −504 € paid |
| Share of utilities used by the rooms | 1,800 € | −378 € paid |
| Booking commission (15 % of 34,650 €), reverse-charged | 5,197.50 € | 1,091.48 € charged and deducted |
| VAT payable for the year | 1,948 € |
Booking invoices from the Netherlands, so Carmen must be on the intra-EU operators register, self-charge the VAT and file Modelo 349; since her activity is now taxable, that VAT is deducted in the same return and nets to nothing. And a price note: if she advertises 82.50 € a night with breakfast, her invoice base is 75 € and the other 7.50 € is VAT owed to the tax office. Owners moving into VAT often keep their old price without noticing part of it is no longer theirs.
The costliest mistake in Ronda: starting breakfasts, or daily room cleaning, and still treating the letting as exempt rental income. The tax office recharacterises it from the first quarter with services: VAT never charged that comes out of the owner's pocket, missing payments on account, interest and often a penalty. Before adding a service, update your census registration on Modelo 036.
From rental income to a small hospitality business
With hotel-type services the profit is no longer property income but business income. Carmen needs the right activity heading in the census, and under the direct assessment method files Modelo 130 each quarter, a payment on account of 20 % of the year's accumulated profit:
- Income before VAT: 31,500 €.
- Costs: Booking commission 5,197.50 €, breakfasts 3,200 €, laundry 2,400 €, utilities 1,800 €, IBI and insurance for the guest part 600 €, and depreciation of that part 1,440 € (3 % of 40 % of 120,000 € of building value).
- Net profit: 31,500 − 5,197.50 − 3,200 − 2,400 − 1,800 − 600 − 1,440 = 16,862.50 €.
- Payments on account in the year: 20 % of 16,862.50 = 3,372.50 €, credited later against her income tax.
A habitual business activity may also require registration as self-employed with Social Security, depending on volume and time devoted; that is analysed before starting. See Modelo 130 and choosing the activity heading.
The 40 % of the house that works
Because she lives downstairs, the part of the house used for the business must be separated on a defensible basis; floor area is the strongest, and here it gives 40 %. The part she lives in produces no deductible depreciation and no imputed income, being her main home. Beds, mattresses and furniture in the three rooms depreciate at 10 % a year: 6,000 € of new furniture means 600 € of expense a year for ten years, often forgotten in the first return. Her four quarterly dates are 1 to 20 April, July and October and 30 January, each with Modelo 303 and 130, plus Modelo 349 in quarters with EU platform commissions; spring and autumn carry the most tax, with a hot summer somewhat quieter.