The register, and what the land is
A responsible declaration to the Consejería de Turismo of the Junta de Andalucía, the regional government, places the property on the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía and produces a code in the VUT/CA/00000 format for the province of Cádiz. The code goes in every listing. Supreme Court judgment 620/2026 annulled the single state register and left the Andalusian one in force.
Much of the Tarifa letting stock sits outside the town, on plots along the coast road and inland towards the sierra, where the planning classification of the land is not uniform. That classification can determine whether a property may be let to tourists at all, and it is checked from the deed and the planning certificate rather than assumed.
At some point a long stay is a tenancy, not a tourist let
A guest who books for three months, registers with the utilities in their own name or treats the property as their home is not, in substance, a tourist. The difference matters: an ordinary residential lease sits outside the tourism rules, is taxed on its own basis with its own treatment of costs, and carries tenant protections that a holiday booking does not. Tarifa produces more of these borderline stays than anywhere else on this coast. Decide what each booking is before it starts, and paper it accordingly.
Which return you file
| 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 |
Nineteen per cent with deductible costs for residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein; 24 % on the gross for everyone else. Tarifa has an unusually international ownership for a small town, much of it German, Dutch and French, which places most non-resident owners in the lower band.
VAT: the stay, and the surf school beside it
Where a property comes with board, equipment hire, lessons or a camp, the question is whether those services break the VAT exemption on the letting. Royal Decree-law 26/2026 would have taxed the letting itself at 10 % on every stay of up to 30 nights and reduced the matter to how the package is split and invoiced; since Congress rejected it on 2 October 2026, both questions are open. A surf or kite school that also houses its pupils is running two businesses, and they should be looked at together.
A let without those services stays exempt, for a week or for a season. The reverse charge on platform commissions continues: Airbnb from Ireland, Booking from the Netherlands, self-accounted by you via the ROI register and Modelo 349. The 10 % on short stays is due back by July 2028, the date in Directive (EU) 2025/516; which wind season it first catches is not yet known.
A wind season, not a sun season
Demand here follows the levante and the poniente rather than the school holidays, which stretches the season from spring into late autumn and keeps a trickle going through winter. That is good for the accounts: deductible costs are apportioned by the nights actually let, so a longer season carries more of the annual community fees, IBI, insurance, waste charge, supplies, mortgage interest and building depreciation into the return.
Long stays also cut the administrative load. Ten bookings of three weeks each produce a fraction of the changeovers, cleaning invoices and reconciliation work of sixty weekend bookings for the same nights. On the other hand they concentrate the risk: one difficult long guest affects a quarter of the year.
Guests who work here, and the question it raises
A guest who stays for months and works remotely may be creating tax consequences for themselves in Spain, and they occasionally ask their host about it. It is not your obligation and you should not answer it, but it is worth knowing that the question exists and that there is a proper answer to it, because a guest who gets it wrong can become a problem for the property. We deal with that side of things for individuals separately; for you, the relevant point is simply to keep the letting documented as a letting.
Communities, votes and local charges
Since 2025 a community of owners can limit or condition tourist letting with three fifths of the votes and quotas. Many properties here are independent, in which case nothing can be imposed; where there is a community, the statutes and recent minutes are worth reading before you commit.
Waste tariffs and the planning treatment of tourist properties are set by the town hall, vary and change, and an assessment that looks wrong can be challenged within a short window. We check the ordinance in force at your address.
Deposits, damage and what counts as income
Long stays and equipment-heavy guests mean deposits, and deposits are frequently mishandled in the accounts. A security deposit held and returned is not income: it is money you are holding for someone else, and putting it through the return as rent overstates your taxable result. A deposit retained because of damage is different, and so is a payment received as compensation. The distinction has to be visible in the records, which means the deposit shown separately on the booking, the retention documented with the reason, and the repair invoiced. The same applies to cleaning fees charged to the guest, which are income with a matching cost rather than a neutral pass-through. None of this changes the tax by much in a good year; it changes it a great deal in a year with a claim.
What we keep on top of
Recurring compliance for Tarifa owners, including the classification of long stays, the apportionment of costs against real nights, and the filings 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.
From a week of kiting to a whole season as an instructor
Many owners here are themselves foreigners who discovered the place on a board and ended up buying. Their guests arrive with kites, stay a week if the levante blows and, in some cases, the whole season. Each kind of stay is a different legal animal:
| Guest | Stay | What it normally is |
|---|---|---|
| Couple coming to sail | 3 to 10 nights | Tourist let: VUT registration |
| Family in August | One or two weeks | Tourist let |
| School instructor | April to October | Seasonal lease with its own contract |
| Worker staying all year | Twelve months or more | Residential lease |
The instructor spending the season in Tarifa is not on holiday: they work there, so their housing sits under another legal category, another contract, and outside the registered tourist activity. For income tax or Modelo 210 every one of these stays is rental income and the days count as let, but the civil and administrative regime changes. The instructor should not occupy the flat under the same tourist listing or on platform bookings renewed week after week; if the stay is seasonal, sign it as such from day one. See tourist or seasonal.
The Munich engineer's Modelo 210 for 2026
An engineer resident in Germany, inside the EU, so 19 % with costs deductible. In 2026 he let his apartment in the town for 150 nights at 120 €: 18,000 €.
- Direct costs: commissions at 15 % (2,700 €), thirty cleans at 45 € (1,350 €) and the person who hands over keys and deals with problems, at 10 % (1,800 €). Total 5,850 €, in full.
- General costs: IBI 650 €, community 800 €, insurance 280 €, utilities 1,400 €, and depreciation at 3 % of 140,000 € of building value, 4,200 €. Total 7,330 €; deductible, 7,330 × 150/365 = 3,012.33 €.
- Net income: 18,000 − 5,850 − 3,012.33 = 9,137.67 €.
- Tax: 9,137.67 × 19 % = 1,736.16 €.
- Imputed income for 215 days: cadastral value 110,000 € at 1.1 %, a base of 712.74 € and tax of 135.42 €.
The 2026 rent goes on a single annual return filed from 1 to 20 April 2027 (by 15 April with direct debit); the imputed income for that year is filed between 1 April and 31 December 2027 (23 December with direct debit). To apply 19 % with costs, keep a German tax residence certificate on file. The code for this province starts VUT/CA, and an owner abroad can file the responsible declaration with a digital certificate or through a representative.
If he retires to Tarifa for good
Some kiting owners end up spending more time here than at home. Whoever stays in Spain more than 183 days in a calendar year, or has the core of their interests here, becomes Spanish tax resident: Modelo 210 gives way to Spanish income tax on all income, German income included, with the double tax treaty's rules. A big change better planned before it happens than discovered after; see the residence certificate. Likewise the friend who borrows the flat free in June: those days are not let, support no costs and count as days at the owner's disposal for imputed income. Recording them keeps them apart from paid nights.
Buying here to let: 7 % transfer tax and an expensive plot
A buyer of a resale home in Andalusia pays transfer tax at a general rate of 7 %, plus notary, land registry and conveyancing fees. All of it forms part of the acquisition cost and so of the depreciation base, less the share attributable to land. With land prices as high as they are in Tarifa, that split weighs heavily, because only the building depreciates; it is normally made using the proportion in the cadastral value. If the seller was not Spanish resident, the buyer also had to withhold 3 % of the price, as explained in the 3 % withholding. A board store or wind information for guests changes nothing for VAT; cleaning during the stay or serving breakfast are hotel-type services, which still matter on lets of more than 30 nights.