19 %, on the profit rather than the turnover
| Item | Your position |
|---|---|
| Non-resident income tax rate | 19 % |
| Inside the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein? | Yes |
| Costs deductible against rent? | Yes, apportioned to the days actually let |
| Residence certificate | Ansässigkeitsbescheinigung from Finanzamt Österreich |
| Rental return | Annual, 1 to 20 April from the 2026 tax year |
Because Austria is a Member State, Spanish law puts you on the favourable side of its only distinction between foreign owners. Loan interest, the charges of the owners' association, the Spanish local property tax, buildings insurance, repairs, letting commission, the utilities you bear and a depreciation allowance on the building all reduce the base before the rate applies. They are then cut back to the proportion of the year during which the property was genuinely let, on the view that an expense running through a month when the flat stood empty served your own enjoyment of it rather than the production of taxable rent.
So the nights are the hinge. On 13,000 € of rent from 110 nights against 8,000 € of annual costs, the deductible slice is roughly 2,410 €, the taxable profit roughly 10,590 € and the Spanish tax roughly 2,010 €. Keep a log of arrivals and departures that agrees with the bank account and the platform statements, and that arithmetic is defensible. Keep nothing, and the deduction evaporates.
Two charges, one apartment
- Rental income, one return for each property and each owner, gathered into a single annual filing. The 2024 and 2025 years fell between 1 and 20 January; from the 2026 year the window moves to 1 to 20 April of the following year, under Order HAC/623/2026.
- Imputed income for every day the property was simply at your disposal, at 1.1 % of the rateable value where that value was revised within the last ten years and 2 % where it was not, scaled to your ownership share and to the days, filed under period code 0A.
Spain has no joint assessment and no household unit. A married couple owning one apartment between them files two rental returns and two imputed income returns every year, each on their own half. The figure that surprises Austrian owners is the second one: a flat used for six weeks in February and otherwise empty produces almost no rent and still produces a Spanish tax bill, because the charge attaches to availability rather than to use. Our note on imputed income explains the mechanism.
Your certificate
The 19 % rate and the double taxation convention between Spain and Austria both depend on proving where you live. Since the reorganisation of the Austrian tax administration, residence certificates for individuals come from Finanzamt Österreich rather than from a local office, which in practice has made the request simpler and more uniform. Spain treats the certificate as valid for one year from its date, so it is an annual errand: ask for the calendar year the Spanish return covers, and keep the expired ones, because a Spanish query about an old year is answered by that year's certificate and not by the current one. The convention itself is a long-standing one, dating from the 1960s and amended since; for rental income its effect is uncontroversial, because immovable property is taxed in the country where it stands.
What happens on the Austrian return
Austria taxes its residents on worldwide income, so the Spanish letting is reported at home as well. For income from immovable property, Austrian treaty practice has generally been to exempt the foreign income from Austrian tax while taking it into account in fixing the rate applied to the income Austria does tax. The consequence is one Austrian advisers explain routinely and everyone else finds counter-intuitive: a good summer in Spain may produce no Austrian tax on the Spanish rent itself and still raise the effective rate on an Austrian salary or pension. Whether that method or a credit applies to your particular receipts in your particular year is a matter of Austrian law and belongs to your own adviser.
The two computations will not agree. Austrian rules on deductible costs and on depreciation are not Spanish ones, and the Spanish apportionment to days let has no Austrian equivalent. What matters is that the Spanish tax actually paid is evidenced and attributable to a named property, a named owner and a named year, which is how we issue our receipts.
We are Spanish lawyers and our advice covers Spanish law. What is written above about Finanzamt Österreich and about Austrian relief is orientation so that you know what to ask and of whom. Keep your Steuerberater; we will give them Spanish figures they can use.
The mistakes that cost money
- Claiming a full year of costs against a short letting season. The apportionment is compulsory and its absence is the most frequent reason a file is reopened.
- Declaring only the weeks with tenants. The rest of the calendar carries imputed income.
- Filing a single return for a couple. Spain files by owner, every time.
- Allowing the certificate to lapse. Without a current one your favourable treatment is unproven, and the authorities are entitled to say so.
- Treating the 3 % withheld on a sale as the final tax. It is a payment on account and, where the gain is modest, a large part of it is recoverable — if somebody claims it in time.
How we handle Austria
We set up each property and each owner once, take the rateable values, count the nights let from your statements, apportion the costs defensibly, prepare every return and send you the figures before anything is filed. We diarise the certificate. We write in English or Spanish, and the fee is a fixed monthly figure published on the pricing page. If your case has an unusual feature, describe it and we will quote for it. The rules behind all of this are in our guides to non-resident property tax and form 210.
Herbert and Ingrid: half each, one winter and one summer
The typical Austrian owner on the Costa del Sol or in the Axarquía did not buy to run a business. They bought to escape the winter in Vienna, Graz or Salzburg. Herbert and Ingrid own a flat on the coast east of Málaga, 50 % each. In 2026 they live in it from January to March and, through a local agency, let it for 60 summer nights for 7,200 €. The agency keeps 20 %, 1,440 €. Their annual costs are 1,300 € of community charges, 520 € of IBI, 340 € of insurance, 1,200 € of utilities and 2,400 € of depreciation. The rateable value is 95,000 € and, in this example, the municipal valuation is more than ten years old, so 2 % applies.
The summer letting
The commission comes off in full. The 5,760 € of year-round costs are cut to 60 nights: 5,760 × 60 / 365 = 946.85 €. Net profit of the flat: 7,200 − 1,440 − 946.85 = 4,813.15 €, of which each spouse carries half, 2,406.58 €. At 19 %, each pays 457.25 €.
The remaining 305 days
The winter months they lived there and the months the flat stood shut count the same: 305 days at their disposal. 95,000 × 2 % = 1,900 €, which over 305 days becomes 1,587.67 €. Each half, 793.84 €, is taxed at 19 %: 150.83 € a head.
| Return | Herbert | Ingrid |
|---|---|---|
| Modelo 210 on the summer rent | 457.25 € | 457.25 € |
| Modelo 210 on imputed income | 150.83 € | 150.83 € |
| Per person for 2026 | 608.08 € | 608.08 € |
Four returns for one flat and 1,216.16 € between them. In a year with no letting at all the two rental returns disappear and the imputed income covers all 365 days.
It is the phrase we hear most from Austrian owners, and it is the wrong way round. The year without tenants is the year the imputed income covers twelve months. Skipping it rarely shows at once: it surfaces years later, in a letter addressed to the Spanish flat that nobody opens until the following winter.
The figure that drives the winter charge is on the IBI bill
The whole imputed income calculation starts from the rateable value, printed on the annual IBI bill sent by the town hall or the provincial collection office. If the bill does not show it, the online Catastro office gives it from the cadastral reference. What the bill does not say is whether the municipality's valuation was revised in the last decade, which is what separates 1.1 % from 2 %. We check that before calculating, because an error there repeats every year. Each spouse also needs their own certificate from Finanzamt Österreich, since each files separately.
If one of you is no longer there
It is a subject few want to raise, and in older couples with a house in Spain it eventually arrives. The half that belonged to the spouse who died passes under the rules of the succession, and because the flat is in Spain the heir deals here with succession tax and the municipal land value tax. From then on the annual returns change too: the survivor declares the share they now hold, and any other heirs theirs. Nothing needs deciding today, but keep the deed and the latest IBI bill where you can find them: they are the first two papers asked for when things get complicated. The Spanish side is in inheritance and gift tax, and an Austrian will should be discussed with your notary there.