Form 210 for residents of Iceland

19 %, and costs come off

Item	Your position
Non-resident income tax rate	19 %
Inside the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein?	Yes — Iceland is named expressly
Costs deductible against rent?	Yes, apportioned to the days actually let
Residence certificate	Issued by Skatturinn
Rental return	Annual, 1 to 20 April from the 2026 tax year

The reason is the European Economic Area. Spanish law extends the favourable treatment to residents of States bound to Spain by equivalent arrangements for mutual assistance and the exchange of tax information, and the EEA agreement carries those obligations. Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein qualify; Switzerland, for all its proximity, does not. So an Icelandic owner deducts loan interest, building charges, the Spanish local property tax, insurance, repairs, letting commission and a depreciation allowance, apportioned to the days actually let, and pays 19 % on what is left. A British owner of the identical flat pays 24 % on the gross.

It is worth insisting on this because we have seen Icelandic owners filed at 24 % by advisers who read a general article and stopped there. On 14,000 € of rent from 120 nights against 8,500 € of costs, the correct Spanish tax is around 2,130 € and the incorrect one is 3,360 €. Over five years that is a meaningful sum, and the years in which it was overpaid can be looked at.

Two returns for one property

• Rental income, one filing for each property and each owner, covering the whole year. For 2024 and 2025 the window was 1 to 20 January; from the 2026 year it becomes 1 to 20 April of the following year, under Order HAC/623/2026.
• Imputed income for the days the property was available to you, 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 share and to the days, filed under period code 0A.

Spain files by owner rather than by household, so a couple with one apartment produces four returns a year. The imputed income charge is the one that surprises owners who bought for their own use: a flat that was never let still generates an annual Spanish filing, because the charge arises from the property being at your disposal. See imputed income.

Your Skatturinn certificate

To be taxed at 19 % and to rely on the double taxation convention between Spain and Iceland, which dates from the early 2000s, you need a current certificate of residence from Skatturinn. Spain accepts it for one year from its date. Given how often the Icelandic position is misread, we would go further than usual here: make sure the certificate is on the file before the return goes in, because it is the document that proves you belong on the favourable side of the line, and an officer who has not got it in front of them will apply the treatment they can justify rather than the one you are entitled to.

What happens at the Icelandic end

Iceland taxes its residents on worldwide income, so the Spanish rent belongs on the Icelandic return as well, with relief for the Spanish tax paid on the same income. The relief is limited to the Icelandic tax attributable to that income, and because the two systems compute the taxable figure differently — the Spanish apportionment of costs to days let has no Icelandic counterpart — the two returns will not show the same number. That is expected.

There is also a currency dimension that is more than cosmetic. Rent, costs and Spanish tax are all in euros; your Icelandic return is in krónur. Conversions have to be made on a consistent and documented basis, which is why the statements we issue carry dates and references rather than annual totals alone.

What goes wrong with Iceland

• Being taxed at 24 % by mistake. The single most expensive error available to an Icelandic owner, and the easiest to make.
• A full year of costs against a short season. The apportionment is compulsory.
• Nothing filed in a year with no tenants. Imputed income applies regardless.
• One return for two owners. Spain has no joint filing.
• Treating the 3 % withheld on a sale as final. It is a payment on account and frequently exceeds the tax due.

If you have been overtaxed, the years can be reopened

Because the Icelandic position is so widely misread, this deserves its own section rather than a line in a list. Spanish law allows a taxpayer who has filed a self-assessment to ask for it to be rectified where the figure declared was wrong to their disadvantage, and the request can be made within the general limitation period, which runs for four years. An Icelandic owner who has been filed at 24 % on the gross rent, when the correct treatment was 19 % on the rent after apportioned costs, has overpaid on both counts at once, and the years still inside that window can be put right.

What the claim needs is ordinary evidence: the residence certificates for the years in question, the returns as filed, proof of the tax paid, the invoices for the costs and a defensible record of the nights let. If the invoices were never kept because nobody thought they mattered, the costs side of the claim is weaker, but the rate point stands on the certificate alone. Send us what you have and we will tell you honestly which years are worth pursuing and which are not.

Our method with Iceland

We register each property and each owner, take the rateable values, count the nights let from your statements, apportion the costs, prepare each return and send you the figures before filing — at the rate you are actually entitled to. If you have been filed at 24 % in earlier years, tell us and we will look at whether those years can still be corrected. We write in English or Spanish and the fee is fixed, on the pricing page; or simply tell us about the property. The general rules are in our guides to non-resident property tax and form 210.

Few owners, and badly served by what they read

Icelandic owners in Spain are not as numerous as Norwegians or Swedes, which has an odd effect: almost nothing is written with them in mind. They tend to be couples who bought on the Costa Blanca or in the Canaries to escape the dark winter, spend a few weeks there and leave the flat with an agency. They search online, read «outside the EU, 24 %» and believe it. Some local agencies do the same, because charging the general rate and asking for no invoices is less work. The owner pays for that convenience.

Guðrún and Einar: each owner's figures

They own an apartment on the Costa Blanca, 50 % each. In 2026 the agency lets it for 84 nights for 9,800 € and takes 1,960 € of commission. Annual costs — community, IBI, insurance, utilities and depreciation — total 4,900 €. The rateable value is 64,000 € and, in this example, the municipal valuation is over ten years old, so imputed income runs at 2 %.

Costs cut to the nights let: 4,900 × 84 / 365 = 1,127.67 €. Net rent of the flat: 9,800 − 1,960 − 1,127.67 = 6,712.33 €; each owner, 3,356.17 €, which at 19 % is 637.67 €. Imputed income: 64,000 × 2 % = 1,280 € a year; for 281 days, 985.42 €; each half, 492.71 €; at 19 %, 93.61 € a head.

For each spouse	Filed correctly (19 %)	Filed as non-EEA (24 % on gross)
Rental return	637.67 €	1,176.00 €
Imputed income return	93.61 €	118.25 €
Total per person	731.28 €	1,294.25 €

Between the two of them, 1,462.56 € against 2,588.50 €, in four returns a year, two each.

Why Reykjavík sits with Oslo and Vaduz

Iceland's place in the 19 % group is technical, not geographical. The law extends EU treatment to the states of the European Economic Area with which Spain has effective mechanisms for exchanging tax information and assistance. Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein have them; Switzerland, which is not in the EEA, does not qualify even though it exchanges information too. That is the explanation to give when somebody tells you «outside the Union you pay 24 %». If an agency files for you, ask each year for copies of all four returns and check the rate, whether costs appear and whether each of you has your own.

The first year runs from the date of the deed

The purchase year has its own arithmetic. Imputed income is not calculated for the whole year but from the day you signed the deed to 31 December, less any nights already let, and that year's costs are apportioned over the days the flat was yours. Buy in October and let nothing until spring, and the first year produces only a small imputed income return for a little under three months — but it still has to be filed. The year of sale works the same way in reverse, up to the date you stop owning it.