24 %, and no deduction at all
| Item | Your position |
|---|---|
| Non-resident income tax rate | 24 % |
| Inside the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein? | No |
| Costs deductible against rent? | No — the tax falls on the gross rent |
| Residence certificate | Issued by your cantonal tax administration |
| Rental return | Annual, 1 to 20 April from the 2026 tax year |
The distinction Spanish law draws is about the legal framework for exchanging information and recovering tax, not about geography or good standing. So a resident of Geneva is taxed on the same footing as a resident of Miami, while a resident of Reykjavik is taxed on the same footing as a resident of Madrid. On 18,000 € of rent with 11,000 € of running costs, an Austrian owner pays 1,330 € and you pay 4,320 €. The mortgage interest, the community charges, the local property tax and the agent's commission are all invisible to the Spanish computation.
In July 2026 the Spanish Supreme Court agreed to consider whether excluding residents outside the Union from the deduction offends the free movement of capital, which unlike the other freedoms also protects capital moving to and from third countries. Switzerland is a third country for that purpose. The point is unresolved and nobody should be promised a refund, but the year in which you file is the year you can still protect: we file on the law as it stands and then lodge a claim to rectify, which keeps the year from going out of time while the question is argued.
A great many Swiss residents hold the passport of a Member State, and a great many Spanish nationals live and work in Switzerland. It makes no difference. The Spanish rule asks where you are tax resident, not what is printed on your identity document. A Spanish citizen resident in Zürich is taxed at 24 % on the gross rent from a flat in Alicante.
Your cantonal certificate
Switzerland taxes at three levels and the residence certificate comes from the cantonal tax administration of the canton where you live, not from a single federal office. Spain accepts it for one year from its date, so it is an annual errand, and the practice differs from one canton to the next: in some it is a routine online request, in others a written application. Start early, ask for the calendar year that matches the Spanish return, and keep the expired ones for later queries. The convention between Spain and Switzerland goes back to 1966 and has been amended by protocols since, most significantly in the direction of information exchange; for rental income its operation is straightforward, since immovable property is taxed where it stands.
What happens in Switzerland
Swiss practice with foreign real estate is distinctive and generally favourable. A Swiss resident is not taxed again in Switzerland on income from a property situated abroad; the property and its income are excluded from the Swiss base. They are, however, taken into account in determining the rate applied to the income and the wealth that Switzerland does tax. The Spanish flat therefore tends not to generate Swiss income tax of its own while nonetheless lifting the rate on your Swiss salary, pension or portfolio.
The same logic applies to the cantonal wealth tax, which is one of the features that most surprises owners arriving from countries without one. The Spanish property forms part of your declared worldwide assets, exempted from the Swiss charge itself but counted in fixing the rate. And there is a Spanish counterpart to bear in mind as well: Spain levies its own wealth-type charge on property held here by non-residents, with its own thresholds and its own valuation rules. Where both are in play the interaction needs to be looked at rather than assumed. Our note on the Spanish wealth tax covers the Spanish half.
Finally, a currency point that matters more than it sounds. Everything Spanish happens in euros and your Swiss return is in francs. Rent, running costs and Spanish tax paid all need converting on a consistent basis, and the dated receipts we issue exist so that your fiduciaire can do it defensibly.
We are Spanish lawyers and we advise on Spanish law. Swiss taxation varies by canton and commune and we do not give advice on it. Keep your own adviser in Switzerland; we will supply the Spanish figures, dated and itemised.
The Spanish machinery
- One form 210 per property and per owner. There is no joint return, so a couple with one flat files four returns a year once the imputed income filings are counted.
- Rental income annually. The 2024 and 2025 years fell between 1 and 20 January; from the 2026 year the window is 1 to 20 April of the following year, under Order HAC/623/2026.
- Imputed income on the days the flat was at your disposal, at 1.1 % of the rateable value if it was revised in the last ten years and 2 % if not, under period code 0A.
- On a sale, 3 % of the price is withheld by the buyer as a payment on account. It is not the final tax and is often more than the tax due.
How we handle Switzerland
We register the properties and the owners, take the rateable values, count the nights let, prepare every return and send you the figures before filing, and where the deduction argument is worth keeping alive we file and then claim rectification. We track your cantonal certificate. We write in French, English or Spanish, and the fee is fixed and published on the pricing page. Tell us about the property and we will tell you what it would cost. The rules are set out in our guides to non-resident property tax and form 210.
Two ways of owning from Switzerland
The first belongs to Spaniards who emigrated to Switzerland decades ago, mainly from Galicia, Asturias or León, and inherited or bought a house in their village. They live in Zurich, Geneva or Lausanne, come back for a month in summer, and the house is shut the rest of the year. Almost none of them think it has to be declared in Spain, because it produces nothing. The second is the Swiss owner, often retired, who bought in Alicante, Málaga or the Canaries for the winters and lets now and then, assuming that a country at the heart of Europe with so many agreements with the Union gets the same treatment as a German. The free movement agreement does not put Switzerland in that group for this tax.
The village house: what not letting costs
María and her brother Andrés live in the canton of Zurich and inherited the family house in a village in Ourense, half each. It is recorded as urban in the Catastro, with a rateable value of 46,000 €, and the municipality's valuation has not been revised in the last ten years, so 2 % applies. In a year with no letting the house is at their disposal all 365 days: 46,000 × 2 % = 920 € of imputed income. Each declares half, 460 €, at 24 %: 110.40 € each per year, one Modelo 210 apiece.
Suppose instead that in 2026 they let it through a platform for 45 nights in summer and collect 6,000 €. Each declares 3,000 € of rent at 24 %, 720 €, with no deduction for commission or cleaning. Imputed income falls to 320 days: 920 × 320 / 365 = 806.58 €, 403.29 € each, 96.79 € of tax.
| For each sibling | Not let | Let for 45 nights |
|---|---|---|
| Rental Modelo 210 | — | 720.00 € |
| Imputed income Modelo 210 | 110.40 € | 96.79 € |
| Total | 110.40 € | 816.79 € |
The sums on a shut house are small, which is why they are forgotten. But they are due every year, and forgotten years with surcharges added stop being small.
Imputed income is calculated per registered owner and per share, not per user. If the house is in the names of three siblings, each files, even if only one spends the summer there. And if someone lives in it and pays something, that is already a letting and is declared as one.
Urban or rustic? The Catastro decides
In the villages of the north-west, not everything that looks like a house is recorded as urban property. Imputed income applies to urban property and to certain buildings on rustic land; an unbuilt rustic plot does not generate it. Before calculating anything, check in the Catastro's online office how each plot in your names is classified, because many Galician or Leonese inheritances include meadows and vegetable gardens alongside the house that produce no return at all. Over-declaring is no better: imputed income paid on a plot that does not generate it is money paid for nothing. Your cantonal tax office, not a single federal one, issues the residence certificate, and the procedure varies from canton to canton.