These fourteen pages are the procedural half of this site. The guides explain how a tax works; these explain how the paperwork moves: which document opens each door, how long the office realistically takes, what the most common rejection looks like and what you do about it. They are written for someone who did not grow up with this system and who has no intention of learning it by trial and error.
If you are a client of ours, most of what follows is already covered by your fee and you will never touch it. We publish it anyway, because an owner who understands why a step exists sends us the right document the first time.
First, the keys to the building
Almost nothing in Spain can be filed on paper any more. Before any tax matter can be dealt with, you need a way of proving who you are to a computer, and there are three of them, which are not interchangeable.
- Getting a digital certificate. The file that signs on your behalf. How to request it from the FNMT, where to prove your identity, how to back it up and why lending it to anybody is a worse idea than it sounds.
- Appointing us at the tax office. The clean alternative: an entry in the register of representatives that lets us file for you without ever holding your credentials. Three ways to do it, including one that works from abroad.
- Getting a NIE before you buy. The foreigner's tax number. Without it there is no deed, no tax return and no bank account. Form EX-15, the fee, the appointment and the route through a consulate.
Then, getting on the register
Being allowed to earn money from a property is one thing; being registered to declare it is another, and the two offices do not speak to each other.
- Registering a holiday let with the tax office. Form 036, the activity code, and the boxes that decide which returns you will be filing for the next ten years.
- Joining the EU VAT register. If you pay commission to Airbnb, Booking or Vrbo, you owe Spanish VAT on that commission yourself. This is the single most commonly unmet obligation we see.
- Transferring a tourist licence. What happens to the registration when a property is bought or inherited, and why a missing co-owner signature is the usual cause of a three-month delay.
Then, the ordinary running of the year
Once you are registered, the year has a rhythm. These three pages are about keeping it boring.
- Paying by direct debit without missing the date. The direct debit window closes days before the filing window, which is where a great many perfectly organised people lose their deadline.
- Sending us your documents: drop them into your folder. What to upload as it reaches you, in what format, and how to do it by email if you would rather.
- Working out whether you provide hotel services. A checklist to settle the question yourself, before an inspector settles it for you. The answer changes your VAT position completely.
And finally, when something has gone wrong
Most people arrive here rather than at the beginning. Nothing on this list is fatal, but all of it gets more expensive the longer it waits.
- Catching up on unfiled Modelo 210. Which years are still open, what the late-filing surcharge costs, and the reason coming forward first is worth real money rather than merely being virtuous.
- Answering a letter from the tax office. Ten working days is the usual answer. What to send, what not to send, and how to buy more time.
- Declaring a sale as a non-resident. The 3 % the buyer withholds, form 211, and how the difference is claimed back.
- Challenging a waste charge. When a town hall bills a holiday flat at the hotel tariff, and what the appeal looks like.
- What your building can do about holiday letting. The three-fifths majority, the vote of the owner who did not attend, and the argument about licences that already existed.
What all of them have in common
Four things come up in every one of these procedures, and they are worth learning once rather than fourteen times.
| The pattern | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The clock starts at notification, not at receipt | An electronic notification is treated as delivered ten calendar days after it is made available, whether or not you opened it. If you are registered for electronic notification, not reading your inbox is not a defence. |
| Working days, not calendar days | Deadlines expressed in days are normally working days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and the holidays are regional as well as national. |
| Nobody tells anybody | The tourism register, the land registry, the cadastre, the tax office and the town hall each keep their own file. Changing one changes none of the others. |
| Silence is expensive | Not answering is treated as a refusal to co-operate, which is itself a penalty and closes off the cheaper routes. Answering to ask for more time is always better than not answering. |
Which of these we do for you
If we keep your books, registrations, powers of attorney, direct debits and routine filings are included in the monthly fee: we do them and tell you when they are done. Contentious work — answering an inspection, challenging a municipal charge, arguing about a community resolution — is quoted separately, because it is legal work rather than bookkeeping and its length depends on how the other side behaves. The prices for the recurring side are on our pricing page, and if you would rather just describe your situation, the two-minute form ends by telling you which of these steps apply to you.