Declaring the sale of your Spanish property

What happens on the day of the deed

When a non-resident sells Spanish property, the buyer is obliged to withhold 3 % of the agreed price and pay it over to the tax authority using form 211, within one month of the deed. The buyer is not doing you a favour or being difficult: if they fail to withhold, the property itself answers for the amount, so no properly advised buyer will complete without it.

Three per cent of the price has no necessary relationship to the tax on your gain. If you sell at a loss, it is money simply held by the Spanish state. If you have owned the property for twenty years and it has trebled, it will not cover the bill. Either way, what settles the matter is your own return afterwards.

The sequence after completion

1. Get a stamped copy of form 211 from the buyer. Ask for it at the notary, in writing, as a condition of completion. It is your evidence that the 3 % was actually paid, and chasing a buyer who has moved on is unpleasant. The buyer has one month from the deed to file it.
2. Build the acquisition value. Not just the price you paid: add the transfer tax or VAT you bore on the purchase, the notary and registry fees, the agency commission, and the cost of improvements — improvements, not repairs — each with an invoice in your name.
3. Build the transfer value. The price received, less the costs and taxes of selling: agency commission, notary, the energy certificate, any local capital gains tax you bore as seller.
4. Work out the gain as the difference between the two, and apply the rate for capital gains of non-residents, which is 19 % regardless of where you live.
5. File Modelo 210 for the gain within three months counted from the end of the one-month period the buyer had. In practice: four months from the deed, and it is a hard deadline.
6. Deduct the 3 % already withheld. If the tax is higher, you pay the difference. If it is lower, you claim the excess back in that same return, giving an account for the refund.
7. Deal with the municipal capital gains tax separately, with the town hall, on the increase in land value. Two methods of calculation exist and you are entitled to the lower; where there has been no increase in land value, there is nothing to pay, but that has to be claimed and evidenced rather than assumed.

A worked example

A British couple sell a flat near Marbella for 320,000 €. They bought it in 2009 for 210,000 € and paid 16,800 € of transfer tax and 3,200 € of notary, registry and agency fees on the purchase. They can evidence 22,000 € of improvements with invoices in their names. Selling costs come to 12,500 €.

Item	Amount
Transfer value: 320,000 less 12,500 of selling costs	307,500 €
Acquisition value: 210,000 plus 16,800 plus 3,200 plus 22,000	252,000 €
Gain	55,500 €
Tax at 19 %	10,545 €
Withheld by the buyer: 3 % of 320,000	9,600 €
Still to pay, split between two owners	945 €

Without the improvement invoices, the gain would have been 77,500 € and the tax 14,725 €, so a folder of builders' invoices was worth 4,180 € to them. That is the single most valuable habit for any owner of a Spanish property: keep every invoice for work done, in your own name, with your NIE on it, for as long as you own it.

Filing as two owners, and other complications

A property held jointly produces one return per owner, each declaring their share of the gain and their share of the withholding. If one spouse is resident in Spain and the other is not, they are in two entirely different systems for the same sale. Where the seller inherited the property, the acquisition value is the one declared for succession tax, not a notional figure, together with the tax and costs borne on that inheritance.

And if the property was your main home at some point, or if you are moving to another home within the EU, there are reliefs that have to be actively claimed and evidenced. They do not apply by default, and they are not available in every situation.

The documents to have ready on completion day

• Your purchase deed, and the receipt for the transfer tax or the VAT invoice from that purchase.
• Invoices for improvements, in the owner's name, with the NIE on them.
• The selling agent's invoice and the notary's bill.
• A current tax residence certificate for each seller.
• The IBI receipt for the current year, which the buyer will also want, and evidence of who bore the municipal land tax.
• Proof that the community of owners is paid up to date, which the notary will require in any event.

What to do if you are selling in the next few months

Start with the years, not with the sale. Confirm which returns exist for the property, collect the invoices now while the folder is still to hand, and ask the estate agent to put the 211 into the completion checklist. Then the filing afterwards is arithmetic rather than archaeology.

The wider decision — timing, what the buyer will ask for, what arrives at the notary — is set out in selling as a non-resident. The capital gains filing itself is quoted as a one-off job; see the pricing page for the range, and tell us the completion date through the contact form so the deadline is diarised from the deed.

Els and Ruud: a house in Torrox, two sellers in Utrecht

Els and Ruud sell the house in Torrox they bought in 2012 and used for holidays. At the notary the buyer keeps back 3 % of the price and tells them "that is for the tax office". They fly home to the Netherlands believing the sale is settled. It is not: the gain still has to be declared, and depending on their numbers the 3 % may be more or less than they owe. If they file nothing, any shortfall will be claimed with a surcharge or a penalty, and any excess stays with the Spanish state.

They sell for 275,000 €. They paid 180,000 € in 2012, plus 14,400 € of transfer tax and 2,600 € of notary, registry and agency fees. They hold invoices in their names for 15,000 € of improvements, a new kitchen and an enclosed terrace. Selling costs, including the municipal capital gains tax they agreed to bear, come to 9,800 €. They never let the house, so there is no depreciation to subtract.

Item	Amount
Transfer value: 275,000 less 9,800 of selling costs	265,200 €
Acquisition value: 180,000 plus 14,400 plus 2,600 plus 15,000	212,000 €
Gain	53,200 €
Tax at 19 %	10,108 €
Withheld by the buyer: 3 % of 275,000	8,250 €
Balance to pay, split between the two owners	1,858 € (929 € each)

Without the kitchen and terrace invoices, the gain would have been 68,200 € and the tax 12,958 €: that folder was worth 2,850 € to them. They filed their two Modelo 210 returns in the third month, paid 929 € each and closed the sale properly. Had the house been let, the depreciation of those years would have come off the acquisition value, as explained in minimum depreciation on a sale.

Selling at a loss still needs a return

It seems there is nothing to declare, and the reverse is true: without a Modelo 210, the 3 % withheld stays with the tax office. The loss-making return is what claims the whole withholding back. It cannot be set against other Spanish income, because under non-resident tax each item of income is declared on its own, and it does not pass automatically to your country of residence; how your own system treats the sale is for your adviser there, to whom we pass the Spanish figures. Refunds are not quick, so file early within the window and check that the account given belongs to the sellers.

Deadlines and papers side by side

What	Who	When
3 % withholding, Modelo 211	Buyer	One month from the deed
Modelo 210 for the gain	Each seller	The three months after the buyer's month
Municipal capital gains tax	Usually the seller	Under the local by-law; on a sale, generally within thirty working days
Tax residence certificate	Each seller	Before the deed; valid for one year
Invoices for purchase, improvements and sale	Each seller	Gathered before signing

The linked deadlines, with sample dates, are in the timetable of a non-resident sale.