Henrik Dahl is 67, lives in Aarhus (Denmark) and since 2021 has let an apartment in Nerja on a long-term basis. He never filed Modelo 210 for that income: his Danish accountant told him he was already declaring everything in Denmark. In September 2026 a letter arrives by post at his home in Aarhus with an assessment from the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, for non-resident income tax (IRNR) for 2023: 7,900 €, payable by 20 October. He has no Spanish digital certificate, he closed his only account in Spain two years ago and he receives the rent in his Danish bank.
Henrik can defer in exactly the same way as a resident. What changes are the practical obstacles, and those are best resolved before 20 October.
The same rules for everyone
Neither the Ley General Tributaria (the General Tax Law) nor the Reglamento General de Recaudación (the General Collection Regulations) draws any distinction by residence. Article 65 of the law allows the tax debts of any taxpayer to be deferred when their situation temporarily prevents them from paying, and IRNR does not appear on the list of non-deferrable debts in section 2. The conditions are the general ones:
- Apply within the voluntary period to avoid the surcharge.
- No guarantee if the accumulated debt with the Agency does not exceed 50,000 €, under Order HFP/311/2023. As IRNR is managed by the State, that limit applies.
- Pay late-payment interest on each instalment.
For Henrik, with 7,900 € and no other debt, the application falls comfortably within the no-guarantee circuit.
The first obstacle: getting into the website
The Agency itself states on its website that, to pay, defer or look up debts online, you need a digital certificate, a Spanish electronic identity card, a European means of identification recognised through the eIDAS system, or registration with Cl@ve PIN. In addition, you cannot have any notification waiting to be opened: if there is one, you must first access it.
If Henrik has none of those means, he has three alternatives:
| Route | What he needs | Advantage | Drawback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representative in Spain | A power of attorney proving the representation | The representative files the application on the website with their own means | The power has to be granted in time |
| Paper form | The application forms the Agency publishes, one for up to 50,000 € and another for amounts above that | No electronic identification needed | It has to be filed through an accepted registry channel and with time to spare |
| European identification | His national means of identification being recognised for the website | He handles it directly | It depends on his country; worth checking on the website |
Article 46.2 of the General Tax Law requires representation to be proved by any valid means that leaves a reliable record when obligations are assumed or acknowledged on behalf of the person represented, as happens when applying for a deferral. It is not enough for a friend in Spain to fill in the form. The ways of granting it without a certificate are explained in applying without a digital certificate.
An assessment notified abroad has the same payment period as one notified in Spain, counted from the date of receipt. If the power of attorney or the posting of the paper application is delayed and 20 October passes with no application filed, the debt enters the enforcement period with its surcharge, even though Henrik was getting the papers ready.
The second obstacle: where the instalments are charged
Article 46.2.f) of the Collection Regulations requires the application to include a direct debit mandate when the authorities have made that form of payment compulsory, and the Agency uses it to collect the instalments. The website itself makes clear that payment by direct debit requires funds at an institution that is a collaborating entity in tax collection.
In practice, an account at a Danish bank cannot be used for the direct debit. Henrik has two paths:
- Open or reactivate an account in Spain at a collaborating institution and have the instalments debited there. If the rent from Nerja is paid into that account, the problem solves itself: Spanish income pays the Spanish debt.
- Pay in one go by transfer from abroad. Since March 2021 the Agency has accepted a transfer payment procedure designed for people without an account at a collaborating institution. It works for paying a debt, not for setting up a direct debit for a schedule.
Henrik's figures
At an assumed interest rate of 4 % a year, purely for the example:
- Debt: 7,900 €.
- Proposed instalment plan: 12 monthly instalments from November 2026.
- Each instalment: about 658 € of principal.
- Total interest, calculated instalment by instalment from 21 October: about 171 €.
- Total cost of the deferral: about 8,071 €.
If instead he let the deadline pass and paid after the providencia de apremio, the enforcement order, the surcharge would be at least 10 %, that is, 790 €. The rent he receives, about 800 € a month, covers the instalments with room to spare, which makes the schedule sustainable.
If you are outside Spain and need to defer a debt with the Agency, you can send us the assessment and your details through the deferral form. We will tell you which filing route suits you given the means you have, without being able to guarantee that the Agency will grant the proposed schedule.
The compulsory tax representative, a separate matter
The voluntary representative for a procedure should not be confused with the representative required by the IRNR law. Article 10.1 of that law requires a representative resident in Spain to be appointed only in certain cases: when operating through a permanent establishment, in some specific cases, or when the authorities require it because of the amount of the income or because a property is owned. For residents of other European Union States, section 2 of the same article refers to the general rules on representation.
Henrik, resident in Denmark, is not obliged by default. But if the Agency requires him to appoint one and he does not, section 4 classifies the failure as a serious infringement with a fixed fine of 2,000 €.
What lies outside Spain
The Spanish debt is deferred in Spain, but Henrik also has a question that is not resolved here: whether Denmark allows him to deduct the tax paid in Spain on that rent and how he corrects what he has already declared there. That depends on Danish law and on the tax treaty between the two countries, and his adviser in Denmark has to confirm it. We do not give opinions on other countries' rules.
What is worth knowing is that leaving the debt unpaid and not deferred does not make it disappear because you live abroad. The Agency can seize what Henrik has in Spain, starting with the rental income, and the rules on mutual assistance in tax collection allow collection to be requested from other States, as article 65.6 of the law itself provides.
For the years still to be declared, the order of filing and deferring is in filing past years and deferring. The obligations of people who let property in Spain without living here are in the guide to Modelo 210 for non-residents' rental income, and the cost of each schedule in how much interest you pay to defer.
For clients who live abroad, Salama Tax first sorts out the representation and the account for the instalments, which is where deadlines are lost, and then the schedule.