Robert is Canadian, lives in Toronto and owns a flat in Torremolinos that he lets by the month to seasonal workers. In 2026 he collected €8,400. Because he lives outside the European Union, he is taxed at 24 % on the gross income, with no costs deducted: his Modelo 210, the non-resident income tax return, for that year comes to €2,016. Nothing unusual so far. The problem appears on the last screen: he has no account with any Spanish bank, his Canadian bank does not appear on any list and the form asks him for an «NRC» he has never heard of. This page is for anyone stuck at exactly that point.
When the 210 for 2026 has to be paid
Rental income for 2026 is declared on a single annual 210, from 1 to 20 April 2027, under Orden HAC/623/2026, the ministerial order that sets the filing periods. If payment is by direct debit, the filing window closes earlier, on 15 April, although the account is charged at the end of the period. Imputed income (the notional income Spain taxes when a non-resident's property is empty or kept for their own use) runs on a different calendar: from 1 April to 31 December of the following year, or until 23 December with direct debit.
Filing and paying go together: if the 210 shows an amount payable and by the 20th it has neither been paid nor a deferral requested, the next day the debt enters the periodo ejecutivo, the enforcement stage, with its surcharge, even though the return was filed on time. Paying ten days later is already paying late.
Four routes, seen from abroad
| Route | What you need | Deadline (210 for 2026) | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct debit | An account with a collaborating bank in Spain | File by 15 April 2027 | Anyone who already has a Spanish account and wants to forget about it |
| NRC | Online banking with a collaborating bank, or a card accepted on the tax agency's website | 20 April 2027 | Anyone with a Spanish account, or paying through their representative |
| Payment from a foreign account | Follow the procedure the tax agency's online office provides for non-residents with no account in Spain | Leave plenty of margin before 20 April | Anyone who, like Robert, has no bank in Spain |
| Deferral or instalments | Request it when filing, within the period | 20 April 2027 | Anyone who cannot pay it all at once |
The NRC, explained without jargon
The Número de Referencia Completo is a receipt code the bank generates when it collects the tax on behalf of the tax office. You pay at the bank first, and it gives you that code; then you file the 210 entering the code. It is the fastest route when there is a Spanish account, and it is the one we use when an owner sends us the amount so that we pay for them as their representatives.
Paying without a Spanish bank
The Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, allows non-residents with no account in Spain to pay by transfer from abroad, through a specific procedure handled on its online office (the sede) which generates its own identifier for each debt. The exact steps and the destination details are checked on the sede on the day you are going to pay, because they have been changed more than once and an old screenshot is not to be trusted. What we can say is that it is the slowest route: days pass between starting it and the payment being applied, so leaving it for 19 April is a bad idea.
If you would like us to handle it with you, on the non-resident form you tell us which bank you have and how many owners there are, and we tell you which route fits before the period opens.
If the €2,016 cannot be paid in one go
The 210 is not a withholding: it is the taxpayer's own tax, so it can be deferred or split into instalments. Since 15 April 2023, Orden HFP/311/2023 allows no guarantee to be provided when total outstanding debts do not exceed €50,000. For requests resolved automatically without a guarantee, the general maximum term is twelve months; for individuals, the internal instructions of 2023 allow up to twenty-four, but that is an administrative practice, not a right written into the law.
Suppose Robert asks for six monthly instalments. Each one is €336 (2,016 ÷ 6). Late-payment interest runs on each from the end of the voluntary period until it falls due. Assuming, for the sake of the example, an interest rate of 4 % a year:
- Instalment 1, at one month: 336 × 0.04 × 1/12 = €1.12.
- Instalment 2, at two months: €2.24. Instalment 3: €3.36. Instalment 4: €4.48. Instalment 5: €5.60.
- Instalment 6, at six months: €6.72.
- Total interest: €23.52. Total cost of paying in instalments: €2,039.52.
The actual late-payment interest rate is the one set each year by the budget act, and it is checked on the sede before doing the final sum. The order of magnitude, in any case, is small. How to request it, step by step, is in the guide on deferring within the voluntary period.
We have seen owners who, desperate at not finding a way to pay, send a transfer to any account that appears linked to the tax office on the internet, without the debt's identifier. That money is not applied to the 210, the return stays unpaid and the clock keeps running. Getting it back is a separate procedure. If you do not know which reference to pay with, the answer is not to transfer and wait: it is to stop and ask first.
When your representative pays for you
Many owners who live abroad settle the payment through whoever handles their 210: they transfer the amount to that person's Spanish account and the representative pays with their own NRC. It is convenient and perfectly valid, but it pays to understand what it is and what it is not. The representative files and pays in your name; the debt is still yours, and if the money does not reach the tax office by the 20th, the surcharge is claimed from you. That is why it makes sense always to ask for the filing receipt with its secure verification code (the código seguro de verificación), which can be checked on the sede, and not just an email saying «done». And it makes sense to transfer with a few days to spare: an international transfer that lands on the 21st forces the representative to pay late with your money.
Small print that shows up when it is too late
One 210 per owner, one payment per 210. If the flat belonged to Robert and his wife in equal halves, there would be two returns of €1,008 each, each with its own payment or its own NRC. A single payment of €2,016 in one spouse's name does not cover the other spouse's return.
Currency and bank fees. The tax office collects in euros. If you pay from an account in Canadian dollars or pounds sterling, the exchange rate and your bank's fee are on you, and the amount that arrives has to match the debt exactly.
Direct debit does not bring the charge forward. Many people think a direct debit means paying earlier. It does not: you file earlier, but the bank charges the amount at the end of the period. What is essential is that there are funds on that day; a returned debit leaves the debt unpaid and opens the enforcement stage.
Refunds need an account too. If in some year your 210 shows a refund (it happens on the sale of a property when the 3 % withheld by the buyer exceeds the tax), you will need to state where to receive it. The guide to Modelo 210 for rental income sets out how the tax is calculated in each case, and the one on debts that cannot be deferred explains why other non-resident debts, such as the buyer's withholding, do not allow this route.
Robert ended up opening an account with a Spanish bank his letting agency already worked with. It was not compulsory, but with a recurring rental it was worth it: now he sets up the direct debit in March and forgets about it until the following year.