Pilar is 78, a widow and lives in Valencia. She inherited several properties from her husband and today has wealth of a little over two million, almost all in bricks and mortar. Her nephew has told her in advance that her 714 (the wealth tax return) for 2026, which she will file in the 2027 campaign, will show about 9,600 euros to pay, and in her account she has little more than her pension and the rent she collects each month. The question she asks her nephew is practical: how is this paid without selling anything?
The Spanish wealth tax, the Impuesto sobre Patrimonio, has a peculiarity that puzzles anyone coming from income tax: it does not allow payment in two instalments of 60% and 40%. It is paid in full on filing, or deferred under the general rules. Between those two options there is more room than it seems.
The ways of paying the 714, one by one
The 714 can only be filed online, in the same period as the income tax return, and payment is made in one of these ways:
| Route | How it works | When it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Direct debit | It is ordered on filing and the charge is made on the last day of the deadline | If you file early and will have the balance at the end of June. It closes a few days before 30 June |
| NRC | The bank, or the payment gateway of the electronic office, generates a full reference number (the NRC) that is entered on filing | If you file in the last few days or want to pay from a different account |
| Acknowledgement of debt with a deferral application | The 714 is filed without payment and a deferral or instalment plan is requested at the same time | If you do not have the cash for the whole amount |
| Handing over assets of the Spanish Historical Heritage | The law of the tax allows payment with assets forming part of that heritage, through a procedure of its own | Exceptional cases of collections and cultural assets |
In most cases there is no card payment, no transfer to a Hacienda account and no payment at a counter. And each taxpayer pays their own: if Pilar were married, her spouse would have their own 714 and their own payment.
Pilar's instalment plan, calculated
Pilar does not want to sell, but she can set aside part of each month's rent. She files the 714 with an acknowledgement of debt and asks to split 9,600 euros into twelve monthly instalments. As the amount is well below 50,000 euros, Order HFP/311/2023 exempts her from providing a guarantee.
- Each instalment: 9,600 euros ÷ 12 = 800 euros.
- Each one accrues late-payment interest from the day after the end of the voluntary period until it falls due. The first, one month; the last, twelve.
- Sum of the months of all the instalments: 1 + 2 + … + 12 = 78. Multiplied by 800 euros, that is 62,400 euro-months.
- With late-payment interest at around 4% a year, the cost is 62,400 × 0.04 ÷ 12 ≈ 208 euros.
Paying the tax over a year costs Pilar about 208 euros in interest, with no surcharge and no penalty, because the application was filed within the deadline. The late-payment interest rate is set each year by the Budget Act and the rate in force in each period applies; the calculation above is an approximation. Exactly how to apply is in how a deferral is requested, and what terms the Agencia Tributaria grants in practice in the realistic calendar of an instalment plan.
If you would rather have someone calculate your 714 first and tell you whether deferring is worth it, the wealth tax form is the starting point.
Before paying: what can bring the figure down
Many 714 bills are paid higher than they should be because a rule in the law itself is not applied: the joint limit with income tax. The sum of the IRPF (personal income tax) and the wealth tax cannot exceed 60% of the IRPF taxable base, with some adjustments. If it does, the wealth tax is reduced, up to a maximum of 80% of its amount.
It does not affect Pilar, because her income is high relative to her wealth tax. But for someone with a lot of wealth and little declared income, such as a retiree with shares that pay no dividends, it can cut the bill considerably. We explain it with examples in the joint income and wealth tax limit.
The other thing worth checking before paying is the valuation of the properties. The highest is taken of the valor catastral (the cadastral value), the value verified by the tax authority for other taxes and the acquisition value. For inherited properties, the acquisition value is the one declared in the inheritance, and it does not always match the one in the deed.
Filing the 714 on time without paying and without a deferral application does not trigger the article 27 recargo or a penalty, but the debt enters the enforcement period the day after the deadline ends, with a surcharge of 5% to 20%. If you cannot pay, the deferral application within the deadline is what avoids that surcharge.
Defer or sell: the sum that has to be done
Pilar was offered another option: selling a small commercial unit she has standing empty and paying with that. It looks prudent, but it is not always so. Selling a property generates its own gain in the income tax return, sometimes more expensive than the wealth tax you wanted to pay, and it also takes out of your wealth an asset that may be gaining value. Against that, the 208 euros of interest on an instalment plan are a small, known cost. The decision depends on each case, but with recurring taxes like this one, deferring for a year is usually more reasonable than selling in a hurry.
What is not advisable is chaining deferrals year after year. The wealth tax accrues every 31 December, and if each year's tax cannot be paid out of that year's income, the problem is not one of cash flow: it is one of how the wealth is structured, and it is solved with planning, not with applications.
Paying from outside Spain
Non-residents who own assets in Spain also file the 714 under limited tax liability, only for those assets. For them paying can be a practical problem, because the NRC and direct debit require an account with a Spanish collaborating bank. Anyone with a rented property usually has that account; anyone without one should open it before the campaign.
There is also a procedure for paying tax debts by transfer from abroad, which is arranged by applying to the Agencia Tributaria in advance; it is not immediate and should not be left for the last week of June. And non-residents can apply the rules of the region where the greatest value of their assets in Spain is located, which in many cases changes the tax before any talk of how to pay it.
The second payment nobody warns you about
Anyone who pays the 714 with partial relief, or who lives in a region with a reduced tax and has net wealth above three million, must also look at the temporary Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes, Modelo 718, which is filed in July. What was paid in wealth tax is deducted in it. It is a second payment, with its own calendar, discussed in the solidarity tax on large fortunes. Pilar does not reach that threshold, but wealth that grows over the years can.
Common doubts about paying Modelo 714
Can I set up a direct debit for Modelo 714 on the last day of the deadline?
No. With Modelo 714, as with the rest, direct debit closes several days before the deadline ends, and that margin is not negotiable. Anyone who finds out on the last day can only pay another way, and if there is no time left the debt enters the enforcement period with its surcharge. It is one of the most avoidable mistakes we see.
My region gives 100% relief, so do I not file?
The other way round: the relief removes the tax, not the obligation. And it is precisely what brings the large fortunes tax into play, which is a different tax altogether.