Peter and Anne live in Gothenburg and in 2019 bought a flat in Torrevieja, half each. They spend six weeks there every spring and the rest of the year the flat stays shut; they have never let it. They paid the IBI (the annual municipal property tax), the community of owners' fees and the electricity, and assumed that was all Spain required of them. In 2026 they decided to sell it, and the notary, while preparing the transaction, asked them about their non-resident tax returns. There were none. They were missing the imputed income return for every year.
The fright was bigger than the figure. The flat's cadastral value (valor catastral, the official value the land registry gives the property) is 78,000 € and, when we did the sums, the four outstanding years came to a little over 650 € between the two of them, plus a recargo, the surcharge for filing late unprompted, of less than seventy.
Why something was owed without anything being earned
The Spanish non-resident income tax act taxes anyone who, without living in Spain, has an urban dwelling here at their disposal. It does not need to be used or let: the law presumes an income from the mere fact of having it available, just as it does with residents' second homes. That income is calculated on the cadastral value shown on the IBI bill, at 1.1 % if the value was revised with effect in the previous ten tax periods or at 2 % if not, and it is split by owner and by days. The rate is 19 % for residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and 24 % for everyone else. The full calculation, with its exceptions, is in the guide to imputed income.
The return is Modelo 210, one per property and per owner, and the filing window is wide: from 1 April to 31 December of the following year. That is precisely why it gets forgotten. There is no date to remind you, no charge to your account, no tenant asking questions.
Peter and Anne's sums, year by year
The Torrevieja cadastre revised that flat's value with effect from 2015, so for 2021 to 2024 the 1.1 % applies. For each of them, owners of 50 % with the flat available all year:
- Base: 78,000 × 1.1 % × 50 % = 429 € per owner per year.
- Tax: 429 × 19 % = 81.51 € per owner per year.
- Four years and two owners: 81.51 × 4 × 2 = 652.08 €.
The recargo under article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria (the General Tax Act) depends on how much time has passed since the filing period for each year ended. Filing on 15 October 2026:
| Tax year | Period ended | Delay | Recargo | Per owner | With −25 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31-12-2022 | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 12.23 € | 9.17 € |
| 2022 | 31-12-2023 | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 12.23 € | 9.17 € |
| 2023 | 31-12-2024 | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 12.23 € | 9.17 € |
| 2024 | 31-12-2025 | 9 full months | 10 % | 8.15 € | 6.11 € |
| Total per owner | 44.84 € | 33.62 € | |||
Between the two of them, a little over 67 € of recargo if it is paid on time, plus interest on the first three years, calculated from the point at which the twelve months were reached. The 2025 tax year is not overdue: its period ends on 31 December 2026 and it is filed on time, with no recargo.
The order for bringing it up to date
When several years are missing, the order matters less than consistency: the same details, the same ownership percentage and the same 1.1 % or 2 % criterion in each year, checked year by year. What you should not do is copy the cadastral value from the latest bill into every year, because it changes, and the cadastral revision that justifies the 1.1 % has a ten-year window that moves.
- One 210 per year, per owner and per property. For Peter and Anne, eight returns for the overdue years and two more for 2025.
- The certificate of tax residence in Sweden, which is what supports the 19 % rate. Without it, the Administration may apply 24 %. How to request it and what it must say is in the certificate of residence for Modelo 210.
- Pay when filing each return, so as not to lose the 25 % reduction on the recargo that will come later by letter.
If you are in a similar position and want to know exactly which years you are missing and at what percentage, tell us in the non-residents form: with the IBI bill and the title deed (escritura) the full calculation can be done.
What almost nobody tells you: the sale uncovers everything
Peter and Anne found out through the notary, and that is no coincidence. When a non-resident sells, the buyer withholds 3 % of the price and pays it in with Modelo 211, and the seller then files their 210 for the capital gain to settle the final tax or claim back what was withheld. That is the moment the Administration looks at the history of that property and its owners. If there are outstanding imputations, the refund of the 3 % will normally be delayed, or the Agencia Tributaria will set it off against whatever debts it finds.
That is why putting things right before signing the sale is not only cheaper, it is faster. A 210 for the gain filed with a clean history has fewer reasons to get stuck. The steps of the sale, one by one, are in selling as a non-resident, step by step.
The second thing almost nobody tells you is the effect of time. Each tax year becomes time-barred separately, four years after its filing period ends. But the limitation period is interrupted by any action by the Administration or by the taxpayer, and a sale in progress is exactly the moment those actions begin. Counting on an old year falling away of its own accord, with a sale under way, is not a strategy: it is a bet with poor odds. We explain it in the four-year limitation period.
And a third, more practical point: the notary and the buyer cannot require the imputations to have been filed in order to sign the sale, but a well-advised buyer will ask about the property's tax history, and a seller who can show their 210s up to date negotiates more calmly than one who promises to sort it out after signing.
A requerimiento, a formal request, about the imputation for a particular year closes the door on the recargo for that year: what opens instead is an assessment with interest and, usually, penalty proceedings. The other years can still be put right on your own initiative, but it should be done carefully and without contradicting what is said in reply to the request.
Six weeks a year do not change the calculation
A question Peter and Anne raised, and that almost everyone raises: if we only use the flat for six weeks, shouldn't only that time be imputed? The answer is no. The law does not look at use, it looks at availability. The days that do not count for imputation are the days the flat was let, and those days have their own return for rental income. A flat shut for eleven months is, for tax purposes, at its owners' disposal for all twelve.
What does reduce the figure, where it applies, is checking the percentage: a cadastral value revised within the ten-year window brings the base down to almost half compared with 2 %. It is the figure that moves the most money in an imputation and the one most often copied without looking. Where to find it on the bill is explained in how to read the IBI bill.