Nuria opened her hair salon in Alicante in February 2023, in premises rented from a private individual for 1,100 € a month plus VAT. Every month she transferred 1,331 € to him and never gave it another thought: the contract said nothing about withholding and neither did the owner. In September 2026 she changed accountancy firm (asesoría), and at the first review they explained that she had gone three and a half years without filing Modelo 115. Each month she should have kept back 209 € of the rent and paid it to Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority). In total, 8,569 € that she did not withhold and that she now had to put up herself.
This is the most expensive lapse on the 115, because it is not money withheld and kept in the account, as happens with other withholding returns. Here the money was never withheld: the landlord was paid in full.
Who had to withhold, and why nobody said so
The income tax (IRPF) regulations require anyone who pays rent on an urban property in the course of a business or professional activity to withhold 19 % of the rent, excluding VAT, and to pay it over quarterly with Modelo 115, from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January. The obligation is the tenant's. The landlord does not have to ask for it and the contract does not have to mention it: the law imposes it anyway. There are cases where nothing is withheld, such as rents that do not exceed 900 € a year with the same landlord, but Nuria's premises did not fall into any of them.
That nobody warned her is the most usual thing. A private landlord declares the rent in his own income tax return and has no need for the withholding; someone starting a business has their mind on other things. The first warning usually comes from a new adviser or, worse, from a requerimiento, a formal request from the tax office.
The bill for three and a half years, quarter by quarter
The monthly withholding was 1,100 × 19 % = 209 €, and for a full quarter, 627 €. Filing everything on 1 October 2026, before any letter arrives, the recargo under article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria (the surcharge for filing late unprompted) works out like this:
| Period | Withholding omitted | Delay at 1-10-2026 | Recargo | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 (February to December) | 2,299 € | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 344.85 € |
| All of 2024 | 2,508 € | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 376.20 € |
| Q1 and Q2 2025 | 1,254 € | More than 12 months | 15 % + interest | 188.10 € |
| Q3 2025 | 627 € | 11 full months | 12 % | 75.24 € |
| Q4 2025 | 627 € | 8 full months | 9 % | 56.43 € |
| Q1 2026 | 627 € | 5 full months | 6 % | 37.62 € |
| Q2 2026 | 627 € | 2 full months | 3 % | 18.81 € |
| Total | 8,569 € | 1,097.25 € |
Paid on time, the recargo is cut by 25 %: 822.94 €. Late-payment interest is added for the quarters more than twelve months late. The third quarter of 2026 is not overdue: it falls due on 20 October and is filed on time with its 627 €. The detail of how the months are counted is in how to calculate the article 27 recargo.
The comparison that justifies acting now is with the requerimiento. If Hacienda got there first, each quarter would be assessed with interest and penalty proceedings would be opened, with fines that at best start at 50 % of the amount not paid. On 8,569 € that is a different conversation. Why the line is drawn by the request is explained in what counts as a prior request.
The conversation still to have with the landlord
Here is the part almost nobody tells you. For years Nuria paid the full rent, and now she pays in, in the landlord's name, the 19 % she did not withhold. That withholding carries the landlord's tax number (NIF) and will show as his. In principle he will be able to deduct it in his income tax return, even by correcting the returns for the years that are not time-barred. In other words: Nuria pays the same amount twice, once to the landlord in the rent and once to Hacienda, and the landlord may end up receiving a refund for something he never bore.
That opens a legitimate negotiation: for the landlord to pay back what she is now paying in for him, or for it to be set off against future rent. It is not automatic; it depends on the contract, the good faith of the parties and what he has declared. But it is the conversation that has to be had, in writing, and preferably before the landlord receives his tax data with withholding he was not expecting.
If you are in a similar position and do not know where to start, tell us about your case in the self-employed form. The first thing is to check whether any exception covers you; the second, to calculate quarter by quarter what is missing.
What to gather before filing anything
- The lease and its annexes, to confirm the rent for each year and whether there were updates.
- Proof of each payment, because the withholding is declared in the quarter in which the rent was paid, not in the month the bill relates to.
- The landlord's NIF and the cadastral reference of the premises, which are not needed on the 115 but are needed on the annual summary.
- Bills with items other than rent, such as community fees or IBI (the municipal property tax) passed on to the tenant, which are also part of the base.
In Nuria's case, gathering them turned up a transfer in January 2024 that actually paid the December 2023 rent. Its withholding goes in the first quarter of 2024, which is when it was paid, and not in the fourth quarter of 2023. Here it did not change the recargo, because both periods were already at 15 %, but in recent quarters a shift like that moves the figure. It is an example of why the calculation is done with the actual payments and not with the calendar of bills you remember.
Anyone who files the 115 also files, in January, Modelo 180: the annual information return with the landlord, the property and the amount withheld in the year. If the 115s for three years are missing, so are the 180s for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Being information returns, they carry no tax and no recargo, but filing them late has its own penalty regime, which the law halves when they are filed without a prior request. The sensible thing is to file them together with the quarters, with the figures reconciled with each other.
The first step is not the past: it is next month. From now on, the rent is paid like this: 1,100 € of rent, plus 231 € of VAT, minus 209 € of withholding, total 1,122 €. Tell the landlord in writing before the payment, explaining that withholding is a legal obligation and that every year he will receive a certificate with what was paid in in his name.
Before paying: the exceptions that really have to be checked
It is worth checking two things before paying in a single euro. The first is whether the landlord can show that he is registered in the heading of the Impuesto sobre Actividades Económicas (the business activities tax) for letting premises with a non-zero charge, which removes the withholding; it is rare for a private individual with one set of premises, but it happens. The second is whether the landlord is resident in Spain: if he lived abroad, the withholding would not go on the 115 but on Modelo 216, with a different rate and different rules. In Nuria's case neither applied, and the calculation above was the final one. The full guide to both kinds of withholding is in Modelos 111 and 115.