Ingrid and Marc signed the purchase of a flat in Nerja on 14 March 2026. Price: €260,000. The seller, Graham, lives in Leeds and is not tax resident in Spain, so at the notary's office they were told they had to keep 3 % of the price, €7,800, and pay it to Hacienda, the Spanish tax authorities, with Modelo 211. They kept the money. What they did not do was pay it in: the amount is still sitting in their current account, and they realised on 22 September, when Graham's adviser wrote to them asking for the receipt. The short answer is that this can be fixed, that today it costs around €350 in surcharge and that every month that goes by makes it dearer; the long answer is below, with the sums done.
The Modelo 211 month starts running at the notary's
The obligation comes from article 25.2 of the consolidated text of the Non-Residents Income Tax Act (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004): anyone who acquires a property located in Spain from a non-resident acting without a permanent establishment must withhold and pay in 3 % of the agreed consideration, on account of the seller's tax. The payment is made with Modelo 211 in the month following the date of transfer, which in an ordinary sale is the date of the escritura, the public deed signed before the notary. It is not the day you are handed the keys, nor the day of registration at the Land Registry, nor the day you move in.
In Ingrid and Marc's case, the deadline ended on 14 April. From 15 April they are out of time, and what the law provides for someone who puts things right on their own, before Hacienda writes to them, is the recargo of article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria (Spain's General Tax Act), the surcharge for filing late unprompted, not a penalty. We also explain it on the general page on Modelo 211 and the 3 % withholding.
Month by month, what being late with €7,800 costs
The surcharge is 1 % plus one point for each full month of delay. After twelve months it jumps to 15 % and late-payment interest is added. If the surcharge, once assessed, is paid within its deadline, it is reduced by 25 %. Applied to their withholding:
| If they file between… | Surcharge | Amount | With the 25 % reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 April and 14 May 2026 | 1 % | €78 | €58.50 |
| 15 May and 14 June | 2 % | €156 | €117 |
| 15 September and 14 October (their case) | 6 % | €468 | €351 |
| 15 October and 14 November | 7 % | €546 | €409.50 |
| 15 March and 14 April 2027 | 12 % | €936 | €702 |
| From 15 April 2027 | 15 % | €1,170 plus interest | €877.50 plus interest |
The dates shift if the last day of the period falls on a non-working day, but that is the mechanism. Exactly how full months are counted is set out in the guide on calculating the article 27 surcharge.
Ingrid and Marc's sums, line by line
- Base: €260,000 × 3 % = €7,800. This is the amount they have to pay in with Modelo 211, in full.
- Delay: from 15 April to 22 September, five full months have elapsed (at 14 May, June, July, August and September).
- Percentage: 1 % + 5 points = 6 %.
- Surcharge: 7,800 × 6 % = €468.
- Reduction: if they pay the surcharge when it is notified, without appealing, 468 × 75 % = €351.
- Total outlay: €7,800 now with Modelo 211, and €351 when the surcharge assessment arrives. Of the €8,151, they already had €7,800 set aside, because it came out of the price.
The surcharge is not self-assessed in Modelo 211 itself: the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, calculates it and notifies it afterwards. Do not be surprised if the letter arrives weeks later, and do not mistake it for a requerimiento, a formal request from the tax office.
Why having kept the money makes the bad scenario worse
One detail changes the seriousness a great deal if the tax authorities get there first. The Ley General Tributaria distinguishes between a withholding that should have been made and was not, and one that was made and not paid in. Ingrid and Marc deducted the €7,800 from the price: the withholding has been made. If a request reached them before they filed, the infringement under article 191 would be very serious where withholdings made and not paid in exceed half of the base of the penalty, with a fine of 100 % to 150 %. In other words, between €7,800 and €11,700 before reductions, against €351 today. No other figure on this page explains better why it is worth filing this week and not next month. The full difference between the two regimes is in surcharge versus penalty, and what counts as a requerimiento previo, a prior request, in its own guide.
The second reason not to wait is the statutory charge on the property (the afección). The same Act provides that, if the withholding is not paid in, the property transferred becomes charged with payment of the lower of the withholding and the seller's tax. The debt travels with the flat. When Ingrid and Marc want to sell it or mortgage it, someone will find it.
Graham is waiting for that piece of paper too
The non-resident seller files his own Modelo 210 for the gain, within the three months following the end of the buyer's deadline. In this case, his period ran from 15 April to 14 July. Without the Modelo 211 receipt he cannot prove the withholding nor, if his gain was small or there was a loss, ask for the difference to be refunded. His timetable has also moved because of the buyers' delay, and he reviews that with his own adviser. What does fall to Ingrid and Marc is to hand him the copy as soon as they file and to keep proof of sending it. The seller's side is told in how the 3 % withheld is recovered.
What to file this week, and in what order
- Confirm that Graham was non-resident on the date of the escritura. Had he provided a certificate of tax residence in Spain, there would be no Modelo 211. Here there is none: he lives in Leeds.
- Have to hand the details the form asks for: NIF or NIE (the Spanish tax identification numbers) of buyers and seller, cadastral reference, date of the escritura and price. The guide how Modelo 211 is filled in goes through them box by box.
- File Modelo 211 with the full payment, stating the real date of the escritura. There is no need to calculate the surcharge.
- Send the seller his copy and the proof of payment.
- Wait for the surcharge assessment and pay it within its deadline to keep the reduction.
If you would rather we reviewed it before you file, the Modelo 211 withholding form gives us what we need to tell you which year, what amount and what quote. The delay as a whole is covered in Modelo 211 filed late.
Modelo 211 is a withholding, and article 65.2 of the Ley General Tributaria excludes the withholder's debts from deferral. Such an application is declared inadmissible and treated as never filed, so it protects you from nothing. If the withholding money has been spent, it has to be gathered before filing, or you file and accept the vía de apremio, the enforced collection procedure: we talk it through before you choose.
Two cases that look alike and are not
If all that was forgotten is handing the copy to the seller, and the payment was made on time, there is no surcharge: it is enough to find the receipt and send it. And if the buyer did not even deduct the 3 % and paid the whole price to the seller, Modelo 211 still has to be filed, with the same surcharge, but the money comes out of the buyer's own pocket and afterwards has to be claimed back from the seller, something that depends on what the contract says and where the seller lives. In neither case is it wise to wait for Hacienda to match the escritura against the missing form: that cross-check exists, and when it arrives, the door to the surcharge is already closed.