Tom is British, lives in Leeds and has a house in Jávea that he lets through a local agency. He filed his Modelo 210, the non-resident income tax return, for the last year's rental on time: €12,000 of rent, at the 24 % that applies to residents outside the European Union, €2,880 of tax. He filed it with the option of acknowledging the debt, thinking he would pay «when the summer money came in». He did not pay. Months later he asked us, somewhat uneasy, what could really happen to someone who lives in another country and whose only link with Spain is a house. The answer has stages, deadlines and a good deal more reach than he imagined.
The day after the deadline, another clock starts
A tax debt lives first in the periodo voluntario, the voluntary payment period. When the filing period ends (for the 2026 rental, on 20 April 2027) with neither payment nor a request for deferral, the debt automatically moves into the periodo ejecutivo, the enforcement stage. Nobody has to decide it and nobody has to warn you: it happens simply because time has passed. From that moment, article 28 of the Ley General Tributaria, Spain's General Tax Act, applies surcharges that look nothing like those for paying late voluntarily:
- Enforcement surcharge of 5 %, if you pay the whole debt before being served with the providencia de apremio, the formal demand for payment.
- Reduced collection surcharge of 10 %, if you pay after that demand is served but within the period the demand itself grants.
- Ordinary collection surcharge of 20 %, if you let that period pass too, and with late-payment interest on top from the end of the voluntary period.
The period the demand grants is short: if it is served between the 1st and the 15th of a month, until the 20th of that month; if it is served between the 16th and the last day, until the 5th of the following month.
Tom's €2,880, stage by stage
| When he pays | Surcharge | Amount of surcharge | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within the voluntary period | None | €0 | €2,880 |
| After the deadline, before the demand | 5 % | €144 | €3,024 |
| After the demand, within its period | 10 % | €288 | €3,168 |
| After that period | 20 % + interest | €576 + interest | €3,456 + interest + costs |
Step by step: 2,880 × 0.05 = €144; 2,880 × 0.10 = €288; 2,880 × 0.20 = €576. In the last row you have to add late-payment interest for all the time that has passed and, if it gets as far as seizure, the costs of the procedure. The first two stages are compatible with simply paying and moving on; the third is the one that opens the door to seizure.
What can be seized from someone living in Leeds
Here is what almost nobody tells you. Tom took it for granted that the tax office would have to come after him in the United Kingdom, which is complicated. But the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, does not start abroad: it starts with what it has to hand in Spain, and it follows an order laid down by law.
First, the money that passes through Spain
If Tom had an account with a Spanish bank, that would come first. He does not, but his house generates money here: the rent the agency collects. Sums a third party owes the debtor can be seized, and in practice that means an order addressed to the agency or the tenant telling them to pay the tax office, instead of Tom, until the debt is covered. Tom would find out when his agency called to tell him there would be no transfer that month.
Then, the house
If that is not enough, the property. The tax authorities can record a seizure in the Registro de la Propiedad, the land registry. The entry shows up on any nota simple (the registry extract every buyer checks), so the day Tom wants to sell, the buyer and their notary will see it, and nobody will sign until it is lifted. Auction exists, but it is the last step; usually the debt is collected long before, precisely because the entry blocks any transaction.
And also, whoever manages the house
The consolidated text of the Non-Resident Income Tax Act, in its article 9, provides that the depositary or manager of a non-resident's assets is jointly and severally liable for paying the tax due on the income from those assets. When, and how far, it applies to a particular letting agency is studied case by case, but it is one of the reasons why serious agencies ask their clients whether they are up to date with the 210.
Living abroad does not stop you finding out late
The demand for payment and the seizure orders are served at the address on record. If the tax office cannot serve you at your foreign address, the law allows it to be done by comparecencia, a notice published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, the official state gazette, calling you to appear. Nobody in Leeds reads the BOE, so it is entirely possible for the 5 % and 10 % stages to pass without Tom knowing they existed. When the first news is the seizure, the 20 % has already been applied.
Within the European Union there is also a mutual assistance mechanism for recovery, by which another member state's administration can claim a Spanish debt from someone resident in its territory. Outside the Union it depends on what the treaty or agreement with each country provides, and we do not assume either that it exists or that it does not in a given case: it is checked.
Limitation is not a realistic way out either. The right to collect lapses after four years, but every collection step taken against the debtor, every seizure order and every notice, interrupts that period and resets it to zero. A debt with a property behind it rarely lapses.
Tom had a better way out than the one he chose: file the 210 and, instead of simply acknowledging the debt, request instalments within the same period. With a debt of €2,880, far below the €50,000 up to which no guarantee is needed, it would normally have been granted, and he would have paid in instalments with a small amount of interest and no surcharge at all. Once in the enforcement stage you can still request a deferral, but the surcharge that has already accrued does not go away. The guide on how to request a deferral explains the procedure.
How to tell today which stage your debt is at
Most owners who write to us do not know whether their debt is at 5 %, at 10 % or already at 20 %. It can be found out without waiting for any letter: on the Agencia Tributaria's online office, with a digital certificate or with the identification of an authorised representative, the debts section shows each outstanding debt, its stage and whether a demand for payment has been issued. If you have no way of identifying yourself, whoever represents you can check it with your authorisation. It is the first thing we do in any case of non-payment, because it changes the strategy: if there is no demand yet, paying today closes the matter with the minimum surcharge; if there is one, you have to look at the date it was served to know how many days of the 10 % period are left.
What we did for Tom
We checked the exact status of the debt on the online office: it was still at the 5 % stage, with no demand served. He paid €3,024 that same week and the matter was closed. Then we looked at what really worried him, which was the future: the agency now sets aside part of the rent each month in a Spanish account in his name, and next year's 210 will be paid by direct debit from that account. If you are in a similar position and do not know which stage your debt has reached, tell us on the non-resident form: the first thing we do is look, because the difference between 5 % and 20 % is sometimes a matter of days.
To understand the mechanics of the rental and its tax better, the guide to Modelo 210 for rental income sets out the full calculation, and the one on types of letter from the tax office helps you tell a demand for payment from a mere information letter.