In 2023 Ahmed sold a flat on the Málaga coast and went back to Morocco. In 2025 his bank told him that €3,114 had been seized from his Spanish account on the orders of the provincial council's collection body. He did not remember receiving anything: the town hall's notifications had gone to the flat that was no longer his, and from there to an official gazette he never read. What he had not paid was the plusvalía municipal (the municipal tax on the increase in value of urban land) on that sale, and the amount seized was the tax plus the surcharges of a procedure that had moved ahead without him.
This page follows that path, phase by phase and with deadlines, so that you know where you stand and how much room is left. If you only want to understand the tax, start with the plusvalía municipal page.
Two very different starting points
Not having filed anything is not the same as having filed without paying, or having received an assessment and left it in a drawer.
- You never filed. The town hall learns of the sale from the notaries' records. It will notify you of an assessment with the tax and interest and, separately, open a penalty procedure for failing to pay (article 191 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act): a fine of 50 % in the mildest case.
- You filed the self-assessment without paying, or you were notified of the assessment and did not pay it. Here there is no penalty on that tax, but the debt enters the enforcement period (periodo ejecutivo) the day after the voluntary payment period ends and the surcharges in article 28 begin.
Filing without being able to pay is always better than not filing: you avoid the penalty, which in the example below is the most expensive item.
The timetable of non-payment, phase by phase
| Phase | What happens | Cost on top of the tax |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary payment period for the assessment | If notified between the 1st and the 15th, until the 20th of the following month; if between the 16th and the end of the month, until the 5th of the second month (article 62.2 LGT) | Only the tax |
| Enforcement period, before the enforcement order | You pay on your own before being notified of the enforcement order | Enforcement surcharge of 5 % |
| Enforcement order (providencia de apremio) notified | A new period opens with the same date rules (article 62.5) | Reduced enforcement surcharge of 10 % |
| After the enforcement order's deadline | Seizures are ordered | Ordinary enforcement surcharge of 20 % plus late-payment interest and costs |
The figures for a plusvalía nobody paid
Let us assume a plusvalía of €2,400 that was never filed and that the town hall assesses on its own initiative:
- Assessment: €2,400 of tax plus late-payment interest from the end of the filing period.
- Penalty: 50 % of €2,400 = €1,200. With the 30 % reduction for accepting it, it would come down to €840, and with the 40 % reduction for prompt payment, to €504.
- If the assessment is not paid in the voluntary period: a 5 % surcharge (€120) if you pay before the enforcement order; 10 % (€240) if you pay within its deadline; 20 % (€480) plus interest if you wait for the seizure.
- If the penalty is not paid either, its reductions are lost and it follows the same path of surcharges on its own.
In the worst scenario, what began as €2,400 easily goes above €4,000 between an unreduced penalty, surcharges, interest and costs. In the best, filing on your own initiative before any formal request, it would have been the tax plus a surcharge under article 27. If you are at any point in this table and want to know your way out, tell us about it in the plusvalía municipal form.
What is seized and in what order
The General Tax Act sets an order (article 169) which the town hall or its collection body follows according to how easy each asset is to collect: first money in accounts, then receivables and securities, then wages, salaries and pensions, and later property and other assets. Not all of a salary or pension is seized: the part protected by the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, the Civil Procedure Act, equal to the minimum wage, is respected, and increasing percentages are applied to the excess. For a non-resident who no longer has a Spanish payslip, what usually gets hit is exactly what happened to Ahmed: the account kept open for the flat's expenses.
Defences against municipal enforcement that few people know
The enforcement order can only be challenged on specific grounds (article 167.3 of the General Tax Act): that the debt has been paid or is time-barred, that deferral was requested in the voluntary period, that the assessment was not notified, that it was annulled, or that there is an error preventing the debtor from being identified. Of all of them, the one that gives non-residents most room is the lack of notification: if the town hall notified you at an address that was no longer yours, without trying others that were on record, there is an argument. Whether it will succeed depends on how the attempts were made, and that can be seen in the file.
The second point is for buyers. When the seller is a non-resident individual, the buyer is the substitute taxpayer: if nobody held back money at the notary's office or paid the plusvalía, the claim can be brought against the buyer. That is why well-informed buyers hold back the estimated amount at signing.
The third is the time limit: the town hall's right to assess the tax becomes time-barred four years after the filing period ended, but any action notified to you interrupts that count. Waiting for the limitation period to run almost never works when the notary has already reported the sale. We explain it in the four-year limitation period.
Can you still defer once you are in enforcement?
Yes, although with fewer advantages. An application for deferral or payment in instalments can also be filed in the enforcement period, up until the sale of the seized assets is ordered. What it does not do is erase the surcharge that has already arisen: if you ask to spread a debt that is at 10 % or 20 %, you are spreading the tax with that surcharge included. And while it is being processed, the collection body can carry on with seizures already ordered, even if it does not go as far as an auction. The specific conditions, including any guarantee, are set by the general bylaw of the municipality or of the delegated body, which need not match the Agencia Tributaria's rules. An alternative that tends to be forgotten: if the town hall owes you a refund of another tax, you can ask for it to be set off and so extinguish part of the debt. How to put together a realistic instalment plan is explained in a realistic instalment timetable.
Filing a request for reconsideration (recurso de reposición) against the assessment, which is the compulsory first step for local taxes and must be made within one month, does not by itself suspend collection. To halt it you have to ask for suspension and, normally, provide a guarantee. Often the prudent course is to pay to stop the surcharges and carry on disputing the tax: if you win, it is refunded with interest.
What to do depending on the phase you are in
- You have not filed yet and nobody has written to you: file now, with the tax calculated by the more favourable method. You move from the penalty scenario to the surcharge scenario.
- You have an assessment within the voluntary period: check the method and the period of ownership, appeal if appropriate and pay or apply for instalments before it expires. There is a guide in the town hall has assessed me: can I appeal?
- The enforcement order has arrived: paying within its deadline keeps the surcharge at 10 %. Check whether any of the grounds for opposing it apply.
- There is already a seizure: ask for the full file, check the notifications and, if appropriate, challenge it; in the meantime, paying stops the interest from running.
Ahmed's case was resolved by paying and asking for the file, but not every file has a defect that can be used. What can be said with certainty is that each phase you let pass makes the next one more expensive.