Marc and Julie are Belgian, live in Ghent and in 2021 bought a flat in Estepona in equal halves. They use it about six weeks a year, at Easter and in October, and in 2026 they decided for the first time to hand it to an agency to let for ten weeks in summer. They wrote to us with a very specific question: «We have been told that, since we are not resident and the flat hardly makes any money, we do not have to declare anything in Spain. Is that right?». It is not, and their case is a clear way of seeing when the obligation to file Modelo 210 arises.
Three conditions that bring you in
The 210 is the return for the Impuesto sobre la Renta de No Residentes, Spain's non-resident income tax, for anyone who earns income in Spain without a permanent establishment. It has to be filed when three things happen at once:
- You are not tax resident in Spain. That is, you do not spend more than 183 days a year here and the centre of your economic interests is elsewhere.
- You own an urban property in Spain, or you have earned some other income in Spain that has not had tax withheld.
- That property has given you an income, which may be real (a rental) or imputed, when you have kept it at your disposal.
The third condition is the one that surprises people. An empty flat, or one kept for your own use, is not «outside» the tax: the law presumes it produces an annual income for you, calculated as a percentage of its valor catastral (the official cadastral value shown on the IBI bill), and tax is paid on it. There is no exempt minimum: it is declared from the first euro.
What Marc and Julie had to file for 2026
Their flat has a cadastral value of €180,000, revised in 2019. Because the revision falls within the last ten years, the imputation percentage is 1.1 %; otherwise it would be 2 %. It was let for 70 days and at their disposal for the remaining 295. They collected €9,100 in rent and had €3,650 of annual costs (IBI, community fees, insurance, depreciation).
- Full annual imputed income: 180,000 × 1.1 % = €1,980.
- Only for the days at their disposal: 1,980 × 295/365 = €1,600.27. Each declares half, €800.14, and pays 19 %: €152.03.
- Costs attributable to the letting: 3,650 × 70/365 = €700. As residents of the European Union, they may deduct them.
- Rental base: 9,100 − 700 = €8,400. Each has €4,200, at 19 %: €798.
- Result: four returns. Two for rental income (€798 each), from 1 to 20 April 2027. Two for imputed income (€152.03 each), from 1 April to 31 December 2027.
Apportioning by days is where we see the most mistakes, and we explain it with more cases in the guide on let days and apportionment. Imputed income, with its percentages and exceptions, is covered in imputed income for non-residents.
The quick check, situation by situation
| Your situation | Do you file a 210? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flat empty all year, or used only for your own holidays | Yes, imputed income | The income is presumed even if you collect nothing |
| Flat let all year | Yes, for rental income | There is real income; no imputation |
| Let for part of the year and at your disposal for the rest | Yes, both kinds | Each period is taxed under its own heading |
| Property under construction or with no legal possibility of use | Not for imputed income | The law excludes such properties |
| Bare ownership, with someone else holding the usufruct | Not you: the usufructuary | The income belongs to whoever can use it |
| You sold the property | Yes, for the gain | Separately from the 3 % the buyer withholds |
| You live in Spain more than 183 days | No: income tax (Modelo 100) | You become tax resident |
The sale deserves one more line. When a non-resident sells, the buyer withholds 3 % of the price and pays it in with Modelo 211 in the month after the escritura, the notarial deed of sale. The seller then has three months, starting when that month ends, to file their own 210 for the gain and, where appropriate, claim back whatever was withheld in excess. It is explained in the guide on deadlines on a non-resident's sale.
If your case involves any of these combinations and you do not know how many returns you owe, the non-resident form gives you the exact number before we quote you anything.
Other Spanish income that can lead you to a 210
Property is the most common reason, but not the only one. The general rule is that income which has already had the correct Spanish tax withheld does not oblige you to file a return: the payer has paid the tax for you. That covers, for example, dividends from a Spanish company received net of withholding. Even so, there are cases where it pays to file a 210 without being obliged to, because it is the way to claim back tax withheld in excess when your country's tax treaty sets a lower rate than the one applied. It is a refund 210, not a payment one, and it is accompanied by the residence certificate for treaty purposes.
Interest on a Spanish bank account received by a resident of another EU member state is, as a general rule, exempt; it is advisable for the bank to have your residence on file so as not to withhold. And if you have sold shares in a Spanish company, units in a fund or any other asset located in Spain, the gain may also oblige you to file, depending on the type of asset and your country. All of these situations are looked at one by one, with your country's treaty in front of you; what is not advisable is to assume that, without a property, there is nothing to file.
The objections we hear every spring
«But I already pay the IBI»
The IBI is a municipal tax on ownership. The 210 is a state tax on income. Paying one does not release you from the other, and the IBI bill is useful here for one thing only: finding the cadastral value used to calculate the imputed income.
«We own it half each»
Then you are two taxpayers. The 210 goes by owner and by property, and each declares their percentage of ownership, with their own residence certificate if they claim the 19 % rate.
«We already declare it in Belgium»
Probably you do, and rightly so. The treaty between Spain and your country decides who may tax and how double taxation is avoided, but with income from property the state where the property lies keeps the right to tax. Declaring it at home does not replace the 210: it complements it, and the way to correct the double payment is dealt with in your own country under its treaty.
Some owners, on retiring, start spending five or six months a year in Spain. Once you exceed 183 days of presence in the calendar year, or the centre of your interests moves here, you stop being non-resident: the return is no longer the 210 but the income tax return for residents, which taxes worldwide income. If you are close to that line, the problem is not how many 210s to file but where you are resident, and it is worth studying before the year ends. The guide on dual residence conflicts explains how it is decided when two countries claim you.
Marc and Julie will file their four returns in 2027. Between the two of them they will cost about €1,900. It would have cost them a good deal more to discover in 2029, through a letter from the tax office, that the flat that «hardly makes any money» had been generating an income for years that nobody was declaring.