Non-Resident Income Tax (IRNR): Renting Out or Keeping a Home in Spain

If you are tax-resident outside Spain and own a home here, you pay Spanish income tax on it every year, whether you let it or not. The tax is the Impuesto sobre la Renta de No Residentes (IRNR). This guide covers the two cases most owners meet: renting the home out, and keeping it empty or for your own holidays. Each owner declares their own share, so a couple who own a home together file a return each.

The short answer

• If you let it: you pay 19% of the rent if you live in the EU or the EEA (Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein), and 24% if you live anywhere else, including the UK and the US. Under the law as written, only EU and EEA residents can deduct expenses; a court challenge to that rule is now before the Supreme Court.
• If it stands empty or you use it yourself: you pay the same 19% or 24% on an imputed income of 1.1% or 2% of the home’s cadastral value.
• How: on Modelo 210. From 2026 income, rent with tax to pay is declared once a year, between 1 and 20 April of the following year.

If you rent the home out

The rate is 24% as a rule, and 19% if you live in another EU or EEA country with an effective exchange of tax information (article 25.1.a of the non-resident tax law). The UK left that group with Brexit, so UK residents pay 24%.

• EU and EEA residents pay on the net rent. They can deduct the expenses the Spanish income tax law allows, as long as they are directly linked to the rent (article 24.6): for example mortgage interest, IBI, community fees, repairs, insurance, and depreciation of up to 3% a year of the higher of the purchase price or the cadastral value, not counting the land (article 14 of the income tax regulation).
• Everyone else pays on the gross rent, with no expenses deducted (article 24.1).
• A pending court challenge: in July 2025 the Audiencia Nacional ruled that refusing the expense deduction to an owner living in the US breaches the EU rule on the free movement of capital, and accepted the owner’s request to have past returns corrected. The State appealed, and on 15 July 2026 the Supreme Court agreed to decide the question, including whether an EU exception for rules that already existed at the end of 1993 lets Spain keep this one. The judgment only decided that owner’s case, and the law has not changed. If you live outside the EU and the EEA, check with your adviser whether to request corrections to your past returns; you generally have four years to do so (articles 66 and 120 of the General Tax Law).
• No reductions: the reductions Spanish residents can apply to long-term residential lets do not apply to non-residents; article 24.1 excludes them.

Short-term holiday lets are taxed the same way. If your tenant is a Spanish company or business, it may have to withhold the tax from the rent it pays you (article 31), and you do not file a return for rent that was withheld (article 28); tell your adviser, so the tax is not paid twice.

If the home stands empty or you use it yourself

Spain taxes an imputed income on a home that is not let, even though it earns nothing (article 24.5 of the non-resident tax law and article 85 of the income tax law).

• The imputed income is 2% of the cadastral value shown on your IBI bill, or 1.1% if your town’s cadastral values were revised in a general valuation that came into force in the last ten years.
• The tax is 19% or 24% of that figure, with no expenses deducted.
• Part of the year: it is counted in days, so if you let the home for three months you declare rent for those months and imputed income for the rest of the year.

Example: a home with a cadastral value of €150,000, in a town whose values were revised recently, has an imputed income of 1.1%, or €1,650 a year. An owner living in the UK pays 24% of that, €396. An owner living in Germany pays 19%, €313.50. Two co-owners with half each split both figures.

When to file Modelo 210

The deadlines changed in June 2026 (Orden HAC/623/2026). What applies depends on the kind of income and the year it was earned.

• Rent, with tax to pay: from 2026 income, once a year, between 1 and 20 April of the following year, whether you group the year’s rent in one return or declare it separately. The first April deadline is 20 April 2027, for 2026 rent. If you declare each payment on its own return instead of grouping the year’s rent, the old quarterly deadline still applies to rent for July to September 2026: 1 to 20 October 2026.
• Rent, with no tax to pay (for example when expenses cancel it out): between 1 and 20 January of the following year.
• Rent, with a refund due: from 1 February of the following year, within four years.
• Empty home (imputed income): from 2026 income, between 1 April and 31 December of the following year. For 2025, the return is due by 31 December 2026.

You can file online with a digital certificate, or through an adviser. If you pay by direct debit, the window closes earlier: 15 April for rent and 23 December for an empty home.

Do you need a tax representative?

Only in some cases. If you live in the EU or the EEA, you can act yourself or through any representative you choose. If you live outside the EU and the EEA, for example in the UK or the US, you must appoint a representative resident in Spain only if the Tax Agency requires it because of the amount of your income or because you own property here, or if you live in a territory with no effective exchange of tax information with Spain (article 10). Most owners use a gestor or tax adviser anyway; that is a choice, not the formal representative the law describes.

Double taxation

Spain taxes rent from a Spanish home wherever the owner lives, and the tax treaties agree: the Spain-UK treaty of 2013 says income from property may be taxed in the country where the property is (article 6). Your home country then usually gives credit for the Spanish tax under its own rules and its treaty with Spain, so keep your Modelo 210 returns and payment receipts for your home tax return.

Filing late

If you file a late return with tax to pay before the Tax Agency contacts you about it, you pay a surcharge instead of a penalty: 1%, plus 1% for each full month of delay, during the first 12 months, and 15% plus late-payment interest after that (article 27 of the General Tax Law). If the Tax Agency contacts you first, the surcharge no longer applies and a penalty can be imposed instead (article 191).

When you sell

Selling is taxed separately: non-residents pay 19% on the gain, and the buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it to the Tax Agency on account. See taxes when selling.

Common mistakes

• “UK owners still pay 19%.” Since Brexit they pay 24%, and under the law as written they cannot deduct expenses.
• “If I don’t let it, I owe nothing.” An empty second home still pays tax on its imputed income.
• “Modelo 210 is filed every quarter.” From 2026 income, rent with tax to pay is declared once a year, in April. The one quarterly deadline left is 1 to 20 October 2026, for July to September rent declared payment by payment.
• “My gestor is my legal tax representative.” Only if you formally appointed them as one, and most owners do not need to.

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Rules and deadlines change, and your treaty and circumstances matter, so check with a tax adviser before you file.

Sources

Checked on 28-09-26 against the texts on the BOE: the non-resident income tax law (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004), articles 10, 24, 25, 28 and 31; the income tax law (Law 35/2006), article 85; the income tax regulation (Real Decreto 439/2007), article 14; Orden HAC/623/2026, which set the current Modelo 210 deadlines; the Spain-UK tax treaty of 2013, article 6; and the General Tax Law, articles 27, 66, 120 and 191. On the expense question, also the Audiencia Nacional judgment SAN 3630/2025 and the Supreme Court order ATS 7675/2026, on CENDOJ, the courts’ database.