Modelo 210: the Spanish non-resident tax return, explained

If you own a property in Spain but live somewhere else, Modelo 210 is the form you use to pay Spanish tax on it. Most owners need it once a year, even when the property is empty and earns nothing at all. This page explains what the form is, whether it applies to you, what you would pay for the 2025 tax year, when it is due, and what to do if you are already behind. Working out your figure costs nothing, and you pay only when you file.

What Modelo 210 is

Modelo 210 is the self-assessment return for Spain's non-resident income tax — Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes, or IRNR — covering income earned in Spain by people who are not tax resident there and who have no permanent establishment in the country. For a foreign property owner it covers three quite different things: the notional income Spain attributes to a property you keep for yourself, the rent you receive if you let it, and the gain if you sell it.

Two words matter here. Self-assessment means the law puts the working-out on you: you calculate the amount and pay it, rather than waiting for the Tax Agency to send you an assessment. Non-resident means the test is where you are tax resident, not what passport you hold or how much you love the place. One form, three sets of rules — which is why both the rate and the deadline depend on which income you are declaring.

Do you have to file one?

You file Modelo 210 if you are not tax resident in Spain and you own — or sold during the year — a property there. What you file depends on what the property did that year.

Spain taxes each owner, not each property. A couple who own a flat 50/50 file two returns, one each for their own share, not one joint return. The single exception written into the rules is a sale by a married non-resident couple who own the property jointly: that one may go on a single self-assessment. If you are unsure which of the three applies to you, the obligations check walks you through it.

Which of the three returns applies to you

What you pay for the 2025 tax year

For the 2025 tax year the rate on imputed and rental income is 19% if you are resident in the EU or EEA and 24% if you are not. Capital gains ignore that split entirely and are taxed at a flat 19% for every non-resident. What changes between the three is the base the rate is applied to.

• Imputed income — the base is 1.1% of the cadastral value if that value was revised in a general revaluation that took effect in the tax year or the previous ten tax periods, and 2% otherwise. It is then scaled by your ownership share and by the days you owned the property and did not let it.
• Rental income — the base is the rent you received. EU/EEA residents may deduct allowable expenses tied to that income; residents elsewhere are taxed on the gross amount with no deductions at all.
• Capital gains — the base is the sale value less the acquisition value. The buyer is required to withhold 3% of the agreed price and pay it to the Tax Agency as an advance on your tax, so you either owe the difference or, where the 3% exceeds the tax, claim the excess back.

You can put your own numbers through the non-resident tax calculators and see the figure before you decide anything. Unfamiliar words are unpacked in the Spanish tax glossary.

When is a Modelo 210 due?

It depends on the income type and on the accrual year — the year the income belongs to, not the year you file. This matters more than usual right now: Orden HAC/623/2026 moved the imputed-income and rental windows, and the new dates apply for the first time to 2026 accruals. So the 2025 return you file in 2026 follows the old calendar, and the 2026 return you file in 2027 follows the new one.

Rental deadlines are the fiddliest part of the form, because they turn on whether you group the year's income into one return or declare each accrual separately, and on whether there is tax to pay. They are set out case by case in the rental income guide, and the imputed-income calendar is worked through in the imputed income guide.

One practical detail that catches people out: if you want the Tax Agency to take the payment by direct debit, the direct-debit window is shorter than the filing window. For imputed income on 2025 accruals it runs 1 January to 23 December 2026, and from 2026 accruals it runs 1 April to 23 December of the following year. Direct debit is not available at all on a return for the sale of a property — the Tax Agency excludes that income type — so a sale is paid another way.

What happens if you file late

You can still file, and it is much better to. A late return submitted on your own initiative carries a surcharge of 1% of the amount payable, plus a further 1% for each complete month of delay. Once more than twelve months have passed, the surcharge is 15% and late-payment interest is charged for the time beyond that first year. The surcharge is reduced by 25% provided you pay the tax when you file the late return and then pay the surcharge within the period the Tax Agency gives you when it notifies it.

The phrase that does the work in the law is sin requerimiento previo — without prior demand. Those surcharges are what applies when you come forward before the Tax Agency contacts you about it. Once it has written to you about that specific obligation, you are outside the surcharge regime and penalties can enter the picture instead. That is the whole reason not to wait: the same missed year costs less when you raise it than when they do.

Two things worth knowing if you have several years outstanding. The surcharge is calculated on the amount payable, so a return that produces no tax to pay has nothing for a surcharge to bite on. And each year is its own return: catching up means filing one Modelo 210 per missed year per owner, not a single combined one. Discovering this after five or ten years of ownership is common and it is fixable.

What you need in order to file

Less than people expect. For an imputed-income return you need your NIE, the property details, your ownership share, and the valor catastral and referencia catastral — both printed on your IBI bill. For a rental return you need the rent received and, if you are EU or EEA resident, the expenses you are deducting. For a sale you need the purchase and sale deeds, plus the copy of the Modelo 211 the buyer filed for the 3% retention.

With that in hand the return takes about ten minutes on this site. The calculation is free, you see the exact figure before committing to anything, and you pay only when you file. Our pricing depends on the return type and the number of owners on it, and it is shown before you commit.

Questions owners ask most

Already started a return, or looking for the form itself? The filing form now lives at spain-tax.com/file/modelo-210 and asks you to sign in first. This page used to be that form; if you bookmarked it, that is the link you want.

This page is general information about how the Spanish non-resident rules work. It is not tax advice and it cannot cover every situation. Rates and deadlines are those of the accrual years named above; the deadline changes described come from Orden HAC/623/2026, which amends Orden EHA/3316/2010. The Tax Agency also publishes a note on the deadline changes.