Modelo 210 for non-resident landlords: the 2026 rules

If you live outside Spain and let a property here, you declare the rent on modelo 210, the return for non-resident income tax (impuesto sobre la renta de no residentes, IRNR). Residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein pay 19% on the rent after deductible expenses. Residents of any other country, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States included, pay 24% on the gross rent. Since an order of June 2026, rent falling due from October 2026 is declared once a year, from 1 to 20 April of the following year. Months without a tenant are taxed separately, as imputed income.

What follows is general information drawn from the official texts as they stood on 26 October 2026. Have a tax adviser check your own situation before you file.

The 2026 calendar

Orden HAC/623/2026 of 12 June 2026 moved the filing windows for rental income and imputed income. The change covers the whole of 2026 if you group the year's rent in one annual return, and rent due from October 2026 if you file one return per monthly rent.

What you declare	When
Rent due in 2026, grouped in one annual return	1-20 April 2027
Rent due from January to September 2026, one return per monthly rent	First 20 days of April, July or October 2026, depending on the quarter (previous rule)
Rent due from October to December 2026, one return per monthly rent	1-20 April 2027
Rent due from 2027, grouped or not	1-20 April of the following year
Imputed income for 2025	By 31 December 2026
Imputed income for 2026	1 April to 31 December 2027

If you pay by direct debit, file by 15 April. A return with a zero result, which an EU resident can reach when expenses cover the rent, keeps its own window under the order: 1-20 January of the following year. A return claiming a refund can be filed from 1 February of the following year.

From 1 January 2027, every modelo 210 is filed on the new version of the form, whatever year the rent relates to. It asks for the number of days the property was let and your percentage of ownership. If you deduct expenses, you also complete a new annex that breaks them down line by line.

19% or 24%: where you live decides

The rate depends on your country of tax residence. Nationality plays no part: a British citizen resident in France pays 19%, a Spaniard resident in London pays 24%.

• Resident in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein: 19% of the rent minus the expenses directly linked to the let. To deduct them, you attach a tax residence certificate issued by your home tax authority, valid for one year from its date.
• Resident anywhere else: 24% of the gross rent, with no deduction at all.

The taxable amount is everything the tenant pays you under the lease, excluding VAT: the rent itself, any community fees or utilities you recharge, and any amount paid for furniture let with the flat. For an owner taxed on the gross figure, a recharged community fee is taxed at 24% like the rent.

An illustration with round figures, not a real case: a flat let at €1,000 a month, with €3,000 of deductible expenses over the year. An owner resident in Ireland is taxed on €9,000 at 19%, so €1,710. An owner resident in the United Kingdom is taxed on €12,000 at 24%, so €2,880.

The gap for non-EU residents is being challenged in court. On 15 July 2026 the Supreme Court agreed to rule on whether taxing them on the gross rent, with no deduction, restricts the free movement of capital protected by EU law (order ATS 7675/2026, appeal 6741/2025). Until it decides, the law applies as written. If the ruling goes in owners' favour, refunds could be claimed for the years that are not yet time-barred, four years under Spanish tax law. Your adviser can tell you whether to protect those years now.

Empty months: imputed income

When the property is not let, Spain taxes a notional income. For each day without a tenant, you declare a share of a yearly amount equal to 2% of the cadastral value shown on your IBI bill, or 1.1% if your municipality's cadastral values have been revised. The rate is 19% or 24%, as above, and no expenses can be deducted.

For 2026, the 1.1% applies when the revised values took effect from 2012 onwards. That rule comes from Royal Decree-law 29/2026, in force since 8 October 2026, awaiting validation. Without it, the base rule of the income tax law applies: 1.1% only if the revision took effect in the year or in the ten previous years. From 2027 the same decree would replace these rates with a scale from 1.1% to 3% that depends on the combined cadastral value of the properties concerned. We will update this article once the decree is validated and the tax agency explains how the scale applies to non-residents.

The weeks between two tenancies count. A flat let from 1 March to 31 December generates imputed income for January and February, declared on a return of its own. For any empty period in 2025, that return is due by 31 December 2026.

From your management statements to the expense annex

This part only concerns owners allowed to deduct expenses: residents of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The deductible items are those of Spanish personal income tax for landlords, and the tax office can ask you to prove each one. From 2027 they go on the new annex, one line per category. If an agency manages your flat, much of the evidence is already in its statements.

Where you find it	Line of the annex	Good to know
Management fees on the agency statement	Other amounts paid to third parties for personal services	Administration of the let falls under this line
Tenant-find and lease drafting fee	Lease formalisation costs	Since 2023 this fee is paid by the landlord
Plumber, electrician or painter invoices	Interest, repairs and maintenance	Together with loan interest, capped at the rent of that property; the excess can be used over the next four years
Bank certificate of interest paid	Interest, repairs and maintenance	Only a loan taken to buy or improve the property
Owners' community statement	Community fees	Your share of the building's costs
IBI and refuse collection receipts	Taxes, surcharges and fees	Fines excluded
Insurance policy for the flat	Insurance premiums	Liability, fire, theft, glass and similar cover
Purchase deed and IBI bill	Depreciation of the property	Up to 3% a year of the purchase cost or the cadastral value, whichever is higher, land excluded
Furniture and appliance invoices	Depreciation of furniture	Items let with the flat
Rent left unpaid	Doubtful debts	Once more than six months have passed since your first collection step, or if the tenant is in insolvency proceedings

Points that change the figures:

• Annual costs only count for the days the flat is let. That is the tax agency's position: if the flat stood empty for two months, IBI, community fees and insurance are deductible for ten months.
• Rent is taxable when it falls due, even if the tenant has not paid. It becomes deductible as a doubtful debt once the conditions above are met, and taxable again if you recover it later.
• What you recharge to the tenant appears twice, as income and as an expense.
• Work that enlarges or improves the property is depreciated over the years. Only repairs and maintenance are deducted straight away.

Our full property management plan includes an annual summary of rent and expenses for your tax return (see our pricing). It lists the rent and the costs that went through us. Your adviser adds what you pay directly, such as loan interest or an IBI bill debited from your own account, and the depreciation worked out from your deed.

What to gather, month by month and once a year

Each month, compare the rent due under the lease with the rent received, note any day without a tenant and keep every invoice for work on the flat.

Once a year, before your adviser starts:

• the annual summary from your agency, or your own record of rent due and received;
• the IBI bill, which shows the cadastral value;
• the community fees statement and the insurance premium receipts;
• your bank's certificate of interest paid in the year;
• a tax residence certificate from your home tax authority, if you deduct expenses;
• the purchase deed, the first year, to calculate depreciation;
• the NIE and the ownership share of each co-owner.

Joint owners, NIE, representative and payment

• Joint owners: each owner files their own return for their share of the rent and, where allowed, of the expenses. That includes married couples: a single return for both spouses exists only for the sale of a property.
• NIE: for a foreign national, the NIE is the Spanish tax identification number. Each co-owner needs one.
• Representative: owners resident in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein do not have to appoint a tax representative in Spain. Residents of other countries must appoint one when the tax office requires it, or when they live in a country with no effective exchange of tax information with Spain. An adviser who files for you does not have to be your representative: an authorised professional can submit the return electronically in your name.
• Filing: online on the Agencia Tributaria website, with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, or through an authorised professional. A paper form still exists.
• Payment: through a Spanish bank, by direct debit from a Spanish account or from a SEPA account abroad (the United Kingdom and Switzerland included), or by transfer from abroad in euros, quoting the payment reference the system gives you, valid for 30 days.
• Company tenant: a Spanish company, or a business renting for its activity, generally has to withhold the tax on the rent and pay it to the tax office. You then file nothing for that rent, unless you claim a refund, for example to deduct expenses as an EU resident.

Pitfalls in the rules

• Declaring the rent received instead of the rent due.
• Forgetting the imputed income for the weeks between two tenants.
• Deducting expenses as a resident of a country outside the EU and the EEA, or without a residence certificate issued less than a year earlier.
• Filing one return for a couple who own the flat together.
• Waiting until April with a zero-result return, whose window is in January.
• Filing late: without a prior request from the tax office, the surcharge is 1% plus 1% for each full month of delay, and 15% plus interest after twelve months.

If you are about to let for the first time, our guide to renting out your property in Spain from abroad covers the lease, the deposit and the documents. For the wider picture, IBI and capital gains on resale included, read the Alveo group's overview of non-resident taxes in 2026. And to see what your flat could bring in, estimate your rent.