Selling property in Spain as a non-resident: taxes, 3% and plusvalía (2026)

11. Before you put it on the market

A buyer’s lawyer will ask for these, so have them ready before you sign anything:

• The title deed (escritura) and a recent nota simple from the land registry.
• The energy performance certificate. A copy of the registered certificate and its label is attached to the sale contract (Real Decreto 390/2021 por el que se aprueba el procedimiento básico para la certificación de la eficiencia energética de los edificios, article 17.2).
• The community’s certificate of debts. You must declare that you owe the community nothing, or say what you owe, and bring a certificate from its secretary; without it the notary will not authorise the deed unless the buyer waives it (Ley 49/1960 sobre propiedad horizontal, article 9.1.e).
• The last IBI receipts and the utility bills.
• Your purchase costs and improvement invoices. They lower the taxable gain (step 5), so find them now.

Your NIE and a Spanish bank account make the sale and the refund much simpler. If you will not be in Spain for the signing, give a lawyer a power of attorney for this sale.

22. Price, agent and deposit

• Estate agent: the fee is agreed with you, usually as a percentage of the price plus IVA. Agree it in writing, including what happens if you find the buyer yourself.
• Deposit contract: with the usual arras penitenciales (article 1454 of the Spanish Civil Code (Código Civil)), a buyer who pulls out loses the deposit, and a seller who pulls out pays back double. Only sign when you are sure you want to sell at that price.

33. The 3% the buyer holds back

When the seller is not resident in Spain, the buyer must withhold 3% of the agreed price and pay it to the tax agency on your behalf (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004, texto refundido de la Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes, article 25.2).

• When: the buyer files Modelo 211 and pays within one month of the sale (Orden EHA/3316/2010, article 8.5).
• Your copy: the buyer must give you a copy of the Modelo 211. You need it to deduct the 3% in your own return, so ask for it at the notary.
• If the buyer doesn’t pay it: the home stays answerable for the lower of the 3% and your tax (article 25.2). Buyers’ lawyers know this, so the 3% is held back at the signing.

Tax-resident in Spain? The 3% only applies to non-resident sellers. If you are tax-resident in Spain, bring a certificate of tax residence from the tax agency to the notary, and declare the sale in your normal income tax return instead.

The 3% is not an extra tax. It is an advance on your tax on the gain (step 5): you deduct it, and you can claim back whatever it overpaid.

44. The municipal plusvalía

The plusvalía (impuesto sobre el incremento de valor de los terrenos de naturaleza urbana) is the town’s tax on the increase in value of the land under your home (Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2004, texto refundido de la Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales, articles 104 to 110).

• Who pays: the seller. When the seller is a non-resident individual, the buyer pays it in your place (article 106.2), so the buyer’s lawyer keeps the amount back from the price, next to the 3%.
• No gain, no tax: if the land’s value did not increase between purchase and sale, there is no plusvalía. The values compared are the ones in your purchase and sale deeds, split between land and building by the cadastral values (article 104.5).
• How it is calculated: the land’s cadastral value today, times a coefficient for the years you owned it, set by your town up to a legal maximum (article 107). If the real increase in value is lower, you can ask to pay on the real increase instead (article 107.5).
• Rate: set by each town, up to 30% of that base (article 108).
• Deadline: declared, and paid where the town uses self-assessment, within 30 working days of the sale (article 110).
• Registration: the buyer cannot register the purchase until the plusvalía has been declared or self-assessed (Ley Hipotecaria, article 254.5).

The legal maximums change on 1 December 2026, set by Real Decreto-ley 29/2026. Until then the previous maximums apply. A decree-law still has to be confirmed by Congress, and an earlier update of these coefficients was overturned in January 2026, so check which coefficients your town applies on the day you sell. Your town’s coefficients can be lower than these maximums:

Example at the legal maximums: land with a cadastral value of €60,000, owned for 10 years, at a 30% rate. Sold before 1 December 2026: €60,000 × 0.12 = €7,200, so the plusvalía is €2,160. Sold from 1 December 2026: €60,000 × 0.22 = €13,200, so the plusvalía is €3,960. Your town’s coefficient and rate may be lower, and if the land did not gain value there is nothing to pay.

55. Capital gains tax: 19%

Your gain is taxed at 19%, whether you live in the EU or not (article 25.1.f). Some websites quote 24% or a scale from 19% to 30%: those are the non-resident rate for other income and the residents’ scale, not the rate for a non-resident’s gain on a sale. It is worked out with the rules of the Spanish income tax (Ley 35/2006 del IRPF, article 35, applied by article 24.4 of the non-resident tax law):

• Purchase value: the price you paid, plus the costs and taxes of buying (purchase tax, notary, registry, lawyer) and the cost of improvements. Mortgage interest does not count.
• If you rented it out: the purchase value is reduced by the depreciation for the years it was let.
• If you inherited it or received it as a gift: the purchase value is the value used for inheritance or gift tax, up to the market value (article 36).
• Sale value: the price you receive, minus the costs and taxes of selling that you pay, such as the agency fee. If the price is below market value, the market value is used.
• Gain: sale value minus purchase value.

Here is an example: a home bought for €200,000 and sold ten years later for €300,000, never rented out.

If the 3% is more than your tax, or if you sold at a loss, you claim the difference back.

66. File Modelo 210 for the sale

• Deadline: within three months after the one-month period the buyer has to pay the 3%, so within four months of the sale in total (Orden EHA/3316/2010, article 5.a).
• Whatever the result: you file it to pay the difference, to show that nothing more is due, or to claim a refund.
• Co-owners: each owner files their own Modelo 210 for their share, and each deducts their share of the 3%.
• Refund: if you claim money back, give a bank account for the refund. A Spanish account is the simplest.

Your yearly Modelo 210 for the home (the imputed income) still applies for the part of the year you owned it. Our Modelo 210 guide explains it.

77. Mistakes to avoid

• Losing your purchase invoices. Without them your gain looks bigger.
• Not getting the buyer’s Modelo 211. You need it to deduct the 3%.
• Missing the four-month deadline. Late returns bring surcharges, and a refund only comes if you file.
• Ignoring the plusvalía because the buyer pays it. It is your tax; it comes off your price.
• Signing the arras too early. Pulling out costs you double the deposit.
• Forgetting the IBI for the year of sale. Agree in writing how it is split.

Checklist

• Title deed and nota simple
• Energy certificate, registered
• Community certificate of debts
• Last IBI receipts and utility bills
• Purchase costs and improvement invoices
• Agency fee agreed in writing
• Arras contract read by your lawyer
• 3% held back and Modelo 211 copy received
• Plusvalía calculated, and held back or paid within 30 working days
• Modelo 210 for the sale filed within four months
• IBI for the year split in the contract