IRNR and Form 210: A Tax Guide for Non-Residents with Property in Spain

If you live outside Spain but own a flat, receive rental income, or have any kind of income sourced in Spanish territory, there’s a good chance you have a tax obligation many people aren’t aware of: the Non-Resident Income Tax (IRNR, Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes). It isn’t the same as the personal income tax (IRPF) paid by Spanish tax residents, and it’s declared using a specific form, Form 210, filed with the AEAT (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, Spain’s national tax authority). Understanding when this obligation applies — and when it doesn’t — is key to avoiding surcharges and unpleasant surprises, especially if you bought a property in Spain thinking only about day-to-day use and not its annual tax implications.

Before going into detail, one important clarification: you’re considered a non-resident for Spanish tax purposes if you spend no more than 183 days a year in the country and your main economic interests aren’t based there. If you’re a digital nomad, an expat who is a tax resident elsewhere, or simply a foreign investor with a property on the Costa del Sol or in Madrid, IRNR is most likely how you’ll be taxed in Spain, and Form 210 is the form you’ll use — either per transaction or grouped together, depending on the type of income.

Deemed income: the “silent” tax on an empty home

Many non-resident owners are surprised to learn they owe tax in Spain on a flat they neither rent out nor use regularly, and which generates no income at all. Spanish law presumes that any urban property that isn’t the owner’s main residence and isn’t rented out generates “deemed” or “imputed” income, calculated as a percentage of the property’s cadastral value (the administrative value assigned by the local council, shown on the IBI bill, the municipal property tax). The applicable IRNR rate is applied to that deemed income, and it’s declared once a year via Form 210, usually with a deadline running through the end of the year following the tax year in question. It’s an obligation that’s easy to forget precisely because there’s no real cash flow to remind you of it: the flat sits empty, yet the tax authorities consider it to “generate” theoretical income simply by existing and being available to its owner.

Rentals, tax rates by residence, and other income

If you rent the property out instead, the mechanics change: you must declare the actual income received, and this is where the owner’s country of residence makes a real difference. Residents of the European Union, Iceland and Norway are taxed at a reduced rate and — importantly — can deduct expenses directly linked to the rental (community fees, IBI, insurance, repairs, mortgage interest, property depreciation), paying tax only on the net income. Residents outside that group — including the UK after Brexit, or the United States, for example — are taxed at a higher rate and, unless a double taxation treaty says otherwise, cannot deduct expenses, meaning tax is charged on gross income. This EU/non-EU distinction should always be checked against the rules in force for each tax year, since applicable rates can be updated. Form 210 is also used for other Spanish-source income received by non-residents: capital gains from selling a property, dividends, interest or royalties, each with its own box and, in some cases, withholding tax already applied by the payer, which should be taken into account to avoid being taxed twice.

Deadlines: quarterly, annual, and the shift toward digital filing

Rental income earned by non-residents is usually declared quarterly, while deemed income from empty properties is settled annually. In recent years the AEAT has stepped up electronic filing of Form 210 and increasingly cross-references its own databases (land registry, property registry, short-term rental platform data) against the returns filed, so the room for simply “not knowing” keeps shrinking. Since exact deadlines and rates can change from one year to the next due to regulatory updates, the safest approach is to check the tax calendar in force before each filing, rather than going by what was paid the previous year.

At Zythos Business we help both Spanish freelancers and small businesses, as well as foreign property owners and investors, get these obligations in order — from calculating the correct deemed income to filing a quarterly Form 210 for a rental or coordinating the tax side of a property sale — so that complying with the Spanish tax authorities doesn’t come down to guesswork, but to having someone review it for you.