Any person who is non-resident in Spain but owns a property here, is obliged to present a non-resident’s tax declaration. This declaration must be presented in arrears, that is, this year we will present a tax declaration for last year, and, next year, we will present a tax declaration for the current year. There are several ways to do this:

1.- If you haven’t leased your dwelling, an annual declaration must be made, and you will be taxed on a proportional part of the cadastral value registered for Spanish property tax (Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles or IBI), the amount varies depending on whether or not you are a citizen of the European Union.

2.- If you have leased your dwelling for the entire year, you must present a quarterly tax return, that is, in April (for January, February and March), in July (for April, May and June), in October (for July, August and September) and in January (for October, November and December). You must declare the income obtained in every quarter minus deductible expenses (insurance, community payments, fees, repairs, utilities provided they are paid for by the owner.)

3.- If you have leased your dwelling for only part of the year, you must present two tax declarations. One for the leasehold period and another for the rest of the year.

It is worth mentioning when discussing this procedure that, if the declarations have not been submitted regarding previous years, two situations may arise:

• If you offer to pay voluntarily, the Tax Agency will only charge you interest from the last day of the year for which the declaration should have been presented until the date on which it was actually presented.
• If you have to present a declaration at the Tax Agency’s request, in addition to the above, you will be asked to pay 25 - 50% of the amount to be declared.