Spain Non-Resident Property Tax: What Mallorca Owners Who Don't Rent Must Pay

Spain non-resident property tax is one of the most consistently overlooked obligations among foreign owners of Mallorca homes. The assumption — logical enough on the surface — is that if you are not generating income from your property, there is no income to tax. Spain's tax legislation does not work that way. Even if your Mallorca home sits empty for eleven months of the year, used only during your own visits and earning nothing from anyone, the Spanish tax authorities require you to file an annual return and pay tax on a notional income they attribute to the property. This obligation exists regardless of your nationality, regardless of whether you rent the property, and regardless of whether you have ever heard of it before.

It is a legal requirement that has been on the books for decades, and the Agencia Tributaria has become significantly more active in recent years in pursuing non-resident owners who have not been filing. Understanding how the Spain non-resident property tax works, what it costs, and what you need to do about it is straightforward once the mechanics are clear.

What Is the IRNR?

IRNR stands for Impuesto sobre la Renta de No Residentes — Spain's Non-Resident Income Tax. It applies to individuals and entities who are not Spanish tax residents but have income or assets generating taxable events within Spain. For property owners, this covers three main situations: income from renting the property, capital gains from selling it, and — the one that surprises most people — a deemed rental income on a property that is not rented out at all.

This third category is formally called renta imputada de inmuebles urbanos, or imputed urban property income. Spain's position is that owning a second home gives you a benefit — the ability to use or rent it — and that benefit has a notional value subject to Spain non-resident property tax. You are not paying tax on money you have received. You are paying tax on income Spain deems you to have received, whether you received it or not.

This Spain non-resident property tax is entirely separate from IBI, the local municipal property tax paid to the town hall annually. IRNR is a national obligation, filed via the Agencia Tributaria, on top of IBI — not in place of it.

How Imputed Income Is Calculated

The starting point is your property's cadastral value — the valor catastral — which appears on your annual IBI bill. It is an administrative assessment bearing no relation to market value and is generally a fraction of what the property would sell for. The Spain non-resident property tax imputed income is a percentage of this figure:

Most properties in well-administered Mallorca municipalities will have had cadastral revisions in recent years and will use the 1.1% rate. The IRNR rate applied to the resulting taxable base then depends on your country of residence:

British nationals — since Brexit — are treated as non-EU for IRNR purposes and taxed at 24% rather than 19%. This is one of the practical tax consequences of Brexit that many British owners of Mallorca property have yet to fully account for.

A Worked Example

Consider a Mallorca property with a cadastral value of 120,000 euros, with a revision carried out within the last ten years:

The amounts involved in Spain non-resident property tax on a typical holiday home are not large relative to overall ownership costs. But the obligation to file exists regardless of how small the sum. Penalties for late or missed filings compound: interest accrues on unpaid amounts, and fixed fines apply depending on severity and duration of non-compliance. When a property is sold, the notary will commonly ask for evidence of IRNR compliance — gaps in filing can create delays and complications at that point.

What If You Rent the Property for Part of the Year?

If your Mallorca property is rented for part of the year and used personally or left empty for the remainder, both obligations apply. You file rental income tax on Modelo 210 for the rented period, and Spain non-resident property tax imputed income for the days it was not rented. From 2024, rental income tax for non-residents is filed annually rather than quarterly, using income type code 01 on Modelo 210. Imputed income uses code 02. The calculation for each is prorated by day.

EU and EEA residents declaring rental income may deduct qualifying expenses — mortgage interest, IBI, community charges, repairs, insurance, management fees and depreciation can all reduce the taxable rental income figure. For non-EU residents, a significant ruling by Spain's National Court in July 2025 challenged the historic prohibition on expense deductions as discriminatory under EU law principles. As of May 2026, the current rules remain in force, but non-EU owners should take specific professional advice on their position given this developing legal landscape.

Modelo 210: The Form You Need

All Spain non-resident property tax IRNR obligations are declared using Modelo 210, available through the Agencia Tributaria online portal. The form is submitted online, with payment by direct debit from a Spanish bank account or SEPA transfer. A separate Modelo 210 is typically required for each property owned.

The deadline for imputed income tax on unrented properties is 31 December of the year following the tax year. For 2025 imputed income, the deadline is 31 December 2026. For those paying by direct debit, the effective deadline is a few days earlier. Missing the deadline triggers a surcharge system that increases with the length of the delay.

Am I a Spanish Tax Resident?

The key threshold is 183 days in Spain in a calendar year. If you spend more than 183 days in Spain across all your visits, you may be considered a Spanish tax resident and your obligations change substantially — you would pay IRPF on worldwide income rather than the more limited IRNR, and different rules apply to any Spanish properties you hold. Most foreign owners of Mallorca holiday homes fall comfortably under this threshold. If you are spending extended periods on the island — working remotely or in semi-retirement — professional advice to confirm your status is worthwhile, since inadvertently becoming a Spanish tax resident without filing accordingly carries significant consequences.

The Wealth Tax Layer

Property owners with significant Spanish assets should also be aware of the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio — Spain's Wealth Tax. This is an annual tax on net Spanish-located assets above a threshold of 700,000 euros per person, with the Balearic Islands applying their own regional scale to the national framework. For non-residents, only Spanish-located assets are counted — worldwide net worth is not in scope. If the total value of your Mallorca property and other Spanish investments exceeds the threshold, Wealth Tax is an additional annual obligation alongside the Spain non-resident property tax.

Getting Compliant and Staying There

Many foreign property owners in Mallorca have not been filing IRNR for imputed income, simply because they were unaware of the obligation. The statute of limitations for the Spanish tax authorities is four years, meaning back-taxes, interest and penalties can be pursued for up to four years of missed filings. Voluntary regularisation — filing missed returns proactively — typically results in lower penalties than being found through an enforcement action.

A qualified gestor or tax advisor based in Mallorca handles the full Modelo 210 filing process efficiently and at modest cost. The professional fee for a compliant annual Spain non-resident property tax filing is invariably less than the cost of a single penalty for late submission — and considerably less than the complications that arise when selling a property with gaps in its tax record.

The essentials: the Spain non-resident property tax obligation exists whether or not you earn a single euro from your Mallorca home; the amounts are generally modest; the form is Modelo 210; the annual deadline is 31 December; and professional help to file correctly is easy to find and worth engaging.