Renta imputada

Summary

The deemed (imputed) income Spain attributes to a second home, even when it sits empty, taxed via Modelo 210.

The renta imputada is the deemed, or imputed, income that the Spanish tax authorities attribute to a second home. The principle is that owning a property that is not your main residence gives you a benefit, even if it stands empty for most of the year. Spain taxes that notional benefit, which is why owners of a holiday home file a return even when they earn no rent at all.

How the renta imputada is calculated

The deemed income is a fixed percentage of the valor catastral, the cadastral value of the property. That percentage is 1.1 percent if the cadastral value has been revised in the last ten years, and 2 percent if it has not. The result is the deemed income for the whole year, and you pay the non-resident income tax rate on it.

An example makes it concrete. Say your apartment has a cadastral value of 90,000 euro and that value was recently revised, so you use 1.1 percent. That gives 990 euro of deemed income. As an EU or EEA resident you pay 19 percent on that amount, around 188 euro of tax for the year. Residents from outside the EU and EEA pay 24 percent instead.

When the renta imputada applies

The deemed income applies for every period the property is not let. If you never rent the house out, the renta imputada covers the full year. If you rent it for a few months, you declare the actual rental income for the let period and the renta imputada for the remaining months. The two simply add up across the year.

You find the cadastral value on your IBI bill, the local property tax issued each year by the town hall. That single document gives you the figure you need to calculate the renta imputada.

How and when you report it

The renta imputada is reported on Modelo 210, the income tax return for non-residents. You file the return for a given year in the following year, with a deadline at the end of that following year. The obligation returns every year for as long as you own the property and live outside Spain, so it is best treated as a recurring item rather than a one-off.

If you own the property jointly, each owner files their own return for their own share, because the Spanish return follows ownership rather than the household. A couple owning a home together therefore submits two returns, each covering half of the deemed income.

Why it matters

Many owners assume that an empty house creates no tax liability in Spain. The renta imputada is precisely the reason that assumption is wrong. The amounts are usually modest, but the obligation is real and the tax authorities can pursue unpaid years with interest and penalties, since your ownership and IBI are already known to the municipality. Filing on time is far cheaper than correcting it afterwards.