Non-resident tax in Almería

Almería is the only city in this guide where the airport sits within a quarter of an hour of the seafront, and that convenience shapes who buys here. The foreign owners are not the mass second-home crowd of the resorts further along the coast, but people who want a real city with a cathedral, a Moorish Alcazaba and a port, plus a beach in the same taxi ride. The Cable Inglés, the iron ore pier built by a British company in 1904, is a reminder that British money arrived here long before the holiday flats did.

The second-home areas sit east of the city: Retamar, a low-rise beach district, and El Toyo, built around the athletes' village of the 2005 Mediterranean Games and now a quiet residential zone with a golf course next to the Cabo de Gata natural park. The foreign owners registered in the province come above all from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Morocco, Belgium. In the province of Almería as a whole, foreigners make 17.5% of home purchases, most of them in the coastal towns rather than in the capital. With 205,468 inhabitants, Almería is a city of permanent residents, so a non-resident owner is a minority taxpayer here, and many discover the imputed income tax late, often at resale. Prices average €1,802/m² (September 2026).

Spanish law treats a home you own but do not let out as if it produced a rent. The imputed income is a fixed share of the cadastral value, 2% in Almería. The city's last general revision of cadastral values (the ponencia) took effect in 2008, a few years short of the 2012 threshold that gives access to the reduced 1.1% coefficient for tax years 2023 to 2026. Almería therefore remains in the 2% group, alongside most municipalities of the province.

With the average residential cadastral value in the municipality, €74,000 (Catastro, 2026), the imputed income is €74,000 × 2%. An owner resident in an EU or EEA state pays 19% of it, €281.20 a year as sole owner, and an owner resident elsewhere pays 24%, €355.20. Values in El Toyo, revised when the district was new, tend to sit above the city average, while flats in older barrios sit below it, so the only reliable figure is the valor catastral printed on your IBI bill.

For income year 2025 you have the whole of the following calendar year to file. From the 2026 income year the window changes to 1 April – 31 December of the year after the income year (Orden HAC/623/2026). No expenses, allowances or thresholds apply to imputed income, which is why the return is short. If you live in the United Kingdom, the rate has been 24% since Brexit and the home normally also appears on the foreign pages of your Self Assessment, where credit relief for the Spanish tax is usually available; Irish residents keep the EU rate of 19%.

The property tax (IBI) in Almería, including Retamar and El Toyo, is collected by Ayuntamiento de Almería - Órgano de Gestión Tributaria (own collection; expressly excluded from the Diputación de Almería IBI edict). Ask Ayuntamiento de Almería - Órgano de Gestión Tributaria (own collection; expressly excluded from the Diputación de Almería IBI edict) for the current year's voluntary payment period, which is published each spring. The urban IBI rate is 0.58%.

Two reasons to treat the IBI bill as a key document. First, the cadastral value it shows is the base of your Modelo 210, so you need it every year. Second, a direct debit set up with the collector prevents the surcharges that follow an unpaid bill while you are abroad. Owners who have lost the paper copy can obtain it from the collector's sede electrónica with a digital certificate, or ask Fiscasa to look up the cadastral data from the property's address.

Almería has a university and a growing number of winter visitors, so many non-resident owners let for part of the year. Rental income is declared on its own Modelo 210, annually since 2024 (and from the 2026 income year between 1 and 20 April of the following year): EU and EEA residents pay 19% on the rent minus pro rata expenses, other owners 24% on the gross. The imputed income then shrinks to the days the flat was empty or used by you.

Holiday lets in Andalusia must be registered in the regional tourism registry (RTA) before being advertised, under Decreto 28/2016 as amended in February 2024 by Decreto 31/2024, which allows municipalities to limit tourist homes by zone. Málaga city has used that power in its saturated districts and Seville caps them by neighbourhood; Almería has not followed so far, but check the current municipal rule before each season. From 1 July 2025 the national register number (Registro Único de Arrendamientos) is compulsory on every platform advert.

• Pro rata from the deed: the tax starts the day after the purchase deed; buy in October and the first return covers roughly a quarter of a year.
• One return per owner: spouses and co-owners each file a Modelo 210 for their percentage, each with their own NIE.
• Catching up: the tax office can claim four years. Voluntary late filing carries a 1% surcharge plus 1% per full month (15% plus interest after twelve months), cut by 25% if settled on time once notified.
• No representative, no certificate: EU and EEA residents need no fiscal representative, and payment by transfer from a foreign account has been possible since 2023. American owners pay 24%, and the Spanish account used for the bills may fall under FBAR or Form 8938 reporting.
• Airport: Almería (LEI). Direct flights from the UK are seasonal, so many owners pay the IBI by direct debit and file the Modelo 210 remotely rather than timing a trip.