Non-resident tax in Almuñécar

The hills behind Almuñécar grow custard apples, mangoes and avocados, which is how this stretch of the Granada coast earned the name Costa Tropical. The town itself is old, Phoenician Sexi under a Moorish castle, and it has kept a working Spanish centre rather than becoming a pure resort. Foreign owners cluster in three places: the horseshoe bay of La Herradura, popular with divers and sailors, the hillside urbanisations of Velilla east of the town, and the apartments around the marina at Marina del Este on the Punta de la Mona headland.

The main foreign owners come from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Morocco, Belgium. Compared with the Costa del Sol an hour to the west, the British community is smaller and more settled, and Belgian, Dutch and Scandinavian households buy villas with a sea view for the winter months. Foreign buyers represent 7.6% of home purchases in the province of Granada, a figure that includes the city and the ski resort as well as the coast. The municipality counts 27,544 residents, roughly doubling in August. Sale prices currently average €3,293/m² (September 2026); cadastral values are far lower, and that gap works in your favour.

Take the average cadastral value of a home in the municipality, €40,700 according to the Catastro statistics for 2026. The imputed income is 2% of that value, and the non-resident tax is 19% of the result for an owner living in the EU or the EEA: €154.66 for a whole year of sole ownership. An owner resident outside the EU and EEA, which since Brexit includes the United Kingdom, pays 24% with no deductions of any kind: €195.36. Two owners split the base and each files a Modelo 210 for their share.

Why 2%? Almuñécar's last general revision of cadastral values dates from 1997. Under the rule in force for tax years 2023 to 2026, the reduced 1.1% coefficient only applies where a general collective valuation took effect in 2012 or later; older valuations keep 2%. The consolation is that values fixed in the 1990s have not followed the price rises of the last decade, so the base stays low. Read your own valor catastral on the IBI bill; a villa in Marina del Este can be well above the average, a 1970s flat in the centre well below it.

The tax is due whether the home is used, empty or lent to friends: it is an imputed income, not a tax on actual rent. For income year 2025 the return can be filed throughout the following calendar year; from the 2026 income year onwards the window will be 1 April to 31 December of the following year (Orden HAC/623/2026). UK residents normally also declare the home on the foreign pages of their Self Assessment and claim credit for the Spanish tax; Irish residents, as EU citizens, keep the 19% rate.

The IBI for properties in Almuñécar, La Herradura and Velilla is collected by Servicio Provincial Tributario (SPT) de la Diputación de Granada (delegated IBI management and collection). The usual voluntary payment period is 1 July – 31 August · 1 September – 20 November; after that surcharges apply. The municipal urban rate stands at 0.81% of the cadastral value.

The bill carries the cadastral reference and the cadastral value, exactly the base you need for the Modelo 210, so file it with your deeds. A direct debit removes the risk of a missed deadline. If you cannot find the receipt, the collector's online office (sede electrónica) issues duplicates to holders of a digital certificate, and Fiscasa can retrieve the cadastral data for you from the address alone.

A home let for part of the year is taxed in two layers. The rent itself goes on a separate Modelo 210: 19% on the net for EU and EEA residents, who may deduct expenses in proportion to the days let, and 24% on the gross for all other owners. Since 2024 the rental return is annual rather than quarterly, and from the 2026 income year it is filed from 1 to 20 April of the following year. The imputed income then covers only the days when the home was at your disposal.

For holiday lets, Andalusia requires registration in the regional tourism registry (RTA) before the first advert, under Decreto 28/2016 as amended by Decreto 31/2024, which also lets town halls restrict tourist homes by zone. Almuñécar has so far not introduced the saturation limits seen in Málaga city, but the position changes often and should be checked before each season. Since 1 July 2025 the national rental register number (Registro Único de Arrendamientos) must appear on every platform listing.

• Day one: the imputed income starts the day after you sign at the notary, pro rata by days; the first return is due the following year.
• Documents to keep: the deed, the IBI bills, each owner's NIE and a copy of every Modelo 210 filed; they are requested at resale, when the buyer withholds 3% of the price.
• Several owners: each co-owner, including a spouse, files their own Modelo 210 for their share; there is no joint return.
• Late years: Spain can go back four years. Filing them voluntarily costs 1% plus 1% per full month of delay, 15% plus interest beyond twelve months, less 25% when the surcharge is paid on time after notification.
• US owners pay 24% like UK owners, and a Spanish account used for the IBI may need to be reported on the FBAR or Form 8938.
• Getting there: Granada (GRX), Málaga (AGP). Granada is closer, Málaga has the wider choice of flights from the UK and Ireland.