Non-resident tax in Benissa

Benissa is two places with one town hall. The historic town, with its Gothic-revival church known as the cathedral of the Marina and a core of noble houses along the Carrer de la Puríssima, stands inland on the old road between Calpe and Teulada. A few kilometres away, Benissa Costa is a stretch of small coves, Baladrar, Advocat, Pinets, Llobella and the sandy La Fustera, joined by a coastal path and surrounded by villa estates such as Montemar, San Jaime, Fanadix and Buenavista. There is no resort centre and almost no apartment stock: non-residents here own detached houses on plots with pools and sea views. The municipality has 12,471 registered residents.

Owners from Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland form the largest foreign groups. Dutch, German and Belgian owners are prominent on the coast, British and Swiss owners too, and the inland town has kept a mainly Spanish population. In Alicante province, foreigners carry out 43.3% of home purchases. As of September 2026, asking prices average €3,609/m² per square metre. Alicante-Elche (ALC) is about an hour and ten minutes away.

The imputed income tax on a non-resident's Spanish home is a percentage of the valor catastral, taxed as income even if nobody used the house. In Benissa the percentage is 2%. The municipality's last general revaluation of cadastral values took effect in 2005, closer to the 2012 threshold than most of its neighbours but still before it, and for 2023–2026 the law reserves 1.1 % for municipalities whose revaluation took effect from 2012 onwards; the rest, Benissa included, stay at 2 %.

The relatively recent revaluation and the villa stock combine to give Benissa a high average residential cadastral value, €84,500 in the Catastro statistics for 2026. Multiplied by 2% and taxed at 19 % for an EU or EEA resident, that is €321.10 a year for a single owner of the whole property; at 24 % for a resident of the UK, Switzerland, the United States or another non-EU country, €405.60. A villa on the front line in La Fustera will be above this average, a townhouse in Benissa town below it: read the valor catastral on your own IBI receipt.

Brexit put UK residents at 24 % with nothing deductible, and the villa is normally declared again to HMRC as foreign property income, with credit relief for the Spanish tax. Irish residents keep the 19 % EU rate. American residents pay 24 %, and a Spanish bank account may need reporting on the FBAR and on Form 8938. Filing for income year 2025 is possible on any day of the next calendar year. Orden HAC/623/2026 then limits it to 1 April – 31 December of the year after, beginning with 2026 income, and the reform planned for 2027 may change the rules once more.

Benissa's IBI is in the hands of Suma Gestión Tributaria (Diputación de Alicante), by delegation of the Ayuntamiento. Receipts fall due in the voluntary period, 27 July – 8 October. Benissa's urban rate is 0.65%. Because the villa is often closed when the receipt arrives, a direct debit from a SEPA account in your home country is the sensible choice; it avoids the surcharge on an unpaid receipt.

The receipt also provides the valor catastral, the base of your Modelo 210, and the referencia catastral. Owners with a digital certificate can download duplicates from the collector's sede electrónica; otherwise Fiscasa can obtain the cadastral data from the address.

A let villa is taxed twice over, but never on the same days: imputed income for the days you kept it, rental income for the days it was let. The rent goes on a Modelo 210 of its own (annual since 2024), with pro-rata expenses deductible and 19 % for EU and EEA landlords, 24 % of the gross for others.

Benissa's town hall is the body that issues the urban-compatibility report which Decreto Ley 9/2024 (August 2024) made a precondition for entering the regional tourism registry, the Valencian requirement for any tourist let. Registrations last five years and are then renewed, and lets of more than ten days to the same tenant fall outside the tourist regime. Every platform listing has also needed the national Registro Único de Arrendamientos number since 1 July 2025. Unregistered lets are fined; the regulation changes often, so check before advertising.

• Completion date: imputed income runs from the day after the deed, pro rata; the first Modelo 210 follows the next year.
• Each name on the deed files its own Modelo 210, with its own NIE and share.
• Four years: that is how far back Spain can claim. Coming forward late costs 1 % immediately, 1 % more for each month of delay, 15 % plus interest after a year, less 25 % if the notice is settled on time.
• Representation: not required for EU/EEA residents; payment by transfer from abroad is possible since 2023.
• Documents: IBI receipts, deed, NIE certificates and the yearly filing receipts are requested when you sell.