Non-resident tax in Jávea

Jávea is really three places. The old town, with its sandstone church and Thursday market, sits a couple of kilometres inland; the port, Aduanas del Mar, keeps a fishing fleet and a promenade of restaurants; and the Arenal, the only sandy beach, is the summer hub with its bars and apartment blocks. Around them, villa urbanisations climb the Montgó and spread across the headlands of Cap de la Nau and Cap Prim, down to the coves of Portitxol and La Granadella. The municipality, officially Xàbia in Valencian, has 30,642 registered residents, and the foreign share of the population is among the highest in Spain.

Owners from Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland are the main foreign groups. British owners have been buying detached villas with pools here since the 1970s; Dutch, German, Belgian, French and Swiss owners followed, and more recently buyers from Madrid and Valencia. The typical non-resident property is a three- or four-bedroom villa on a plot of around a thousand square metres, which is why Jávea's average cadastral value is well above that of the apartment resorts further south. Province-wide, foreigners make 43.3% of home purchases in Alicante. Property portals put the average at €4,166/m² per square metre in September 2026. Alicante-Elche (ALC) is about an hour and a quarter away by motorway, Valencia airport a little further.

The imputed income tax is a yearly charge on second homes that are not let, computed from the valor catastral. The coefficient depends on when the municipality last revised its values: a revaluation effective in 2012 or later brings 1.1 % during the 2023–2026 tax years; an earlier one leaves 2 %. Jávea's dates from 1995, so 2% is applied to the valor catastral. Values in the municipality nonetheless reflect the detached-villa stock, which keeps the average, and the tax, higher than in Torrevieja or Orihuela Costa.

On the average residential cadastral value of €56,200 (Catastro statistics, 2026), the base at 2% yields €213.56 of tax a year at the 19 % EU/EEA rate, for one owner of the whole property over twelve months, and €269.76 at the 24 % rate for UK, Swiss and US residents. A villa on the Montgó with a pool and a view will carry a higher valor catastral; an apartment in the Arenal a lower one. Read the figure off your own IBI receipt.

The notional nature of the tax surprises many owners: an empty house, closed from October to May, still produces imputed income, because Spain taxes the fact that the home is available to you. A UK resident pays 24 % since Brexit, with no deductions for community fees, pool maintenance or gardening, and normally declares the villa within the foreign income pages of the UK Self Assessment with relief for the Spanish tax; an Irish resident pays 19 % as an EU taxpayer; for a US resident the rate is 24 % and a Spanish current account can bring FBAR and Form 8938 duties. The return for income year 2025 is accepted on any working day of the following calendar year. Starting with the 2026 income year, the Modelo 210 for imputed income is filed between 1 April and 31 December of the next year, under Orden HAC/623/2026.

The IBI for Jávea is collected by Ayuntamiento de Xàbia (Gestión Tributaria / Recaudación – 'Servicio Tributario Online Xàbia'), not by the town hall directly. The voluntary period is fixed annually; ask Ayuntamiento de Xàbia (Gestión Tributaria / Recaudación – 'Servicio Tributario Online Xàbia') for this year's dates. The urban rate stands at 0.83%. Many villa owners pay the IBI by direct debit from a foreign SEPA account, which avoids the surcharge on a receipt that arrives while the house is shut.

The receipt is also your cadastral record: it prints the valor catastral that becomes the base of the Modelo 210 and the referencia catastral that identifies the plot and the building. Duplicates can be obtained from the collector online, and Fiscasa can fetch the cadastral record using the address.

Jávea villas with pools are in demand for summer lets, and letting changes the tax in two ways. The imputed income applies only to the days the house was not let; the rent is reported on a separate Modelo 210, annually since 2024, with pro-rata expenses deductible and a 19 % rate for EU and EEA landlords, while other landlords pay 24 % of the gross rent.

In the Comunitat Valenciana a tourist let must be entered in the regional tourism registry before any advert appears. Since Decreto Ley 9/2024 (August 2024) the registration requires a municipal urban-compatibility report and is renewable every five years, and once a tenant stays beyond ten days the let stops being a tourist let. From 1 July 2025 listings also carry a Registro Único de Arrendamientos number, the national register. Jávea's town hall has its own planning conditions for tourist homes in some zones; because the rules change often, check the current regulation before accepting bookings. Unregistered lets can be fined.

• The municipality is Xàbia on official documents: IBI receipts and cadastral records use the Valencian name; the Modelo 210 identifies the property by referencia catastral, so either spelling causes no problem.
• First year: liability starts the day after the purchase deed and is pro-rated; the first return is filed the following year.
• Joint owners: one Modelo 210 per owner, each for his or her share, each with a NIE.
• Late years: Spain can claim four years back; a voluntary late filing carries a 1 % surcharge, plus a further 1 % for each complete month, rising to 15 % with interest after twelve months, and the surcharge is cut by a quarter if the assessment is settled on time.
• No representative is required for EU/EEA residents, and payment by transfer from abroad has been accepted by the AEAT since 2023; keep receipts, deed, NIEs and yearly Modelo 210 acknowledgements together.