Non-resident tax in Roquetas de Mar

Among the resorts of the Almería coast, Roquetas de Mar stands out for a reason most owners never notice: its cadastral values were revised in a general collective valuation that took effect in 2012, the very first year that qualifies for the reduced coefficient. The imputed income on a home here is therefore 1.1% of the cadastral value, while Almería city, Vera or Almuñécar, revised before 2012, pay 2% for tax years 2023 to 2026. On the same cadastral value, a Roquetas owner pays a little over half of what a neighbour in those towns pays.

Roquetas is also big. With 111,240 inhabitants it is the second municipality of the province, built on the greenhouse economy of the Poniente plain as much as on tourism. The foreign second homes concentrate in three zones: the Urbanización de Roquetas, with its hotels and the Playa Serena golf course, Aguadulce to the north, a marina resort below the motorway, and Playa Serena along the long beach that ends at the salt flats of the Punta Entinas-Sabinar reserve. Owners come chiefly from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Morocco, Belgium. Foreign buyers account for 17.5% of purchases across the province. At €1,774/m² (September 2026), prices remain among the lowest of any Mediterranean resort of this size.

The average cadastral value of a home in the municipality is €61,000 (Catastro statistics, 2026). The notional income is €61,000 × 1.1%. A resident of an EU or EEA country is taxed at 19% on that income, which gives €127.49 for one owner holding the whole property for a full year. A resident of a non-EU country, including the United Kingdom since Brexit, Switzerland and the United States, is taxed at 24%: €161.04. There are no deductions and no tax-free threshold on imputed income for anyone.

Because the 2012 revision updated the values, a Roquetas cadastral value is closer to market reality than in towns last revised in the 1990s. Your own figure is on the IBI bill under valor catastral, and that is the number to use, not the municipal average and certainly not the purchase price. A seafront flat in Playa Serena and a studio in the old fishing quarter around the Santa Ana castle will show very different values.

Timing: the imputed income of year 2025 is declared on a Modelo 210 at any time during the following calendar year. For the 2026 income year and later, the return is accepted from 1 April to 31 December of the following year (Orden HAC/623/2026). UK owners should remember that the Spanish tax is normally creditable on the foreign pages of the Self Assessment, and that the 24% rate comes with no right to deduct; Irish owners, as EU residents, stay at 19%.

Ayuntamiento de Roquetas de Mar - Gestión Tributaria / Portal Tributario (own collection; excluded from the Diputación de Almería IBI edict) collects the IBI for every property in the municipality, from Aguadulce to Playa Serena. The voluntary payment period is normally 1 July – 20 November. The urban rate applied is 0.75% of the cadastral value.

If you only keep one Spanish document, keep this one: it shows the cadastral reference and the cadastral value you need for the Modelo 210, and a copy of each year's bill is useful at resale. A direct debit stops a forgotten bill turning into a surcharge while you are away. Lost the bill? The collector's electronic office (sede electrónica) issues duplicates to holders of a digital certificate, and Fiscasa can also retrieve the cadastral data for you from the address.

Roquetas has a long tradition of winter lets to northern Europeans and of August lets to Spanish families. In both cases the rent is declared on a separate Modelo 210: EU and EEA owners may deduct expenses pro rata and pay 19% on the net, other owners pay 24% on the gross. The rental return has been annual since 2024 and, from the 2026 income year, is filed between 1 and 20 April of the following year. For the days the home was let, no imputed income is due; for the remaining days it is.

Short holiday lets fall under the Andalusian tourist-home rules (Decreto 28/2016, amended by Decreto 31/2024): registration in the regional tourism registry before advertising, and since February 2024 the possibility for the town hall to limit tourist homes in specific zones, as Málaga city and Seville have done. Roquetas has not announced such limits at the time of writing, but the regulation moves quickly, so verify before each season. Since 1 July 2025 the national rental register number (Registro Único de Arrendamientos) is required on every advert.

• Bought this year? The tax runs from the day after the deed, pro rata by days, and the first Modelo 210 is filed next year. Nobody will remind you.
• Two names on the deed, two returns: each owner declares their share with their own NIE.
• Unfiled years: regularise voluntarily; the surcharge is 1% plus 1% per full month of delay, 15% plus interest after a year, and a quarter is knocked off if paid when notified. Spain can claim four years back.
• Paying from home: a transfer from a UK, Irish, Scandinavian or Dutch account is accepted; a Spanish account is practical for the IBI but not compulsory. US owners pay 24% and should check whether that account requires FBAR or Form 8938 reporting.
• Airport: Almería (LEI), about half an hour away; an autumn visit is a good moment to check the IBI direct debit.