Non-resident tax in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Few foreign buyers arrive in Santa Cruz de Tenerife looking for a beach complex. The capital of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a port city of 211,957 residents, with a tram to La Laguna, the Auditorio on the seafront, the Carnival in February and the Anaga mountains on its doorstep. The non-resident owner here is typically an investor with a flat in the Rambla, El Toscal or Salamanca districts, a family with Canarian roots keeping a home in La Salud, or someone who fell for the golden sand of Las Teresitas in San Andrés.

Many of these flats are let on long-term contracts to local tenants, or used a few weeks a year by relatives, rather than advertised to tourists. In the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, foreign owners come above all from Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland. Foreign buyers account for roughly 30% of purchases in the province, a lower share than in the southern resorts.

Asking prices in the city sit around €2,860/m² (September 2026); cadastral values are far lower, and the tax below is calculated on those.

Spain assumes that a home you keep at your disposal produces an income, even if nobody sleeps in it, and taxes that notional income through the Modelo 210. The base is a percentage of the cadastral value (valor catastral) on your IBI receipt: 2% in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, because the municipality's last general revision (the ponencia de valores) took effect in 1995. For tax years 2023 to 2026, the reduced coefficient of 1.1% is reserved for municipalities revised with effect from 2012 onwards; everyone else stays on 2%.

Take the average cadastral value of a home in the city, €52,200 (Catastro statistics 2026). Multiply by 2%, then apply 19% for a resident of the EU or EEA: €198.36 per year, for one owner holding the whole property for a full year. A resident of the United Kingdom, the United States or Switzerland pays 24%: €250.56. Each co-owner declares their own share, and the value printed on your own receipt, not the city average, is the one to use.

The return for income year 2025 can be filed at any time during the following calendar year; from the 2026 income year, the window narrows to 1 April – 31 December of the following year (Orden HAC/623/2026). There is no allowance and no minimum. British owners have paid 24% with no deductions since Brexit; if the flat produces rent, that income normally also goes on the foreign pages of the UK Self Assessment return, with credit relief for the Spanish tax.

The municipal property tax, the IBI, is a separate bill from the imputed income tax, and paying one does not settle the other. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife the IBI is collected by Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife - Recaudación municipal (own collection; not a Consorcio member). The voluntary payment period usually runs 20 May – 22 July. The urban rate applied in the city is 0.52%. A direct debit avoids the surcharges that follow a missed voluntary period when you only visit the island once or twice a year.

Keep the receipt: it carries the referencia catastral and the valor catastral, the two pieces of data your Modelo 210 is built on. Past receipts can usually be downloaded from the collector's sede electrónica with a NIE and a digital certificate; if you have neither, Fiscasa retrieves the cadastral data from the address or reference.

If your flat is let on a residential lease, the imputed income disappears for the months it is occupied: it only applies to the days the home was available to you. The rent is declared on a separate Modelo 210 as rental income. Owners resident in the EU or EEA deduct expenses in proportion to the let period and pay 19%; UK, US and other non-EU owners pay 24% on the gross rent. Rental income has been grouped into one annual return since 2024, filed from the 2026 income year between 1 and 20 April of the following year.

Short tourist lets are rarer in the capital than in Adeje or Arona, but the rules still apply. A vivienda vacacional in the Canary Islands must be registered with the Cabildo under Decreto 113/2015 and display its number. A regional law on the sustainable tourist use of homes, approved in 2025, lets municipalities zone and cap tourist homes, with acquired rights for homes already registered under conditions, so check the current island rules before advertising. Since 1 July 2025, any short-term advert also needs a number from the national rental register.

• First year. The tax runs from the day after the purchase deed, pro rata: a flat bought in October generates only a few weeks of imputed income for that year.
• Several owners. Each owner with a NIE files a separate Modelo 210 for their share, including spouses.
• Years never declared. Spain can go back four years. A voluntary catch-up before any letter arrives costs 1% plus 1% per full month of delay (15% plus interest beyond twelve months), and the surcharge is cut by a quarter when paid within the deadline given.
• No representative needed for EU or EEA residents filing imputed income; payment can be made by transfer from a foreign bank account.
• US owners. Besides the 24% rate, a Spanish bank account opened for the IBI direct debit may fall under FBAR or Form 8938 reporting back home.
• Getting there. Tenerife Norte (TFN) is a short drive from the centre: a yearly check on the flat and the post is easy to organise.