My Spanish property is owned by a company: is the tax the same?

The imputed-income rule targets private owners

The tax most foreign owners know, a percentage of the valor catastral taxed at 19 % or 24 % every year, is designed for natural persons who keep a second home in Spain and do not let it. That is the case covered by the calculator and the explanations on this site.

When the owner on the deeds is a company (a UK limited company, a Dutch BV, an offshore structure, a Spanish SL), the logic is different. The company is a separate taxpayer, and Spanish law treats non-resident entities owning property under their own set of rules. Depending on the country where the company is based and on how transparent its shareholders are, there may be a specific annual levy on the property or reporting obligations that do not exist for individuals. None of that is calculated like the private-owner Modelo 210.

Why the structure matters

Many properties bought in the 1980s and 1990s were placed in companies for reasons that no longer hold. Today these structures can raise several questions:

• whether the company must file in Spain every year, and on which form;
• whether a fiscal representative is required, which is more likely for an entity in a country without effective exchange of tax information;
• how the shareholders who use the property are treated, in Spain and at home;
• what happens on a sale, since the buyer then deals with a company rather than with people.

These points are case-specific. A Spanish tax adviser who works with non-resident entities is the right person to review the structure, and sometimes to discuss whether keeping it still makes sense.

If the property is in your own name

If the deed shows your name, alone or with others, you are in the ordinary situation: one Modelo 210 per owner, at 19 % if you live in the EU or EEA and at 24 % if you live elsewhere, such as the UK or the United States. You can estimate it with the Modelo 210 calculator, and see who has to file for the general rule.

Not sure who owns the property? The Land Registry extract (nota simple) and the IBI receipt show the registered owner. Checking that first avoids applying the wrong regime for years.