I live in the UK: what are the Spanish property tax rules after Brexit?

What changed with Brexit

Before the UK left the EU, British residents enjoyed the same Spanish treatment as other Europeans. Today the UK is a third country for Spanish non-resident tax, and two things moved:

• the rate on imputed income for a property you do not let rose from 19 % to 24 %;
• for rental income, you lost the right to deduct expenses, and the gross rent is taxed at 24 %.

The rule follows your tax residence, not your passport. A British citizen tax resident in Spain is not a non-resident at all; one tax resident in France or Portugal benefits from the EU rate.

What it costs on a typical home

A two-bedroom apartment with a cadastral value of 150,000 €, in a town on the 1.1 % coefficient, produces 1,650 € of imputed income a year:

Owner lives in	Rate	Yearly tax
Ireland or another EU country	19 %	313.50 €
United Kingdom	24 %	396 €

For a let, the gap is wider because expenses are not deductible: on 10,000 € of rent, a UK resident pays 2,400 € in Spain.

What did not change

• Capital gains on a sale: 19 % for all non-residents, with the buyer withholding 3 % of the price.
• The obligation to file every year, one Modelo 210 per owner and per property, even when the home is empty.
• The need for a NIE for each owner.
• Payment from abroad: since 2023 you can pay by transfer from a UK account, so a Spanish bank account is no longer essential (paying from abroad).

The UK side

A holiday home kept for your own use normally gives rise to nothing on your UK return. Rent goes on the SA106 pages of Self Assessment, with a credit for the Spanish tax that cannot exceed the UK tax on that income, so part of the 24 % can be a net cost. See declaring on your UK return.

Unsure which years you have filed since 2021? The late-filing estimator shows what catching up would cost.