Tourist Rental Taxes in Spain: IRPF, VAT and the AEAT Forms

Of all the obligations that surround a Spanish tourist rental, the tax one arrives last and is explained worst. First comes the licence, then the registration number, then the guest report. The tax bill does not knock until the following filing season, when the holiday let has to be declared and you have already collected a full year of bookings with every decision behind you.

The trouble is that most of those decisions (whether you staff a reception, whether you clean during the stay, whether you hire anyone) move the box you end up filing in. And the two questions that move it are not the ones an owner expects: not how many nights you let, nor how much you earn, but what services you provide and to whom.

What follows is the route with the rules in front of us: where each euro lands in IRPF, when the VAT exemption falls away, which forms still exist and which have gone.

Which taxes a Spanish tourist rental pays

On top of these sit the tourist taxes charged in some regions and cities, which are not a state tax but a regional or municipal one that you pass on to the guest: the full map is in tourist taxes in Spain by region.

IRPF: when tourist letting is property income

The default rule is the simple one. The Agencia Tributaria states it plainly in its own guidance: tourist letting income is, as a general rule, rendimiento del capital inmobiliario, property income¹.

That means you declare the gross income of the year, deduct the expenses allowed by article 23.1 of the IRPF Act, and the result goes to the general tax base². The expenses the act admits are these:

• Interest and other financing costs on the capital invested in buying or improving the property, together with repair and maintenance costs. Added together, they cannot exceed the property’s gross income for the year; the excess is deducted over the following four years.
• Non-state taxes and surcharges (IBI, for instance) and state fees and surcharges that fall on the income or on the property, provided they are not penalties.
• Doubtful debts, under the conditions set by the regulations.
• Amounts accrued to third parties for personal services.
• Depreciation of the property and of the goods let with it: it is deemed effective if it does not exceed 3% of the greater of two values, the acquisition cost paid or the cadastral value, excluding the value of the land.

Two details slip past almost every return. First, expenses are deductible only in proportion to the days the property was actually let, not for the whole year. The Dirección General de Tributos said so again in binding ruling V1643-25, on a room of a main residence let for 135 days: only the expenses corresponding to the period the room was actually let are deductible, and depreciation only for the let portion and the days the letting lasted³. Second, for the days it sat empty at your disposal, deemed property income is imputed, exactly as for a second home.

IRPF: what turns tourist letting into business income

There are two doors into business income, and crossing either one is enough.

The first is the standard one for any letting, and article 27.2 of the IRPF Act sets it:

“For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, the letting of property shall be deemed to be carried on as a business activity only where at least one person employed under a full-time employment contract is used to manage it.”

The second is specific to tourist letting and is the one actually crossed in practice. The AEAT puts it this way:

“If the services you provide are typical of the hotel industry, the income you obtain from the letting is business income.”

No employee is needed here. The service is what qualifies.

The difference is not cosmetic. As business income you report as a trader: tax registration, periodic formal obligations, and in all likelihood registration as self-employed.

Spanish tourist rentals get no 50% IRPF reduction

This is the most expensive confusion of the lot, because the owner discovers it after filing.

The reduction on net income in article 23.2 of the IRPF Act (50% as the general rate for contracts signed after the 2023 reform, and 60%, 70% or 90% for refurbished homes, lettings to young tenants in stressed housing markets or rent cuts in stressed housing markets) is reserved for the letting of property intended as a dwelling². A tourist rental is not that: it does not meet the tenant’s permanent need for a home.

The Agencia Tributaria’s own manual closes the door:

“For that reason, the reduction in question shall in no case be applicable where the property is let on a seasonal basis, whether for the summer or any other season.”

The consequence is direct: the whole positive net income of the tourist rental goes to the general tax base, with no reduction.

It is worth keeping in mind that the same flat can be a dwelling for one rule and lodging for another. The tax boundary is only one of those that decide it: your region’s tourism act and Real Decreto 933/2021 draw their own, on their own criteria. For the Royal Decree there is lodging as soon as a room or space for overnight stay is provided in exchange for a price, “with or without other complementary services”⁵, so the property that is VAT exempt for providing no hotel services still has to file the guest report.

VAT: when a tourist rental loses the exemption

For VAT the test is the same hotel service, written in a different act and with a different consequence.

Article 20.Uno.23.º of Ley 37/1992 exempts the letting of buildings used exclusively as dwellings, and then removes from that exemption, in point e´), this case:

“Lettings of furnished apartments or dwellings where the landlord undertakes to provide any of the complementary services typical of the hotel industry, such as restaurant, cleaning, laundry or similar services.”

The two outcomes are opposites, and worth settling before you design the service:

• Without hotel services: the letting is VAT exempt. You charge no VAT, you deduct no input VAT on your costs, and the transaction falls under the transfer tax administered by your autonomous community⁷.
• With hotel services: the letting is taxable and not exempt, at the reduced rate of 10%, the same rate as hospitality services⁷. In exchange, you deduct input VAT.

One detail that surprises people: being a landlord already makes you a trader for VAT purposes. Article 5.Uno.c) of the VAT Act says that in particular “los arrendadores de bienes” hold that status⁸. Being exempt is not being outside the tax. It is being inside it and not charging.

Services typical of the hotel industry, per the AEAT

The Agencia Tributaria publishes both lists, and the boundary is not where memory puts it: it is not what you do but when you do it⁷.

Cleaning between stays does not cost you the exemption. Cleaning during the stay does. It is literally the same work at two different moments, and it decides a 10% rate against an exemption.

The case that raises most doubts, a weekly clean on long stays, is settled and against the usual assumption: the Dirección General de Tributos expressly counts as a service typical of the hotel industry the cleaning of the apartment interior provided weekly, and the change of linen at that same frequency⁹.

Modelo 036: tax registration, and the 037 that no longer exists

Modelo 036 is the census declaration for registering, amending and deregistering in the census of traders, professionals and withholders. It is how you tell the tax office which activity you will carry on, under which IAE heading, and with which periodic obligations.

There is a change here that is still reported wrongly. Modelo 037, the simplified census form, has been abolished: Orden HAC/1526/2024 removed the articles and the annex that governed it, with effect from 3 February 2025¹⁰. Any guide that sends you to the 037 is out of date. Everything runs through the 036.

With no hotel services you are outside the census of traders

This is where most guides fall silent, and the rule says it in writing.

Article 3.2.a) of the General Regulation on tax management and inspection procedures defines who belongs to the Census of Traders, Professionals and Withholders, and leaves one specific owner out:

“The Census of Traders, Professionals and Withholders shall not include those who carry out exclusively lettings of property exempt from Value Added Tax under article 20.uno.23.º of Ley 37/1992, of 28 December, on Value Added Tax, provided that carrying them out does not amount to a business activity under the rules governing Personal Income Tax.”

The two conditions are cumulative, and tourist letting without hotel services meets both: it is VAT exempt under article 20.Uno.23.º and it is not a business activity for IRPF. That owner is not in the census, so files no tax registration, however firmly article 5.Uno.c) calls them a trader for VAT purposes. Being a trader for the act and being in the census are not the same thing.

It stops applying the moment either condition falls, which happens in three situations:

• You provide hotel services: the letting is no longer VAT exempt.
• You employ someone full time: the letting becomes a business activity for IRPF.
• You sell optional services alongside the accommodation: you no longer carry out exclusively exempt lettings.

So does anything else that puts you in the census on its own account, such as paying income subject to withholding.

IAE: individuals are exempt from the tax

Modelo 036 is also where you declare your IAE heading, which is where the recurring worry about which one is yours comes from. For a private owner the question is switched off before you reach it.

Article 82.1.c) of the Local Finance Act declares individuals exempt from the tax, whether or not resident in Spain¹², and a taxpayer who is exempt files no entry in the IAE register¹³. For an individual owner the IAE is in practice a tax with no bill and no paperwork.

If you operate through a company, the exemption has its own net-turnover threshold and the heading does matter: which one applies depends on the services you provide, and that is a question for your adviser rather than for a general table.

Modelo 179 and modelo 238: who reports your bookings

For years, the platform or agency that brokered your letting reported your bookings on modelo 179. That form is no longer filed from tax year 2024, and the information moved to modelo 238, filed by the platform operator and never by you¹⁴.

For you the change is plumbing, not substance: a third party still tells the tax office what you collect for each stay. Real Decreto 117/2024 made the change, rewriting article 54 ter of the tax management regulation, and modelo 238 now runs under the European automatic-exchange framework known as DAC7.

That same data cross-check is why a listing with no registration number draws attention twice over: the platform that tells the tax office what you collect for each stay is the same one that requires and checks the regional registration number on the listing, so a property invoicing without a number is visible to the tourism inspectorate and to the Agencia Tributaria at once. Which number goes on the listing, and in which format, is covered in which registration number goes on your Airbnb or Booking listing.

Modelo 210: what a non-resident owner files

If you are not a Spanish tax resident, you do not file the annual income tax return. You file modelo 210, the non-resident income tax return.

Three things the rules decide, and that are usually reported backwards:

1. The rate. 24% as a general rule, and 19% if you are resident in another EU or EEA state with an effective exchange of tax information¹⁵.
2. Expenses. Only taxpayers resident in the EU or the EEA with an effective exchange of information may deduct expenses; everyone else is taxed on gross income¹⁵.
3. The deadline. For income from let property with tax to pay, the grouping is annual and the return is filed in the first twenty calendar days of April of the year following accrual, whether you declare separately or grouped¹⁶. It is not quarterly, as many sites still say. Nil returns run from 1 to 20 January, and refund claims from 1 February onwards¹⁶.

Frequently asked questions

How is a tourist rental taxed under IRPF in Spain? A tourist rental is taxed under IRPF as property income as a general rule, and as business income in two cases: when you provide services typical of the hotel industry, or when at least one person is employed under a full-time employment contract to run the activity. The services test is the one crossed most often, and it requires no employee at all.

Do you have to charge VAT on a Spanish tourist rental? You have to charge VAT on a Spanish tourist rental only if you provide complementary services typical of the hotel industry, and then the rate is the reduced 10%. If you do not provide them, the letting is VAT exempt under article 20.Uno.23.º of Ley 37/1992 and falls under the transfer tax administered by your autonomous community. Being exempt does not put you outside the tax: the VAT Act treats landlords as traders.

Does cleaning count as a hotel service? Cleaning counts as a hotel service depending on when you provide it. The Agencia Tributaria expressly excludes from hotel services the cleaning of the apartment and the change of linen provided only on arrival and departure, along with the cleaning of common areas and technical assistance. Periodic cleaning during the stay is a hotel service.

Can you apply the 50% IRPF reduction to a tourist rental? You cannot apply the 50% IRPF reduction to a tourist rental. The reduction in article 23.2 of the IRPF Act is reserved for lettings of property intended as a dwelling, and the Agencia Tributaria’s manual states that it is in no case applicable where the letting is agreed on a seasonal basis.

Do you have to file modelo 036 if you let without hotel services? You do not have to file modelo 036 if your tourist letting is VAT exempt and is not a business activity for IRPF. Article 3.2.a) of the General Regulation on tax management and inspection procedures leaves outside the Census of Traders, Professionals and Withholders anyone who carries out exclusively lettings exempt under article 20.uno.23.º of Ley 37/1992 without that amounting to a business activity. As soon as you provide services typical of the hotel industry, employ someone full time or sell services separately, tax registration stops being optional.

Do you pay IAE on a tourist rental in Spain? You do not pay IAE on a tourist rental in Spain where the owner is an individual. Article 82.1.c) of the Local Finance Act declares individuals exempt from the tax, whether or not resident in Spain, and Real Decreto 243/1995 requires an entry in the IAE register only from taxpayers who are not exempt. Where a company sits behind the property, the exemption depends on its net turnover.

Which form does a non-resident owner file? A non-resident owner files modelo 210. For income from let property with tax to pay, the grouping is annual and the deadline is the first twenty calendar days of April of the year following accrual. The rate is 19% for residents of the EU or the EEA with an effective exchange of information, who may also deduct expenses, and 24% otherwise.

The guest report is not a tax obligation

It is worth saying because the two get mixed constantly: none of the above has anything to do with guest registration. The data you send to SES.HOSPEDAJES goes to the Ministerio del Interior for public-safety purposes, not to the tax office, and Real Decreto 933/2021 creates no tax obligation at all.

Nor the other way round: being current with the tax office does not excuse the guest report, and the guest report proves nothing to the tax office. Two administrations, two purposes, two calendars.

RegistroViajero covers the second front, not the first: digital check-in for your guests and automatic filing of the parte to SES.HOSPEDAJES, with an auditable record of every communication. For the tax side you need your adviser, and this article to know what to ask. If you are setting up the property from scratch, which licence and which registration you need is the other piece to settle before the first booking, and the regional licence guide tells you where to apply.

This article is for information only and does not replace professional tax advice. How income is classified and taxed depends on the specific facts of each case; check with an adviser or with the Dirección General de Tributos doctrine database before deciding.