Sold as a non-resident? How and when the 3 % retention comes back

When a non-resident sells a property in Spain, the buyer does not hand over the whole price. Three per cent of it goes straight to the tax office: on an apartment sold for €285,000, that is €8,550 the seller never sees at the notary's table. It is not the tax. The tax is 19 % of the gain, worked out afterwards by the seller on the Modelo 210, and the 3 % is only a payment on account of it. Whenever 19 % of the gain is less than 3 % of the price, the difference comes back, and when there is no gain, all of it does. This piece is the procedure and its calendar, read in October 2026 in the non-residents' income tax law and its regulation, the order that approves forms 210 and 211, the General Tax Act and the tax office's own instructions: who files what, by which date, at which office, with which papers, into which account, how long the administration may take and what it owes you when it takes longer. The law of the sale itself, from the retention to the plusvalía and what the deed should say, is in the piece our colleagues at Olga Caballero wrote on selling as a non-resident; here we follow the money back.

3 % of the price against 19 % of the gain

The retention is in article 25.2 of the non-residents' income tax law: el adquirente estará obligado a retener e ingresar el 3 por ciento, o a efectuar el ingreso a cuenta correspondiente, de la contraprestación acordada, en concepto de pago a cuenta del impuesto correspondiente a aquéllos, the buyer must withhold and pay in 3 % of the agreed price as a payment on account of the sellers' tax. The tax itself is in article 25.1.f of the same law: 19 % of the capital gain, whatever the seller's country. Two percentages on two different bases, and the result of the Modelo 210 is simply one minus the other.

The line between a refund and a payment can be drawn before the sale. The retention covers the tax exactly when 19 % of the gain equals 3 % of the price, that is, when the gain is 3 ÷ 19 of the price, 15.79 %. Below that line money comes back; above it the seller pays the difference. For a price of €285,000 and its retention of €8,550:

A loss is not carried anywhere else. Non-residents without a permanent establishment are taxed de forma separada por cada devengo total o parcial de renta sometida a gravamen, sin que sea posible compensación alguna entre aquéllas, separately on each item of income, with no offsetting between them: the loss on one property does not reduce the gain on another, and all it does is bring the whole retention back.

One group of sellers should never be retained at all: foreigners who live here and are tax resident in Spain. The regulation lifts the buyer's duty Cuando el transmitente acredite su sujeción al Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas o al Impuesto sobre Sociedades mediante certificación expedida por el órgano competente de la Administración tributaria, when the seller proves, with a certificate from the tax administration, that they are subject to the residents' income tax or to corporate tax. The certificate has to be on the notary's table on the day; a seller who has lived on the island for years but arrives without it should expect the buyer's lawyer to insist on the 3 %. Whether you are resident is a question of days and interests, which we set out in our piece on the 183-day rule, and a resident's sale is taxed in a different way, covered in selling a home as a tax resident.

What the tax office counts as the gain

The gain is the difference between two values, and both are built from documents. The transfer value, box 9 of the form, is the price del que se habrán restado los gastos y tributos inherentes a la transmisión que hubiesen sido satisfechos por el transmitente, less the costs and taxes of the sale borne by the seller: the agency's fee, the lawyer's fee, the municipal plusvalía when the seller is the one who ends up paying it. The acquisition value, box 10, is what the property cost, al que se habrán sumado los gastos y tributos inherentes a la adquisición, excluidos los intereses, que se hubiesen satisfecho por el ahora transmitente, plus the costs and taxes of the purchase, interest excluded: transfer tax or IGIC, notary, land registry, the lawyer who handled it.

The tax office's manual for non-residents adds three rules that decide many refunds. Investments and improvements raise the acquisition value, but sin que se computen, a estos efectos, los gastos de conservación y reparación, repairs and upkeep do not count: an extension or an added room is in; repainting and a replaced heating system are out. If the property was let, the depreciation that could have been deducted comes off the acquisition value, at a minimum of 3 % a year of the higher of its purchase cost and its cadastral value, land excluded, whether or not it was ever claimed. And the old inflation adjustment is gone: En el caso de transmisiones producidas desde el 1 de enero de 2015 se han suprimido los coeficientes de actualización, for transfers since 1 January 2015 the updating coefficients have been abolished, so a purchase price of 2006 is compared with a sale price of 2026 euro for euro.

The calendar: one month, three months, six months

Three deadlines follow the signature, each counted from the end of the one before.

The first is the buyer's. The regulation gives the buyer the duty to file and pay the retention en el plazo de un mes a partir de la fecha de la transmisión, within one month of the date of the transfer, at the tax office of the place where the property is. The order adds what matters to the seller: El adquirente del inmueble entregará, una vez efectuado el ingreso, un ejemplar al transmitente, once the payment is made the buyer hands a copy to the seller. That copy is the seller's proof of the payment on account, and the Modelo 210 asks for its number, el número que aparece preimpreso en el ejemplar del modelo 211, the number printed on the copy of the 211. If the buyer never pays the retention in, the law charges the property itself: los bienes transmitidos quedarán afectos al pago del importe que resulte menor entre dicha retención o ingreso a cuenta y el impuesto correspondiente, the property sold answers for the lower of the retention and the tax, which is why no well-advised buyer skips it.

The second is the seller's. The order sets a single window for every sale, gain or loss: the return is filed con independencia del resultado de la autoliquidación, whatever its result, en el plazo de tres meses una vez transcurrido el plazo de un mes desde la fecha de la transmisión del bien inmueble, within three months once the month from the date of the transfer has passed. In practice the window opens one month after the deed and closes four months after it. When the return shows tax to pay, the payment is due in the same window.

The third is the administration's. The non-residents' regulation sends refunds to the refund rules of the residents' income tax, which today are in article 103 of the Ley 35/2006: the tax office acts dentro de los seis meses siguientes al término del plazo establecido para la presentación de la declaración, within six months of the end of the period for filing the return. The clock starts at the end of the filing window, not on the day you file, so a return sent on 10 November and one sent on 9 February share the same legal deadline. The General Tax Act then states the price of missing it: after six months without the payment having been ordered, for reasons attributable to the administration, the tax office pays late-payment interest sin necesidad de que el obligado lo solicite, without the taxpayer having to ask. The rate is the one the tax office itself applies this year: Para 2026, se mantiene el interés legal en el 3,25 por 100 y el interés de demora en el 4,0625 por 100, for 2026 legal interest stays at 3.25 % and late-payment interest at 4.0625 %, the figures of the 2023 budget law, still in force because no budget law for 2026 has been passed. On a refund of €8,550 that is €0.95 a day.

Two things stretch the calendar, and both are in the seller's hands. A return filed after the window loses the common deadline: los seis meses a que se refiere el párrafo anterior se computarán desde la fecha de su presentación, the six months are then counted from the day it is filed. And the refund is made previas las comprobaciones que sean necesarias, after the checks the administration finds necessary; the time a request for documents stays unanswered beyond its deadline is a delay not attributable to the administration and earns no interest.

The return: who signs it, where it goes, what travels with it

The order is strict about whose return this is. For a property sale, debe figurar como persona que realiza la autoliquidación el propio contribuyente, the taxpayer must appear as the person making the self-assessment: an adviser can prepare and transmit it, as an authorised social collaborator of the tax office or under a power of attorney lodged with it, but the return is the seller's and carries the seller's Spanish tax number. Each owner files for their own share, with one exception: cuando el inmueble objeto de transmisión sea de titularidad compartida por un matrimonio en el que ambos cónyuges sean no residentes, se podrá realizar una única autoliquidación, when the property is jointly owned by a married couple who are both non-resident, a single return may be filed. Siblings who inherited together, an unmarried couple and friends who bought together each file their own.

It goes to the office of the place where the property is, which on this island is the Administración de Fuerteventura of the tax office, at Avenida 1º de Mayo, 92, in Puerto del Rosario. A refund return can be filed online with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, or printed from the tax office's website and taken or sent by registered post to that office.

Three kinds of paper travel with it. The proof of the retention is compulsory: when retentions are deducted, se adjuntarán, en todo caso, los documentos justificativos de los mismos, the documents that prove them are attached in every case, which here means the seller's copy of the 211. A refund needs un justificante acreditativo de la identificación y titularidad de la cuenta, a document proving the identification and ownership of the account. And the checks are checks of the two values: the deed of purchase, the deed of sale and an invoice for every cost or improvement added to one side or taken from the other. A return that arrives with them answers the questions before they are asked.

The account: yours, in Spain or abroad

Refunds are paid by transfer, and the order settles the question every seller asks before closing their Spanish account. If the account belongs to the taxpayer, la cuenta puede estar abierta en una entidad de crédito en España o en el extranjero, it may be held at a bank in Spain or abroad. The refund can therefore go to the account in Hamburg or Manchester that the seller will still have next summer, provided the return carries proof that the account is theirs.

The rule is narrower for anyone else's account. The order lets a refund go to the account of the person who makes the return or to the taxpayer's own, and the return of a property sale must be made by the seller: read together, the two rules point to an account in the seller's name. Where the order does admit a representative's account, in returns that a representative may make, la cuenta bancaria ha de estar abierta en España, the account must be held in Spain, and the power must contain una cláusula que faculte al citado representante legal para recibir la devolución a su nombre por cuenta del contribuyente, a clause authorising that legal representative to receive the refund in their own name on the taxpayer's behalf. The safe plan for a sale is the simple one: an account of your own, in Spain or abroad, with its certificate attached to the return. Where a transfer cannot be made, the order allows the refund to be paid by a cheque of the Banco de España.

Exemptions and reductions a non-resident seller can still use

Three rules reduce the gain itself, and each is applied in the Modelo 210, not at the notary: the buyer retains the 3 % in every case.

• Bought between 12 May and 31 December 2012. The fourth additional provision of the law opens with Estarán exentas en un 50 por ciento las ganancias patrimoniales obtenidas sin mediación de establecimiento permanente en España, capital gains obtained without a permanent establishment are 50 % exempt, when they come from urban property acquired in that window. It does not apply to property bought from, or sold to, a spouse, a relative up to the second degree or a related company.
• A former home, reinvested in a new one. Residents of the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein can exclude the gain made por la transmisión de la que haya sido su vivienda habitual en España, siempre que el importe total obtenido por la transmisión se reinvierta en la adquisición de una nueva vivienda habitual, on the transfer of what was their habitual home in Spain, provided the whole amount obtained is reinvested in a new habitual home, under the conditions and time limits of the residents' reinvestment rule; a partial reinvestment exempts the proportional part. It is the case of someone who lived here, moved back and sold. The 3 % is still retained and the 210 is still filed; if the new home is bought after the filing deadline, the tax paid is claimed back later on a separate form.
• Bought before 31 December 1994. Individuals keep a transitional reduction on the part of the gain generated before 20 January 2006: 11.11 % for each year of ownership up to 31 December 1996 beyond the first two, within a lifetime ceiling of €400,000 of transfer values counted since 2015. In the tax office's own example, a property bought in 1991 for €100,000 and sold in 2015 for €300,000 by a seller who had already used half of the ceiling is taxed on €164,318.20 instead of €200,000.

One exemption in the news is not on this list. The Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, in force since 1 October 2026 and still to be voted by Congress, exempts, in whole or in part, the gain on a home that has stood empty for two years and is sold to a public housing body before 31 December 2027. It wrote that exemption into the residents' income tax law, as a new sixty-fifth additional provision, and did not amend the non-residents' law, which borrows from the residents' law its section on capital gains and losses and not its additional provisions. On the text published, a non-resident seller cannot count on it; if the tax office reads it otherwise, this piece will say so.

From Fuerteventura: one building, two sellers, two results

A married couple, both tax resident in Germany, bought an apartment in Corralejo in March 2008 for €242,000 and paid €22,400 in transfer tax, notary, registry and legal fees, all invoiced. They never let it. On Friday 9 October 2026 they sell it for €285,000. The buyer keeps back €8,550 and they receive the rest. Their costs of sale are €14,250 in agency and legal fees and €1,330 of municipal plusvalía, which the deed leaves to them.

The gain. Transfer value: €285,000 − €14,250 − €1,330 = €269,420. Acquisition value: €242,000 + €22,400 = €264,400. Gain: €5,020. Tax at 19 %: €953.80. The retention was €8,550, so the Modelo 210 asks for €7,596.20 back, or €3,798.10 for each spouse. Because both are non-resident and own the apartment as a couple, they file one return.

The calendar. The buyer has until Monday 9 November 2026 to pay the retention in and gives them the copy of the 211. Their window for the 210 runs from 10 November 2026 to Tuesday 9 February 2027; it is filed online on their behalf, with the 211, both deeds, the invoices and a bank certificate for their joint account in Hamburg. The tax office has until Monday 9 August 2027 to order the refund, and from the next day owes them €0.85 for every day it is late.

In the same building, a neighbour who is tax resident in the United Kingdom sells an identical apartment at the same price in the same week. She bought in 2014 for €165,000 and paid €14,400 in purchase costs; her costs of sale are €15,600. Transfer value €269,400, acquisition value €179,400, gain €90,000, tax €17,100. Her 3 % was the same €8,550, and her Modelo 210, in the same window, carries a payment of €8,550. If she files it late without a request from the tax office, the surcharge is the one we described in filing late: 1 % plus 1 % for each full month of delay on the amount due.

Both sellers have one more thing to check. Every non-resident owner files a yearly Modelo 210 for the property itself, on imputed income or on rent, explained in our guide to the Modelo 210, and the years of ownership should be in order before the refund is claimed.

Common questions

I sold at a loss. Do I still have to file anything?

Yes, if you want the 3 % back. The order says it in one sentence: En el caso de pérdidas, también se deberá presentar esta autoliquidación si se desea ejercer el derecho a la devolución de la retención que hubiese sido practicada, in the case of losses the return must also be filed if you wish to exercise the right to the refund of the retention. The window is the same three months, the papers are the same, and the result is the whole retention.

I missed the three months. Is the refund lost?

No. The General Tax Act gives four years to El derecho a solicitar las devoluciones derivadas de la normativa de cada tributo, the right to request the refunds that arise from the rules of each tax, counted from the day after the filing period ended. A return filed late is still paid, with two costs: the administration's six months start on the day you file, and the Act treats a late return that causes the Treasury no loss as a minor infringement with a fixed fine of €200, halved to €100 when it is filed before the tax office asks for it.

We own it half and half, and only one of us is non-resident. How does the 3 % work?

Only on the non-resident's half. The instructions of the Modelo 211 say that when the owners are residents and non-residents, sólo deberá consignarse el importe de la contraprestación que proporcionalmente corresponda a los propietarios no residentes, only the part of the price that corresponds proportionally to the non-resident owners is entered. On €285,000 owned in halves, the buyer retains 3 % of €142,500, €4,275; the non-resident files a Modelo 210 for their half of the gain, and the resident declares the other half in the annual income-tax return, with the resident's certificate shown at the notary.

The buyer never gave me the copy of the 211. Can I still claim?

Ask for it before anything else: the order obliges the buyer to hand over the seller's copy once the retention is paid in, and the return asks for its number and for the proof of the retention in every case. The practical answer is at the notary's table: have the deed record the amount retained and the buyer's commitment to deliver the copy within the month, and keep the contact details of the buyer's adviser. Without it, the return has no proof of the payment on account to attach.

The tax team at our Corralejo and Caleta de Fuste offices prepares the Modelo 210 of a sale from the two deeds and the invoices, calculates before completion whether the 3 % will come back, files within the window and follows the refund until it is paid, into an account in Spain or abroad. The tax advisory page describes the service and a first meeting can be booked online.

Facts verified in October 2026 (texto refundido de la Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes, Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004, articles 15, 24 and 25 and its fourth and seventh additional and first transitional provisions; its regulation, Real Decreto 1776/2004, articles 14 and 16; Orden EHA/3316/2010, articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, as last amended; Ley 35/2006, article 103; Ley 58/2003, articles 26, 27, 31, 66, 67, 125 and 198; Real Decreto 1065/2007, article 104; Real Decreto 439/2007, article 13; Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, article 6; the tax office's manual for non-residents, its instructions for forms 210 and 211, its 2026 interest rates and its office directory). The figures of the two sales are illustrative, and the dates of a real sale are counted from its own deed.