Selling Property in Spain as a Non-Resident 2026: The 3% Retention, Capital Gains, and How to Claim Your Refund

Most non-residents selling a Spanish property discover the 3% retention at the notary’s table, minutes before signing, when the buyer’s lawyer explains that 3% of the price is not going to them. It is a shock, and it is usually explained badly. The 3% is not a tax. It is a deposit against a tax that has not been calculated yet, and depending on what you paid for the property it may be far too much or nowhere near enough.

Two things go wrong from there. Sellers who overpaid never claim the refund, because nobody tells them there is one and the deadline is short. Sellers who made a real gain assume the 3% settled the matter and leave Spain owing money they do not know about. This guide sets out how the mechanism actually works, how the taxable gain is calculated, what the buyer is separately liable for, and how to get your money back.

Who this applies to

It applies to anyone selling Spanish property who is not a Spanish tax resident, regardless of nationality. A British owner in Alicante, an American who bought in Barcelona, a German with a coastal apartment, and equally a Spaniard who moved abroad years ago. What matters is tax residence, not passport.

The retention is not applied if the seller produces a certificate of tax residence in Spain issued by the Agencia Tributaria, or evidences that they are taxed under corporation tax rather than under non-resident income tax. In every other case the buyer must withhold, whether the buyer is Spanish, foreign, resident or not, and whether they are an individual or a company.

The two forms, and the clock

There are two separate filings, with two different people responsible for them, and the second deadline runs from the first.

Form	Who files it	What it does	Deadline
Modelo 211	The buyer	Pays 3% of the purchase price to the Agencia Tributaria on the seller’s account	1 month from the deed date
Modelo 210	The seller	Declares the actual gain or loss and settles the real tax	3 months after the buyer’s month expires — 4 months from the deed in total

One document connects the two, and you must not leave the notary without it. After filing, the buyer receives copies of the Modelo 211, one of which is marked for the transferor. It carries a reference number that you need in order to offset the retention on your own Modelo 210. Without it, proving that €12,000 of your money is already sitting with the tax authority becomes an unnecessary struggle. Ask for it in writing, and make its delivery a condition in the contract.

The real tax: 19% of the gain, for everyone

Capital gains on the transfer of Spanish property by a non-resident are taxed at a flat 19%. This is one of the few areas of Spanish non-resident taxation where EU and non-EU residents are treated identically. The 24% general rate that applies to non-EU residents on most other income does not apply here, which means a British seller after Brexit pays the same 19% as a French one.

The comparison with the 3% is arithmetic, not opinion. The retention is 3% of the price; the tax is 19% of the gain. They coincide only when the gain happens to be about 15.8% of the sale price. Below that you have overpaid and are owed money back. Above it, you owe more.

How the taxable gain is calculated

This is where most sellers lose money, by declaring a gain larger than the real one. The gain is not simply the sale price minus what you paid. Both sides of the equation are adjusted.

• Acquisition value is the price you paid plus the costs and taxes you paid to acquire it: transfer tax or VAT, notary, Land Registry, and gestoría fees. It also includes the cost of capital improvements, though not ordinary repairs and maintenance.
• Transfer value is the sale price minus the costs and taxes you bore on the sale: estate agency commission, your lawyer, energy performance certificate, and the plusvalía municipal where you actually paid it.

The practical consequence is that every invoice matters. On a property bought fifteen years ago, the ITP alone was probably 7% to 10% of the price, and that figure goes straight onto your acquisition cost. If you cannot document it, you cannot deduct it. Before you list the property, find the original deed, the ITP payment, the notary and registry invoices, and any builder invoices for improvements. Our guide to property purchase taxes in Spain explains which of those items qualified at the time.

The plusvalía municipal trap that hits the buyer

The plusvalía municipal, the town hall’s tax on the increase in land value, is normally paid by the seller. When the seller is a non-resident individual, the law reverses that. Under article 106.2 of the consolidated Local Finances Act, the buyer becomes the sustituto del contribuyente — the substitute taxpayer — and the town hall will pursue the buyer, not the departed seller.

This surprises people on both sides. Buyers discover months later that they are liable for a tax on someone else’s gain. Sellers discover that their buyer’s lawyer wants to retain a further sum from the price to cover it. Neither is being unreasonable: the substitute taxpayer may legally reclaim the amount from the seller, but chasing someone who has moved to another country is not a plan, so the standard practice is a contractual retention at completion.

Two points worth knowing. Private agreements do not bind the tax authority: you can agree between yourselves who pays, but the town hall will still demand it from whoever the law names. And since the 2021 reform there are two methods of calculating the plusvalía, with the right to use whichever is lower and to pay nothing where there was no increase in land value at all. We cover the mechanics in our guide to IBI, plusvalía municipal and the annual taxes of owning property in Spain.

Exemptions and reliefs, and who can actually use them

Reinvestment in a main residence — EU and EEA only

If the property you are selling was your main residence in Spain, and you reinvest the full proceeds in a new main residence, the gain can be excluded from tax. This relief is open only to residents of an EU member state, or of an EEA state with mutual assistance on tax information — in practice Iceland, Norway and, since July 2021, Liechtenstein. It is not available to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia.

Two conditions catch people out. The property must genuinely have been your habitual residence, which the tax authority reads strictly, and where you reinvest less than the full amount received, only the proportional part of the gain is exempt. If the reinvestment happens after you have already filed the Modelo 210, the refund is claimed separately using Modelo 228, within three months of buying the new home.

Properties bought before 31 December 1994

Assets acquired before that date still benefit from the coeficientes de abatimiento, a reduction applied to the portion of the gain accrued up to 20 January 2006. The relief is capped by a cumulative €400,000 limit on transfer values across all assets to which you apply it during your lifetime. On an old coastal property this can remove a large part of the tax, and it is routinely missed by sellers filing without advice.

The over-65 exemption — residents only

Spanish tax residents over 65 selling their main residence pay no tax on the gain. Non-residents cannot use it, whatever their age. This asymmetry is worth modelling if you are already contemplating a move: the same sale can be taxed very differently depending on which side of the residence line you are standing on when you sign. Our guide to IRPF for foreign residents sets out what becoming a Spanish tax resident actually involves, and the Non-Lucrative Visa guide covers the residence route most retired owners take.

Getting the refund

If you sold at a loss, or your gain was small relative to the price, the retention exceeds the tax and the difference is yours. Nobody sends it to you. You file Modelo 210 claiming a refund, quoting the reference from the buyer’s Modelo 211, and you provide a bank account for payment.

• File within the four-month window. This is the single most common failure. Miss it and recovering the money becomes a far more difficult procedure.
• Keep the account open. Sellers routinely close their Spanish bank account at completion and then have nowhere to receive the refund. Keep it until the money arrives. Our guide to banking in Spain as a foreign resident covers what non-residents can hold.
• Check your NIE and representation. A non-resident with no address in Spain is usually best served appointing a representative for the filing.
• Expect to wait. The tax authority has six months from the end of the filing period to pay. Beyond that, late payment interest accrues in your favour. In practice refunds involving non-residents often take longer, and a request for further documentation restarts your patience rather than the deadline.

What the sale actually costs you

Item	Typical amount	Who bears it
Capital gains tax (IRNR)	19% of the gain	Seller
Retention on account	3% of the price, credited against the above	Withheld from the seller
Estate agency commission	3%–5% plus VAT	Seller
Plusvalía municipal	Varies by town hall and years held	Buyer as substitute taxpayer; usually retained from the price
Lawyer or tax representative	€800–€2,500	Seller
Energy performance certificate	€100–€300	Seller
Mortgage cancellation at the Registry	€400–€1,000 where applicable	Seller
Certificate of no debt from the community of owners	Often free, sometimes a small fee	Seller

What tends to go wrong

• The buyer never files the Modelo 211. The property itself stands as security for the amount, so the buyer has a strong incentive to comply, but if the filing is late or missing you cannot offset a retention that was never paid in. Verify it was filed before you leave.
• You cannot document the acquisition costs. Fifteen-year-old notary invoices are exactly the papers people throw away. Every undocumented euro increases your taxable gain.
• Joint owners file as one. Each co-owner is a separate taxpayer and files their own Modelo 210 for their share.
• Assuming the 3% closed the matter. If your gain exceeded roughly 15.8% of the price, you owe more, and the obligation does not expire because you left the country.
• Forgetting the final IRNR return on the property itself. Owning a Spanish home as a non-resident carries an annual imputed income obligation up to the date of sale, and it does not vanish because you sold.

Frequently asked questions

Can I avoid the 3% retention if I sold at a loss?

No. The retention is applied to the price regardless of the outcome. A loss makes the entire 3% refundable, but you must file the Modelo 210 to recover it.

Is the gain also taxed in my home country?

Spain taxes gains on Spanish property as the country where the asset is located, and your country of residence may also tax them while giving credit for the Spanish tax. The mechanics depend on the applicable treaty — see our guide to the US–Spain and UK–Spain double taxation treaties.

What if I gift the property to my children instead of selling?

A gift is a transfer and can still generate a taxable gain for the donor, alongside gift tax for the recipient, which varies enormously by region. See our guide to Spain’s gift tax before assuming a gift is the cheaper route.

Does currency movement affect the calculation?

The Spanish calculation is in euros throughout, so exchange rates do not enter it. Your home country may calculate the same gain in its own currency, which can produce a materially different figure on identical facts.

Can I become a Spanish tax resident before selling to reduce the tax?

Tax residence is a question of fact, not election, and it brings worldwide taxation with it. Restructuring around a single sale is rarely worth it and is exactly the kind of decision that needs professional modelling of your whole position, including wealth tax, rather than a rule of thumb.

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This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rates, reliefs and procedures change, and individual circumstances vary considerably. Figures were verified in August 2026 against Agencia Tributaria guidance on exempt income under non-resident income tax, the Modelo 210 instructions, and the Modelo 211 procedure. Take advice from a Spanish tax professional before filing.