Selling up later: the exit, explained early.

You are buying, not selling, so why read this now? Because two of the costs at exit are decided by paperwork you keep from day one, and because knowing the exit makes you a calmer owner.

Spanish capital gains tax

Sell for more than you paid and Spain taxes the gain. For non-resident sellers the rate is 19%. If you're Spanish resident when you sell, the savings rates of 19% to 30% apply instead, and over-65s selling their main home are exempt. The gain is sale price minus purchase price, minus the costs and taxes of both transactions and documented improvement works. That last clause is the day-one lesson: keep every invoice, from the transfer tax receipt to the new air conditioning, because each one shrinks the taxable gain years later. A folder started at completion is worth real money at exit.

The 3% retention

When a non-resident sells, the buyer must withhold 3% of the price and pay it to the Spanish tax office on your behalf, as an advance against your capital gains bill. You then file to settle the difference: if your actual tax is less than the 3%, you claim the refund back; if more, you pay the balance. It is not an extra tax, just a cash-flow fact of selling as a non-resident, and your lawyer handles the filing.

Plusvalía municipal

The town hall charges a separate tax on the increase in the land value while you owned it. Usually modest for apartments, larger for villas with land, and not due at all if you can show the land value fell. By law the seller owes it. If the seller is a non-resident individual, the buyer becomes legally responsible for paying it and will normally hold it back from the price. Your lawyer gets the figure before you agree the sale so it never surprises.

The Irish side

Irish tax residents owe Irish CGT (currently 33%) on worldwide gains, including a Spanish property. The Ireland-Spain double taxation treaty means the Spanish tax paid credits against the Irish bill rather than doubling it, but the filing obligation to Revenue is real either way. Get Irish advice in the tax year you sell, not after.

Living in Northern Ireland or elsewhere in the UK, it's HMRC instead: UK capital gains tax at 18% or 24%, worked out in pounds, with a credit for the Spanish tax, on your Self Assessment return. The detail is in the tax for UK-resident owners.