Owning in Spain while living in the UK: the tax on both sides.

Most of what you'll read about tax on a Spanish home assumes you live in the EU. If you live anywhere in the UK, Northern Ireland included, Spain treats you as a non-EU resident, and a few of the numbers change. It turns on where you live, not your passport, so an Irish citizen in Belfast is in the same position as an English one in Leeds. Here's the whole picture, Spain first and then the UK.

Buying: the same taxes as everyone

The purchase taxes in Andalusia depend on the property, not on you. A resale carries transfer tax at 7% of the price. A new build bought from a developer carries VAT at 10%, plus stamp duty on the deed at 1.2%. Add notary, land registry and your own lawyer, and the ten to thirteen per cent rule holds for you as it does for anyone. The cost calculator works it out on your own price.

You may have read about a bill put to the Spanish parliament in May 2025 for an extra tax of 100% on homes bought by people living outside the EU, which would have included the UK. It never had its first debate, and it lapsed when parliament was dissolved on 5 October 2026 ahead of the general election on 29 November, so it isn't law. As drafted it left out new builds bought from a developer. A new parliament could bring it back, and with an election coming, other rules here may move too.

Owning: the yearly tax in Spain

Spain taxes non-residents on their homes there even when they aren't let. The tax office treats you as earning a notional income each year from the property's cadastral value, normally 1.1%, or 2% in towns whose values haven't had a general revision. You pay non-resident tax on that, at 24% if you live in the UK and 19% if you live in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein, with nothing deducted. On a cadastral value of €200,000 at 1.1%, that's €2,200 of notional income and €528 of tax a year, against €418 for someone living in Dublin.

A housing decree published on 7 October 2026 would replace those two rates with a sliding scale on your total cadastral value: 1.1% on the first €100,000, 1.5% up to €500,000, 2% up to €1,000,000 and 3% above that. On the same €200,000 that would be €2,600 of notional income and €624 of tax. The decree still has to be approved, and exactly how it applies to non-residents and to 2026 isn't settled, so check with your adviser before you budget. The cadastral value is on the IBI bill, so ask to see one before you buy.

You file it on form 210. The tax for 2026 is due between 1 April and 31 December 2027. Add the council's IBI and the rubbish charge, and you have the yearly bill in what it costs to own, with the tax line at 24% instead of 19%.

Letting: 24% on the gross rent

This is where living outside the EU really costs. An owner living in the EU pays 19% on the rent after expenses: the community fees, repairs, insurance, the agency's cut. An owner living in the UK pays 24% on the gross rent, with no expenses at all. On €20,000 of rent with €8,000 of costs, the Dublin owner pays 19% of €12,000, which is €2,280. The Belfast owner pays 24% of €20,000, which is €4,800.

There's a case before Spain's Supreme Court on whether that rule is lawful for owners outside the EU, but nothing has been decided, and until it is the tax office applies the 24% on gross. If you let, ask your adviser whether to protect a claim for the difference. Rent is declared once a year: rent earned in 2026 goes on a return filed between 1 and 20 April 2027. If you've been filing each quarter instead, rent for July to September 2026 is still due by 20 October 2026.

Short holiday lets have their own rules on licences, and the same decree charges VAT at 10% on furnished lets of 30 nights or fewer from 1 December 2026, unless the flat is the owner's own home. With parliament dissolved, it has to be approved by Congress's standing committee within 30 days or it falls, and the near-identical decree before it was voted down on 2 October. Read holiday lets in Andalusia before you plan around holiday income.

Letting: the UK side

As a UK resident you're taxed on your income wherever it comes from, so the Spanish rent goes on your Self Assessment return, on the foreign pages, even if it never leaves Spain. You convert it at the exchange rate when you earned it. Under the UK–Spain tax treaty, Spain taxes the rent first and the UK gives you a credit for the Spanish tax against the UK tax on the same income, up to the UK amount, and it can't be more than the Spanish tax you'd have paid after claiming every relief Spain allows you. At 24% of the gross rent, the Spanish tax can easily come to more than the UK tax on the same rent, and the difference isn't refunded. The notional-income tax on a home you don't let gets no UK credit at all, because there's no UK income to set it against.

The special UK rules for furnished holiday lets, which used to cover holiday homes elsewhere in Europe too, were abolished from 6 April 2025. A Spanish holiday let is now taxed like any other let in the UK: mortgage interest only gets relief at the basic rate, and the old capital gains reliefs for holiday-let businesses have gone.

Selling

In Spain, the gain is taxed at 19%, the same for UK and EU residents. The buyer holds back 3% of the price and pays it to the tax office as a payment towards your tax, and you then file a return to settle up. The town hall also charges its own tax on the rise in the land value, the plusvalía. The steps are in selling up later, which is written for Irish sellers on the Irish side.

In the UK, the gain also counts for capital gains tax, at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it in 2026/27, with a £3,000 tax-free allowance. You get a credit for the Spanish tax. It goes on your normal Self Assessment return, not the 60-day return used for UK homes. Two things catch people:

• The UK works out the gain in pounds, using the rate on the day you bought and the day you sold. If sterling falls against the euro while you own the place, you can have a taxable gain in pounds even if the euro price hasn't changed.
• A home abroad only counts as your main home for the UK relief in a tax year where you or your husband or wife spend at least 90 nights there.

Inheritance

Since 6 April 2025, UK inheritance tax depends on long-term residence rather than domicile. If you've lived in the UK for 10 of the last 20 years, your worldwide estate counts, Spanish home included, at 40% above the £325,000 threshold. There's no inheritance tax treaty between the UK and Spain, but the UK gives a credit for similar foreign tax paid on the same property.

On the Spanish side, the good news is recent. Since 2021, heirs living outside the EU can use the rules of the region where the property is. Andalusia's rules are generous to close family: children, husbands, wives and parents each get a €1,000,000 allowance, and the tax on anything above that is cut by 99%. A will that works in both countries matters more than the tax, so read wills and inheritance, and have a UK solicitor and a Spanish lawyer look at it together.

Wealth tax

Spain has a wealth tax, and non-residents can be charged on their Spanish assets, but Andalusia gives a 100% relief on it. The national solidarity tax on large fortunes only bites on fortunes worth several million euro, so it won't touch a home at the prices our buyers pay.

If you move over

Everything above is for owners who live in the UK. Spend more than 183 days a year in Spain, or move your life there, and you become tax resident in Spain, which taxes your worldwide income. The UK has its own test for when you stop being resident, and in the year you move you can sometimes be treated as leaving partway through. Get advice on both sides before you cross the line on purpose. The basics are in tax residency and the 183 days.