How Spain’s wealth tax works for someone who owns a home here, and why the answer on the Costa del Sol is different from the answer in most of Spain. The tax is annual and is charged on what you own on 31 December. A resident pays it on their worldwide wealth. A non-resident pays it only on what they own in Spain, which for most readers of this guide means a home and perhaps a bank account. This guide takes the tax in order: who is liable, how a property is valued, the allowance and the rates, Andalucía’s 100% rebate and who qualifies for it, the national solidarity tax that begins at 3.7 million euros of net wealth and how Andalucía has answered it, the forms and the dates, and what it means for how much you spend and in whose name you buy. Each point is taken from the law or the tax agency’s own guidance, linked where it applies. The other annual costs of owning are in what it costs to own a home in Spain, and the non-resident income tax return in form 210 explained.
Who pays it
The tax is set by Ley 19/1991. Article 5 makes two groups liable. People whose habitual residence is in Spain pay on their worldwide net wealth. Everyone else pays on the assets they hold in Spain, which the law calls the real obligation (obligación real). A British, American, Dutch or German owner of a home on the Costa del Sol is in the second group unless and until they become tax resident in Spain, which broadly happens after more than 183 days here in a calendar year. The day count for that is in the 90/180-day rule.
The tax is assessed on 31 December each year and declared the following spring. It is charged per person, not per household. A couple who own a home jointly are two taxpayers, each declaring half of the home, each with their own allowance.
How your Spanish wealth is counted
Article 10 of the law values a property at the highest of three figures: its cadastral value, the value the tax administration has determined or checked for another tax, and the price you paid. For a home bought since 2022, the value the administration has determined is the cadastral reference value (valor de referencia) that was used for the transfer tax on the purchase. In practice, for a recently bought home, the figure is the price you paid or the reference value, whichever is higher. The cadastral value on the property tax bill is usually much lower and does not decide it.
Debts are deducted. A mortgage secured on the property reduces the net figure, so a 1.5 million euro home with a 600,000 euro mortgage is 900,000 euros of net wealth. A bank account in Spain is added at its balance on 31 December or its average over the last quarter, whichever is higher.
From the net figure, article 28 deducts an allowance of 700,000 euros. That allowance applies to non-residents in the same way as to residents. The separate exemption of up to 300,000 euros for a main home applies only to a resident’s habitual residence, so it does not apply to a second home or to any non-resident.
The rates
Article 30 sets the state scale, which applies unless a region has set its own. Andalucía set its own scale aside, so this is the scale that applies on the Costa del Sol. The rate is charged in bands on the taxable amount, which is net wealth after the 700,000 euro allowance.
| Taxable wealth, in euros | Rate on that band |
|---|---|
| Up to 167,129 | 0.2% |
| 167,129 to 334,253 | 0.3% |
| 334,253 to 668,500 | 0.5% |
| 668,500 to 1,337,000 | 0.9% |
| 1,337,000 to 2,674,000 | 1.3% |
| 2,674,000 to 5,348,000 | 1.7% |
| 5,348,000 to 10,696,000 | 2.1% |
| Above 10,696,000 | 3.5% |
Worked through for a non-resident with a home and nothing else in Spain, before any regional rebate:
| Value of the home, no mortgage | Taxable after allowance | Wealth tax before rebate |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | 300,000 | 733 |
| 1,500,000 | 800,000 | 3,690 |
| 2,500,000 | 1,800,000 | 14,542 |
| 4,000,000 | 3,300,000 | 36,546 |
Those are the figures that a home owner in most of Spain pays each year. In Andalucía they are the starting point for a rebate.
Andalucía’s 100% rebate
In September 2022 the regional government passed Decreto-ley 7/2022, which added article 25 bis to Andalucía’s tax law and granted a rebate of 100% of the wealth tax bill. The tax still exists and the return is still filed, but the amount payable is zero. Madrid has had the same rebate for years, and Extremadura followed.
The rebate reaches non-residents through the fourth additional provision of the state law. Since Ley 11/2021 every non-resident, from inside or outside the European Union, has the right to apply the rules of the region where the greater part of their Spanish assets sits. A British or American owner whose only Spanish asset is a home in Marbella, Estepona or Málaga is therefore taxed under Andalucía’s rules, and Andalucía’s rules take the bill to zero. The tax agency’s own manual sets out the Andalucía rebate as it applies to the 2025 return.
Two qualifications. The return must still be filed where Spanish assets are worth more than 2 million euros, under article 37 of the state law, even though nothing is payable. And the rebate is a decision of the regional parliament, which can change it. It has been in place for four tax years and the current government has restated it each year.
The solidarity tax above 3.7 million
Three months after Andalucía’s rebate, the national parliament passed Ley 38/2022, whose article 3 created the temporary solidarity tax on large fortunes (Impuesto Temporal de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas). It was designed to reach the wealth that the regional rebates had taken out of the wealth tax. It applies to net wealth above 3.7 million euros, and a non-resident pays it on their Spanish assets in the same way as the wealth tax.
The scale is charged on net wealth after a 700,000 euro allowance. Nothing on the first 3 million of that amount. Then 1.7% from 3 million to 5,347,998 euros, 2.1% from there to 10,695,996, and 3.5% above that. Since a change in December 2023, backdated to the start of the tax, the allowance applies to non-residents too, so nothing is due below 3.7 million euros of net Spanish assets. Any wealth tax actually paid for the same year is deducted from the solidarity tax, which is the mechanism that makes it bite only where a region has granted a rebate.
The tax was passed for two years. Real Decreto-ley 8/2023 then extended it without an end date, until Spain reforms the system by which its regions are financed. As of September 2026 that reform is under discussion and the tax remains in force. A change to the return in June 2026, following two Supreme Court judgments in late 2025, allows non-residents to apply the same ceiling linked to income that residents have always had, which reduces the bill for a non-resident with a large Spanish holding and a modest Spanish income.
How Andalucía answered it
Andalucía changed its rebate rather than lose the revenue to Madrid. Under the regional measures in force since the 2024 tax year, a taxpayer who is liable to the solidarity tax does not get the flat 100% rebate. Instead the rebate is the difference between what their wealth tax would be and what their solidarity tax would be. The effect is that they pay an amount equal to the solidarity tax, but they pay it as wealth tax to the regional government, and the wealth tax paid is then deducted from the solidarity tax so that the state receives nothing. The regional government’s own summary of the measure is that nobody pays more than they did in 2023.
For a non-resident with a home in Andalucía, the position therefore comes down to one number, the net value of everything they own in Spain.
| Net Spanish wealth | Wealth tax after Andalucía’s rebate | Solidarity tax | Total each year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,500,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2,500,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4,000,000 | 5,100 | 0 | 5,100 |
| 6,000,000 | 39,100 | 0 | 39,100 |
Below 3.7 million, nothing. Above it, 1.7% of the excess, rising through the bands, paid to Andalucía. These figures are before the ceiling linked to income, which can lower the bill for an owner with little Spanish income. In a region without a rebate the same owner would pay the full wealth tax from the earlier table, which at 4 million is about seven times as much.
The forms and the dates
The wealth tax is declared on form 714, filed online in the same window as the annual income tax campaign. For the 2025 tax year the window ran from 8 April to 30 June 2026. You must file if there is tax to pay or if the gross value of your Spanish assets, before debts and before the allowance, is more than 2 million euros. The solidarity tax is declared on form 718 in July. A non-resident with a home in Andalucía worth less than 2 million euros and no wealth tax to pay files neither.
Both returns need a Spanish digital certificate or a representative, so in practice they are filed by the same tax adviser who files your annual non-resident income tax return. I introduce clients to an adviser at the start, so that the first year’s returns are in hand before they fall due.
What it means when you buy
Three things follow for a buyer on the Costa del Sol, and each is worth raising with your adviser before you commit rather than after.
- Andalucía is a low-tax region for property owners, and that is part of the value of a home here. A 1.5 million euro home that would carry a wealth tax bill of about 3,700 euros a year in most of Spain carries none in Andalucía. Over a decade of ownership that is a real sum, and it is one reason higher-value buyers choose this coast over others.
- The number that matters is 3.7 million euros of net Spanish wealth per person. Below it there is nothing to pay. Because the tax is charged per person and a mortgage reduces the net figure, a couple buying a 5 million euro home in joint names, or a buyer using a mortgage for part of the price, may each stay below the threshold where a single cash buyer would not. That is a matter for your tax adviser, who will look at your whole position, and it is worth asking the question before the purchase is structured rather than after.
- Keep the paperwork for the valuation. The price in the deed and the cadastral reference value at the time of purchase are the figures the return will use every year. Your lawyer has both at completion, and the adviser needs them each spring.
None of this is advice on your own tax position. It is the framework, so that the question you ask your adviser is the right one. If you would like the name of an adviser who deals with non-resident owners on this coast, or want to talk through a budget with the annual costs included, book a call.
Dated guidance, September 2026. The wealth tax is set by Ley 19/1991, the solidarity tax by Ley 38/2022 as extended, and the Andalucía rebate by Ley 5/2021 as amended. The worked figures use the state scale and assume a non-resident with no other Spanish assets, no mortgage and no Spanish income. Rates, allowances and the regional rebate can change from one year to the next, and your own position should be confirmed with a Spanish tax adviser.
Common questions
Do I pay wealth tax in Spain if I own a property there but live abroad?
What is the wealth tax allowance in Spain?
What are the wealth tax rates in Spain?
Is there really no wealth tax in Andalucía?
What is the solidarity tax on large fortunes?
When is Spanish wealth tax filed?
What this relates to
The same subject, for buyers abroad
Pages written for buyers in other countries, in their own language, covering what changes for them.
- United States: Taxes for American owners of a Spanish home
- Netherlands: Box 3 en uw woning in Spanje: wat u in Nederland aangeeft
- Belgium: Belastingen op een tweede verblijf in Spanje: wat u in België aangeeft
- Belgium: Kadastraal inkomen voor uw Spaanse woning: aangeven binnen vier maanden
- Germany: Spanische Immobilie und das deutsche Finanzamt
- Poland: Nieruchomość w Hiszpanii a podatki w Polsce
- Sweden: Skatt i Sverige när du äger bostad i Spanien
- Norway: Skatt på bolig i Spania når du bor i Norge
