Modelo 216 in Spain: Withholding Tax on Non-Resident Rental Income and What Landlords and Tenants Need to Know (2026)

When a Spanish-resident tenant or business pays rent to a landlord who is not a Spanish tax resident, the payer must withhold tax from that rent, file Modelo 216 to pay it to the Agencia Tributaria every quarter, and then file Modelo 296 once a year to summarise every withholding made. The landlord never files Modelo 216; they receive a retention certificate from the payer and credit the withheld amount against their own Modelo 210 non-resident income tax return. The rate is 19 per cent for landlords living in the EU, Iceland or Norway, and 24 per cent for all others, applied to the gross rent.

What is Modelo 216 and who must file it?

Modelo 216 is the quarterly withholding return that a Spanish-resident payer files when it pays rent, dividends, interest or other income to a non-resident of Spain who has no permanent establishment there. Approved by Orden EHA/3290/2008 (BOE-A-2008-18497, published 17 November 2008), it is the mechanism by which the IRNR non-resident income tax is collected at source rather than chased from the landlord after the fact. In a rental context, the payer is almost always the tenant: a Spanish-resident individual, a Spanish company renting commercial premises, or a business subletting to a foreign landlord. The withholding obligation comes from Article 31 of the LIRNR (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004), and Article 11 of the Reglamento (Real Decreto 1776/2004) defines who is a retenedor.

The critical distinction is that the tenant, not the landlord, carries the filing obligation. A Spanish company renting an apartment in Marbella from a UK resident owner withholds 19 per cent of the monthly rent, files Modelo 216 each quarter to pay that 19 per cent to the tax authority, and at year end gives the landlord a retention certificate showing the total withheld. The landlord then files Modelo 210, declares the full rent, and credits the withholding already paid on their behalf. Without that certificate the landlord pays the full tax twice unless they recover the tax from the tenant, which is the practical reason the payer’s obligation is taken seriously.

What is the Modelo 216 filing deadline?

The filing deadline is the first 20 calendar days of April, July, October and January, covering the preceding calendar quarter. This is set out in Article 4 of the approving order and confirmed in the AEAT filing instructions. Large companies that file monthly have the first 20 calendar days of each month instead, with the July return filed in August and the first 20 days of September due to the summer rule. Weekends and public holidays push the deadline to the next working day.

Filing	Frequency	Deadline	Covers
Modelo 216	Quarterly	1 to 20 April, July, October, January	The preceding calendar quarter
Modelo 216 (large companies)	Monthly	First 20 days of each month	The preceding month
Modelo 296	Annual	1 to 31 January of the following year	All withholdings made in the prior calendar year

The Spanish property tax calendar maps these deadlines against the other returns a non-resident owner or their payer must file in a given year. A negative return, where no withholding was made in the quarter, is still filed through Modelo 216 marked as negative.

What is the withholding rate on rent paid to a non-resident landlord?

The withholding rate follows the general IRNR rate, applied to the gross rent with no deduction of expenses. The Agencia Tributaria’s published rate table splits non-residents into two groups: residents of the EU, Iceland and Norway pay 19 per cent, while residents of the rest of the world pay 24 per cent. The split has applied unchanged since 11 July 2021, when the rates were last revised.

Landlord’s tax residence	Withholding rate	Base
EU, Iceland, Norway	19 per cent	Gross rent (full amount)
Rest of the world	24 per cent	Gross rent (full amount)

The base is the full rent the tenant pays, including any amounts for goods ceded with the property but excluding VAT. The landlord cannot instruct the tenant to withhold on a net figure after expenses; the withholding is mechanical, on the gross. Where the landlord is an EU, Iceland or Norway resident, they may elect on their own Modelo 210 to deduct expenses from the base before calculating the final tax, which can produce a refund of the difference between the gross based withholding and the net based final liability. That refund route is covered in the Modelo 210 tax refund guide.

How do Modelo 216 and Modelo 296 relate to each other?

Modelo 216 is the quarterly payment return; Modelo 296 is the annual information return that summarises every withholding made in the year. The same payer files both. Modelo 296, also approved under Orden EHA/3290/2008 and detailed in its Article 11, is filed between 1 and 31 January of the following year when filed electronically, or within the first 20 calendar days of January when filed on paper. It lists each non-resident perceptor, the rent paid, the base, the withholding rate and the amount withheld, and cross references the quarterly Modelo 216 filings.

The practical workflow for a Spanish-resident tenant paying rent to a non-resident landlord is:

Step	Payer (tenant) action	Landlord action
1. Monthly rent payment	Withhold 19 per cent or 24 per cent of gross rent	Receive 81 per cent or 76 per cent of rent
2. Each quarter	File Modelo 216 and pay the withheld amount to AEAT	None
3. Year end	Issue a retention certificate to the landlord	Receive the certificate
4. Annual	File Modelo 296 summarising all withholdings by 31 January	None
5. Tax return season	None	File Modelo 210, credit the withholding, settle or claim refund

The retention certificate is not a separate AEAT form; it is a document the payer produces, typically drawn from their Modelo 296 records, showing the landlord’s name, NIE or foreign tax ID, the total rent paid, the base, the rate and the total withheld. A fiscal representative can hold the certificate on the landlord’s behalf and reconcile it against the Modelo 210.

What if the tenant fails to withhold?

If the tenant does not withhold when they should, the tenant is liable for the unwithheld tax plus late-payment interest and potential penalties under the Ley 58/2003 General Tributaria. The landlord remains taxable on the full rent through Modelo 210 regardless, because the rental income is still theirs, but they lose the credit for the withholding that was never made and must settle the full tax themselves. They can then pursue the tenant civilly for reimbursement, but the tax authority collects from the tenant first.

This is the structural reason the withholding regime exists: the Agencia Tributaria secures the tax from a resident entity it can easily reach, rather than chasing a non-resident individual abroad. The tenant’s exposure is not theoretical; AEAT cross references Modelo 216 filings against the rental declarations of non-resident landlords, and a gap between what the landlord declares and what the tenant withheld is a straightforward audit trigger.

Does the short-let and tourist let regime change the withholding obligation?

The short-let regime in Andalusia, tightened by the February 2025 Decreto-ley that added town hall authorisation and the 60 per cent community approval requirement, sits alongside the tax withholding rules rather than replacing them. If a Spanish-resident platform, agency or business pays the rent to a non-resident landlord, the withholding obligation applies in the same way as for a long-term tenancy. The short-let rental tax compliance guide covers the Modelo 210 side for the landlord in detail.

Where the tenant is a foreign tourist paying directly to a non-resident landlord, there is no Spanish-resident payer to withhold, and the landlord settles the full tax on Modelo 210 with no credit. The withholding regime only bites when there is a resident payer in the chain, which is why it matters most for commercial lets, long-term residential lets to resident tenants, and corporate tenants.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and individual circumstances differ. Verify current requirements with an independent lawyer (abogado) or tax advisor (gestor/asesor fiscal) before acting.