You have decided to sell your property in Spain. The agent has found a buyer, the price is agreed and the notary appointment is booked. Then, at the notary’s table, you discover that you will only receive 97% of the purchase price. The remaining 3% goes straight to the Spanish tax office.
This is not a fee and not a mistake. It is a statutory withholding that applies to every seller who is not tax resident in Spain — and in most cases the money can be recovered. But only if you do the right things within the right deadlines.
What is the 3% retention?
When a person who is not tax resident in Spain sells a property here, the buyer is legally obliged to withhold 3% of the agreed price and pay it to the tax authorities using form Modelo 211, within one month of signing the deed before the notary.
The amount is a payment on account of the capital gains tax you may owe as a seller. It is not a final tax. The buyer must give you a copy of the filed form — make sure you receive it before you leave the notary’s office, because without it you cannot claim a refund.
If you are tax resident in Spain, no retention applies, but you must produce a valid certificado de residencia fiscal issued by the tax office. A Spanish NIE or a town hall registration (empadronamiento) is not enough.
A worked example: a property sold for €200,000
Suppose you bought your apartment in 2015 for €150,000 and paid around €15,000 in transfer tax, notary and registry fees. You now sell for €200,000. The agency commission is €10,000 and the plusvalía municipal is €1,500.
- Acquisition value: €150,000 + €15,000 = €165,000
- Transfer value: €200,000 − €10,000 − €1,500 = €188,500
- Capital gain: €23,500
- Tax at 19%: €4,465
- Retention withheld (3% of €200,000): €6,000
- Refund due: €1,535
Note that the retention is calculated on the whole price, not on the gain. If you sell at a loss — which happens more often than people expect — 3% has still been withheld, and in principle the entire amount should come back to you.
You can run your own figures in our capital gains tax calculator.
How to get the money back
Refunds are not automatic. You must file Modelo 210 with the capital gains calculation within four months of the date of sale. Miss that deadline and you will normally lose the right to a refund, even if you made no gain at all.
For the filing you will need the deed from when you bought, the deed from the sale, receipts for transfer tax, notary and registry fees, the agency invoice, the plusvalía receipt and the buyer’s Modelo 211. Costs you cannot evidence with an invoice cannot be deducted.
The tax office then has six months to pay. If it takes longer, you are entitled to late-payment interest. In practice, refunds usually arrive between four and twelve months after filing.
Common pitfalls
The tax office routinely checks whether the seller declared imputed income tax (renta imputada) during the years of ownership. If you did not, the refund can be frozen or offset against unpaid tax plus penalties. It is far better to regularise this before the sale — see our imputed income tax calculator.
Do not forget the plusvalía municipal either, the local capital gains tax normally payable by the seller within 30 days. And if you are resident in another country, the gain will usually also have to be declared there; the Spanish tax is credited under the applicable double taxation treaty, but the credit is not applied automatically.
The legal basis
The obligation arises from article 25.2 of the Spanish Non-Resident Income Tax Act (Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004) and article 14 of the implementing regulation RD 1776/2004. The capital gains rate for non-residents is 19%.
In short
The 3% retention is usually nothing to worry about — but it is your money, and it will not come back by itself. The four-month deadline is short and the supporting documents need to be complete from the outset. It is worth having a lawyer check the figures before the notary appointment, so that deductible costs are not lost.
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