Modelo 216 Withholding Tax in Spain: How Payers Withhold on Non-Resident Landlord Rental Income (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. Since 2024, Orden HAC/56/2024 also requires the payer to break down withholdings by income type on the form, improving AEAT’s ability to trace non-resident refund claims.

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, last updated 9 June 2026. 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. Liechtenstein residents moved to the 24 per cent rate at the same time, having previously paid 19 per cent.

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 does a Modelo 216 withholding work in practice?

A worked example makes the mechanism concrete. Suppose a Spanish company rents a commercial unit in Madrid from a UK resident landlord for EUR 2,000 per month. The company is the retenedor and must withhold 19 per cent of the gross rent, because the UK is an EU member state for IRNR rate purposes despite Brexit.

Month	Gross rent (EUR)	Withholding at 19 per cent (EUR)	Landlord receives (EUR)
January	2,000	380	1,620
February	2,000	380	1,620
March	2,000	380	1,620
Q1 total	6,000	1,140	4,860

The company files Modelo 216 for Q1 between 1 and 20 April, paying EUR 1,140 to AEAT. At year end, the company issues a retention certificate showing EUR 13,680 withheld across 12 months (EUR 380 x 12). The UK landlord files Modelo 210, declares EUR 24,000 in gross rent, and credits the EUR 13,680 already withheld. If the landlord deducts allowable expenses on the Modelo 210 (for instance, EUR 4,000 in community fees, insurance and property management), the taxable base falls to EUR 20,000 and the final tax is EUR 3,800 (19 per cent of EUR 20,000). Since EUR 13,680 was already withheld, the landlord claims a refund of EUR 9,880 through the Modelo 210 refund process.

If the same landlord lived in the United States instead, the rate would be 24 per cent with no expense deduction available. The monthly withholding would be EUR 480, the quarterly filing EUR 1,440, and the annual total EUR 5,760. The landlord files Modelo 210 on the gross rent with no expense offset, and the withheld amount exactly equals the final tax liability, so no refund is due.

What changed in Modelo 216 since the 2024 reform?

Orden HAC/56/2024 (BOE-A-2024-1772, published 31 January 2024), in force for income accruing from 2024 onwards, modified both Modelo 216 and Modelo 296. The reform targets dividend withholding traceability but changes the form every payer uses. On Modelo 216, the payer must now break down the total withholding amount into two categories: dividends and other income from participation in the equity of entities, and other income. This breakdown appears in boxes 05-06 (number of incomes), 08-09 (base) and 11-12 (withholding amount), with box 07, 10 and 13 carrying the totals.

On Modelo 296, the reform improves the traceability of income from negotiable securities that passes through intermediary chains, whether in Spain or abroad. Each declarant must now inform AEAT of the previous payee in the chain and, in the perceptor field, the next link. Where a payment chain continues to intermediaries outside Spain, the last Spanish intermediary reports the foreign intermediary as the perceptor. Where the chain ends in Spain, the last intermediary reports the actual non-resident taxpayer. Two new annexes to record type 2 of Modelo 296 handle securities payment relationships and payment certificates, used when withholding refund requests are filed through Modelo 210.

In April 2026, the Ministerio de Hacienda placed a further draft order on public consultation that would modify Modelo 210 and 296 again, with the same objective of improving traceability and control of dividend withholding refund requests. The draft had not entered into force as of July 2026, but payers should monitor BOE for the final order, as it may introduce additional reporting fields on Modelo 296 when adopted.

The reform does not change the withholding rates, the quarterly deadlines, or the fundamental obligation structure. A tenant withholding on rental income to a non-resident landlord files the same quarterly return on the same dates. The change is in the form’s reporting granularity: the payer separates income types rather than reporting a single aggregate figure.

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. Platforms that facilitate short lets to non-resident landlords also face DAC7 reporting obligations that feed rental income data directly to AEAT, making gaps harder to sustain.

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. Landlords who have fallen behind on their non-resident tax obligations may need an AEAT tax clearance certificate to demonstrate they have no outstanding debts before selling or contracting.

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.