Plusvalía tax in Spain when you sell a property: who pays, how it’s calculated and when it’s zero

What is the plusvalía tax in Spain?

Plusvalía municipal is the everyday name for Spain’s municipal tax on the increase in value of urban land, officially the Impuesto sobre el Incremento de Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana (IIVTNU). Under art. 104.1 of the Local Finance Act (consolidated text), it taxes the rise in value of urban land that becomes apparent when ownership is transferred by any means: a sale, a gift or an inheritance.

Three points sum it up. It taxes the land, not the building: for a flat, what counts is the share of value attributed to the plot. It only applies to urban land: land classed as rural for IBI (annual property tax) purposes is not subject to it (art. 104.2). And it is municipal: each town hall sets its own rate and coefficients within the legal maximums, so there is no single figure for the whole of Spain. The tax falls due on the date of the transfer (art. 109.1.a).

Who pays plusvalía when a property is sold?

In a sale, the seller pays. Art. 106.1.b is explicit: in transfers for consideration, the taxpayer is the person who transfers the land. In inheritances and gifts it is the other way round: whoever receives the property pays (art. 106.1.a).

There is an exception that matters on the Costa del Sol, where many sellers live abroad: when the seller is an individual not resident in Spain, the buyer becomes the “substitute taxpayer” (sujeto pasivo sustituto del contribuyente, art. 106.2), so the town hall looks to the buyer for the tax. In any sale, the buyer must also notify the town hall of the transfer within the same deadlines as the seller (art. 110.6.b).

A clause saying the buyer will pay plusvalía only binds the parties. As Málaga City Council’s tax office, GESTRISAM, points out, such agreements only take effect between the parties who signed them and have no effect on the Administration: the debt is always claimed from the person liable under the law.

How plusvalía is calculated: two methods

There are two ways of working out the taxable base, and you pay on whichever is lower (art. 107.5). The town hall’s rate is then applied, and it cannot exceed 30 % (art. 108.1).

The objective method: cadastral land value × coefficient

This is the default calculation (art. 107.1–107.4). Take the value assigned to the land for IBI purposes on the date of sale and multiply it by a coefficient that depends on how many years the seller has owned the property, up to a maximum of twenty. Only complete years count; if less than a year has passed, the coefficient is prorated by complete months (art. 107.4).

If its tax bylaw allows, the town hall can lower that base in two ways: a reducing coefficient of up to 15 % on the cadastral value (art. 107.2.a) and, after a general cadastral revaluation, a reduction of up to 60 % for at most the first five years of the new values (art. 107.3).

The real-gain method

If the owner shows that the real increase in the land’s value is lower than the objective result, the tax is charged on the real increase (art. 107.5). It is worked out by comparing the sale and purchase values stated in the deeds — or the value checked by the tax authority, if higher — without adding costs or taxes, and applying to both the proportion that the cadastral land value represents of the total cadastral value on the date of sale (art. 104.5).

Maximum coefficients in 2026

These are the legal maximums in art. 107.4 of the consolidated text published in the BOE (Spain’s official gazette), in force since 28 January 2026. They are maximums: each town hall sets its own in its tax bylaw (ordenanza fiscal), and they may be lower.

• Under 1 year and 1 year: 0.15 · 2 and 3 years: 0.14 · 4 years: 0.16
• 5 years: 0.18 · 6 years: 0.19 · 7 years: 0.20 · 8 years: 0.19
• 9 years: 0.15 · 10 years: 0.12 · 11 years: 0.10
• 12 to 15 years: 0.09 · 16 years: 0.10 · 17 years: 0.13
• 18 years: 0.17 · 19 years: 0.23 · 20 years or more: 0.40

Royal Decree-law 16/2025 changed these maximums with effect from 1 January 2026, but Congress repealed it (BOE of 28 January 2026), and the table in force is the same one set by Royal Decree-law 8/2023. If your sale was completed between 1 and 27 January 2026, ask the town hall which coefficients apply.

An example with made-up figures

Say the land share of a flat has a cadastral value of €60,000 and the seller bought it ten years and a few months ago. With the maximum 10-year coefficient (0.12), the objective base is 60,000 × 0.12 = €7,200. At the maximum rate of 30 %, the tax would be at most €2,160. If the deeds show that the real gain on the land was €5,000, the base becomes €5,000 and the maximum tax €1,500. Your municipality’s actual coefficients and rate may be lower.

When is no plusvalía payable?

When there is no gain. Since 2021, art. 104.5 says the tax does not apply if the land has not increased in value between purchase and sale. But this is not automatic:

• You still have to file a declaration and provide both the purchase and the sale deeds; as GESTRISAM notes, no assessment is issued if the town hall confirms there was no increase.
• The comparison is the one used in the real-gain method: deed values without costs or taxes — notary fees, renovation work and agency commission do not count — and only for the land share.
• If the property was inherited or received as a gift, the acquisition value is the one declared for inheritance and gift tax.

Nor is there tax on contributions to the marital partnership or on transfers between spouses or to children under annulment, separation or divorce judgments (art. 104.3). Handing the mortgage debtor’s main home to the lender in lieu of payment (dación en pago) is exempt, as is its foreclosure (art. 105.1.c). For inheritances, bylaws may grant up to 95 % relief to descendants, spouses and ascendants (art. 108.4).

Plusvalía deadline and where to file on the Costa del Sol

For a sale, the deadline is 30 working days (días hábiles) from the date of transfer (art. 110.2.a) — not 30 calendar days and not a month. For inheritances it is six months, extendable to a year on request (art. 110.2.b). Each town hall decides whether taxpayers self-assess (autoliquidación) or file a declaration and receive an assessment (art. 110.4), and the notary must warn the parties in the deed about the deadline and the consequences of not filing (art. 110.7).

On the Costa del Sol:

• Málaga city: the self-assessment is filed with GESTRISAM. Its plusvalía page (in Spanish) offers an estimation tool and asks for a copy of the transfer deed and, if the previous title is not mentioned in it, a photocopy of that title too.
• Marbella: the town hall does not manage this tax. Its notice on taxes it does not manage sends taxpayers to the Patronato de Recaudación Provincial de Málaga, Avda. Ricardo Soriano, 68.
• In any other municipality, look up the tax bylaw for this tax: it sets the rate, the coefficients and who manages it.

Plusvalía, income tax and the 3 % withholding are not the same

Up to three separate payments can arise on a sale, and mixing them up is the most common mistake foreign owners make:

• Plusvalía municipal: charged by the town hall and calculated on the land, using the methods above.
• IRPF, if the seller is resident in Spain: the capital gain on the sale goes into the savings tax base, according to the Tax Agency’s income tax manual for 2025 (in Spanish).
• IRNR, if the seller is non-resident: the gain is taxed at 19 % (art. 25.1.f of the Non-Residents’ Income Tax Act) and, if the seller has no permanent establishment in Spain, the buyer must withhold 3 % of the agreed price and pay it with Form 211 (art. 25.2).

That 3 % is not the final tax: it is a payment on account of the seller’s non-resident income tax, which the seller then declares on Form 210. According to the Tax Agency’s Form 211 instructions, the buyer pays it within one month from the date of transfer; if it is not paid, the property remains liable for the lower of the withholding and the tax due. So with a non-resident seller, the buyer has two separate duties: the 3 % withholding with the Tax Agency and plusvalía as substitute taxpayer with the town hall.

Why there are two methods: the court rulings

Constitutional Court judgment 182/2021, on a question referred by the High Court of Justice of Andalusia sitting in Málaga, struck down the provisions that imposed the objective system as the only, compulsory method (art. 107.1 second paragraph, 107.2.a and 107.4). It limited the effects: unchallenged assessments, and self-assessments whose correction had not been requested by then, cannot be reopened on that basis.

Royal Decree-law 26/2021 adapted the tax with the two current methods, and judgment 17/2023 dismissed the challenge against it. Separately, the Supreme Court accepted in judgment 339/2024 that final assessments can be refunded when there was no increase in value (press release, in Spanish): it concerns sales without any gain, not every plusvalía ever paid.

Common mistakes when selling

• Agreeing that the buyer pays and assuming that frees the seller as far as the town hall is concerned.
• Counting a month or 30 calendar days: the deadline is 30 working days.
• Believing a sale at a loss is exempt without filing anything.
• Reading the maximum coefficients as what you will pay.

For estate agents

Domuspace does not calculate taxes or file returns. What the agency can do is explain plusvalía before setting the asking price, because it falls on the seller and reduces what they take home — especially for a non-resident seller, whose buyer will also withhold 3 %. It belongs in the conversation about how to value a property, together with the purchase deeds if the owner believes there has been no gain.

Come with the cadastral reference and a nota simple already checked. The Domuspace cadastral map has the official plots for the whole province of Málaga, with the owner contact the agent enters linked to the cadastral reference. And if the owner decides to sell through the agency, the contracts module fills in the exclusive agreement “for sale” with the contact and property data, from the Professional plan. If you work in the area, see Domuspace on the Costa del Sol.

This article is for information only and is not a substitute for advice from a tax professional. The data were checked on 29 September 2026 against the official sources linked above.