Selling as a non-resident: getting your 3% back — and not overpaying plusvalía

01How the 3% retention works

Spanish law (art. 25.2 of the non-resident income tax law) makes the buyer your first tax collector: at the notary, 3% of the agreed price is withheld and the buyer must pay it to AEAT on form (modelo) 211 within one month of the deed. It is not an extra tax — it is a payment on account of your capital-gains tax.

Your actual tax is then computed on the real gain: sale price minus purchase price, adjusted for the documented costs of both (notary, registry, taxes paid, agency fees, and qualifying improvement works with invoices). Non-residents pay 19% on the gain.

Three outcomes follow. If 19% of your gain is more than the 3% retained, you owe the difference. If it is less — the State owes you. And if you sold at or below your total cost, the whole 3% is refundable. None of it happens automatically.

02Claiming the refund: modelo 210, one property, hard window

The seller files modelo 210 (capital-gain type) declaring the real numbers. The filing window is three months counted from the end of the buyer’s one-month 211 period — in practice, about four months from the sale date. Miss it and the refund path becomes a longer fight.

The single most common practical failure: the seller never receives their copy of the buyer’s filed modelo 211 (the «ejemplar para el transmitente no residente»). It cannot exist yet at the notary table: the buyer files and pays the 211 within one month of the deed and only then hands you your copy (Orden EHA/3316/2010, art. 8.4). Without proof that the 3% actually reached AEAT under your NIE, the refund stalls. At the signing, make sure the deed records the 3% retention and agree in writing how and by when the buyer (or their lawyer) will send you the copy once filed — then check that the amount and your details match the deed.

Refunds are not fast: AEAT verifies, sometimes asks for the purchase and sale deeds, cost invoices and ownership proof. If it takes more than six months from filing, the law adds late-payment interest in your favour. A complete, well-documented 210 is what keeps the clock short.

03Plusvalía municipal: the tax with two calculation methods

Separately from state tax, the municipality charges IIVTNU — the “plusvalía” — on the increase in the land value while you owned it. Since the Constitutional Court annulled the old rules (STC 182/2021) and RDL 26/2021 rebuilt them, you may choose between two calculations and take the cheaper one:

• Objective method: the land’s cadastral value multiplied by a coefficient set for the years you held it.
• Real method: the actual gain attributable to the land, taken from the purchase and sale deeds.

04Sold at a loss? Then two taxes disappear — with evidence

A sale without gain changes both bills. State side: your 210 shows a loss, so the full 3% comes back. Municipal side: since the constitutional rulings, no plusvalía is due when the transfer shows no land-value increase — but the town hall will not assume it. You prove it with both deeds and, where values are contested, supporting valuations.

Declaration deadlines for plusvalía are short (commonly around thirty working days from the deed, set by municipal ordinance) — so the decision “pay, or declare non-subjection” has to be made immediately after selling, not when the letter arrives. A wrongly paid plusvalía can be reclaimed, but reclaiming is slower than not overpaying.

05The seller’s money checklist

• Before the notary: gather purchase deed and all cost invoices (they reduce the taxable gain), and your NIE.
• At the notary: confirm the 3% retention appears in the deed; agree how and by when you receive your copy of the filed 211 — the buyer files it within one month of the deed.
• Within ~30 working days: plusvalía — pay the cheaper method or file the no-gain declaration with evidence.
• Within the 210 window (~4 months): file the capital-gain return; claim the refund with deeds and invoices attached.
• Final year’s modelo 210 for imputed income still applies for the days you owned the property.