21% IVA on Spanish tourist rentals: what’s true (2026)

What exactly has the government announced?

On 29 June 2026, after the Consejo de Ministros, the government announced a housing package in two blocks: on one side, regulation of temporada and room rentals (written contract, the same guarantees as ordinary housing) together with an extraordinary extension of existing contracts; on the other, measures to mobilise affordable housing — among them raising the IVA on tourist flats to the general rate of 21%.

It pays to be precise about the procedural status: there is no public text of the decree, no entry-into-force date and no confirmed thresholds. Anything published before approval by the Consejo de Ministros and publication in the BOE — this article included — describes a political plan, not a tax obligation.

What IVA do tourist rentals pay today? (the real starting point)

The current rule (art. 20.Uno.23º of Ley 37/1992) exempts residential rentals from IVA — including tourist and per-night lets — as long as the landlord does not provide services typical of the hotel industry. In that case the guest pays no IVA and the host neither charges nor deducts it.

The reduced 10% rate (art. 91.Uno.2.2º) only comes into play when hotel-type services are actually provided: permanent reception or guest service, periodic cleaning and linen changes during the stay, or similar. The Agencia Tributaria expressly clarifies that cleaning and linen changes at check-in and check-out, cleaning of communal areas and technical repair assistance do not count.

Alongside IVA — and independently of it — rental income is always taxed: under IRPF for residents, or under IRNR via Modelo 210 for non-residents.

How would the 21% work? The most likely mechanism

The decree has no public text, but in May 2025 the Socialist group registered Proposición de Ley 122/000196, whose mechanism is the most plausible reference: art. 20.Uno.23º LIVA would be amended so that the exemption no longer covers lets whose duration for the same tenant does not exceed 30 nights, located in municipalities of 10,000 or more inhabitants; and that same operation would be excluded from the 10% rate, so it falls into the general 21%.

Three consequences of that wording that hardly any headline mentions: the test is objective (duration and municipality), not the landlord’s status — private owners and companies would be hit alike; furnished rentals with hotel-type services would also move from 10 to 21 (hotels and hostales would stay at 10); and entry into force was set for the first day of the following calendar quarter.

All of the above is reasoned extrapolation: the decree could copy this mechanism, soften it or tighten it. Until the BOE, these are coordinates, not rules.

Who would it affect — and who not?

• STR host with a tourist licence (VUT/VT/HUT/ETV/VV): bookings of days or weeks would have to charge 21% if the property sits in a municipality of ≥10,000 inhabitants.
• Hybrid host (tourist summer, temporada winter): a mixed regime per contract — summer bookings of ≤30 nights at 21%; the winter temporada of >30 nights would remain exempt. The tax boundary would coincide with the operational one.
• Temporada landlord (contracts of months): outside the known mechanism, as long as the stay exceeds 30 nights with the same tenant and no hotel-type services are provided.
• LAU landlord of a main residence: no change — the exemption of art. 20.Uno.23º is left untouched.
• Municipalities under 10,000 inhabitants: the exemption would also remain for short stays (under the PPL mechanism).
• Canary Islands: outside the territory where IVA applies; vivienda vacacional already pays 7% IGIC there and a change would require a Canary Islands decision of its own — nothing announced.

What obligations would it bring in practice?

For a host who is exempt today, the change would not just be about price but about administration: IVA registration, an invoice for every stay with 21% charged, record books and a quarterly self-assessment (Modelo 303) plus an annual summary (Modelo 390).

For non-residents, IVA would come on top of IRNR: Modelo 210 would keep settling the rental income (19% EU/EEA with deductible expenses, 24% elsewhere without them), while Modelo 303 would settle the IVA — two parallel tracks, because IVA taxes the transaction where the property is located, whatever the owner’s residence.

The least-quoted counterpart: whoever charges IVA also deducts it. Renovations, utilities, platform commissions or management services would start generating deductible input IVA — real relief, though it rarely offsets 21 points of output tax in price-sensitive markets.

And in the medium term, Directive (EU) 2025/516 adds the missing piece: from July 2028 (optional) and January 2030 (mandatory), platforms such as Airbnb and Booking will act as "deemed supplier" and collect the IVA whenever the host does not provide a valid VAT number.

Will it pass? The precedent worth remembering

The parliamentary arithmetic is the same that sank the extension decree in April: PP, Vox and Junts voted against, and that rule was only in force for 37 days. For this decree the government needs at least a yes from Junts — which demands tax incentives of its own — or its abstention plus the vote of Podemos, which rejects precisely those incentives. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs expects to validate it "before the end of August".

Two sober readings for deciding with a cool head: first, a real decreto-ley that changes essential elements of a tax can end up challenged in court (tax advisers have been pointing for months at the friction with art. 86 of the Constitution — the reason this very mechanism was previously going through Parliament as an ordinary bill). Second, even if this particular decree falls, the underlying direction is European: the ViDA directive already lets Member States treat short-term rentals as the hotel sector, and platforms will collect IVA between 2028 and 2030. The question is not so much whether short stays will end up taxed, but when and with what fine print.