Tax representative in Spain and the special tax of form 213

The obligation arises from article 47 of the Ley General Tributaria (the Spanish General Tax Act) and article 10 of the Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes (TRLIRNR, Real Decreto Legislativo 5/2004). It affects taxpayers who do not reside in another Member State of the European Union: residents in the EU, and those in the European Economic Area when there are mutual assistance regulations regarding the exchange of information, are exempt from this obligation since the Ley 11/2021, although they can appoint a representative voluntarily.

For the rest, the law requires a representative in 5 cases: when they operate in Spain through a permanent establishment; when they carry out the activities of article 24.2 LIRNR (provision of services, technical assistance, installation or assembly works derived from engineering contracts and, in general, economic activities without a permanent establishment with deduction of expenses); when they are entities under the income attribution regime incorporated abroad with a presence in Spanish territory (article 38); when Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority) requires it due to the amount and characteristics of the income obtained or the possession of a property; and when they reside in a non-cooperative jurisdiction and own assets or rights in Spain (excluding securities traded on official secondary markets).

The representative must be a natural or legal person residing in Spain and must be appointed before the end of the deadline for declaring the income obtained in Spain. Managora can assume this representation on an ongoing basis, receiving and responding to notifications from Hacienda on your behalf.

The appointment is formalised by any legally valid means that provides reliable proof: a public document or a private document with a notarised signature. The standardised representation granting forms approved by the AEAT itself are also valid.

The appointment, duly accredited, must be communicated to the Administration within 2 months from the date of designation. It is communicated to the AEAT Delegation where the tax return must be filed, attaching the express acceptance of the representative. If you operate through a permanent establishment, the identity of the representative is also recorded in the census registration declaration (form 036); natural persons communicate their census data with form 030.

This procedure does not accrue any tasa (official fee) before the AEAT. Bear in mind that the representative of a permanent establishment is jointly and severally liable for the payment of the taxpayer's tax debts (article 9 TRLIRNR), so the representation must be exercised by someone who knows your tax obligations in detail: this is exactly the service that Managora provides.

It is an annual tax regulated in articles 40 to 45 of the TRLIRNR that taxes entities resident in a country or territory classified as a non-cooperative jurisdiction (the old name was tax haven) that own or possess in Spain, under any title, real estate or real rights of use or enjoyment over them. It only affects entities: natural persons do not file form 213.

The quota is 3% of the cadastral value of the property. If the property does not have a cadastral value, the value determined in accordance with the rules of the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (Wealth Tax) is applied. The tax accrues on 31 December of each year and the self-assessment (form 213) is filed and paid during the following month of January, electronically with an electronic certificate or by means of a printed pre-declaration.

The current list of non-cooperative jurisdictions is set by the Orden HFP/115/2023, modified by the Orden HAC/649/2026: from 28 June 2026, Barbados, Dominica, Gibraltar, Seychelles and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the offshore business regime of Samoa, leave the list, and the international holding companies regime of Russia is incorporated with effect from 28 December 2026. The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Bermuda or Vanuatu, among others, remain.

Article 42 TRLIRNR exempts 3 groups from the tax: foreign States and public institutions and international organisations; entities that carry out in Spain, on a continuous or habitual basis, economic operations distinguishable from the simple holding or leasing of the property; and companies listed on officially recognised secondary securities markets.

You may have read that entities from countries with a double taxation agreement with an information exchange clause that declare their partners are exempt. That exemption belongs to the previous design of the tax, when the levy generally reached non-resident entities. With effect from 2013, the legislator limited the subjection to entities resident in tax havens (today non-cooperative jurisdictions) and that exemption disappeared as unnecessary: if your company resides in a country with an agreement, it is simply no longer subject to the tax.

If you intend to apply an exemption, it is advisable to be able to prove it: a certificate of tax residence of the entity issued by the authorities of your country and, where appropriate, proof of the economic activity carried out in the property. Managora reviews your case, determines whether you are subject or exempt and prepares the supporting documentation.

Failing to appoint a representative when it is mandatory, or failing to comply with the AEAT's requirement to do so, constitutes a serious tax infringement penalised with a fixed pecuniary fine of €2,000. The fine rises to €6,000 in the case of taxpayers resident in non-cooperative jurisdictions (article 10 TRLIRNR).

Furthermore, if you do not appoint a representative, the Administration may consider as such whoever appears in the Registro Mercantil (Mercantile Registry), whoever is authorised to contract on your behalf or, in the case of residents in non-cooperative jurisdictions, the depositary or manager of your assets in Spain. That is to say, the notifications will run their course even if you do not find out.

As for form 213, filing it after the deadline without prior requirement entails the surcharges of article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria: 1% plus another 1% for each full month of delay and, after 12 months, 15% plus late payment interest. If it is the AEAT that detects the failure to file, the unpaid debt can be penalised with a fine of between 50% and 150% of the quota (article 191 LGT). Filing in January, every year, is much cheaper.

Managora assumes your tax representation before the Tax Agency as an ongoing service: we formalise the granting, communicate the appointment with the express acceptance within the period of 2 months and attend to the notifications from Hacienda on your behalf. You can see the updated amount in the file for the tax representative designation procedure.

If your company is subject to the special tax, we calculate the quota on the cadastral value, check if any exemption applies to you after the changes to the 2026 list and file and pay form 213 every January. The amount of the service appears in the file for the form 213 procedure.

Start today: complete the questionnaire for the procedure you need and Managora prepares and files it for you, without travelling and with email tracking from start to finish.