Spanish wealth tax and the Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes: the 2026 foreign property buyer's guide

Spain is one of only a handful of countries in Europe that still levies an annual tax on personal wealth. In fact, since 2022 it levies two: the long-standing regional Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (IP), and the state-level Impuesto Temporal de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas (ITSGF), passed as a temporary measure at the end of 2022 and quietly extended into 2026 while the political fight over its future continues.

For most foreign buyers looking at a €400,000 flat in Valencia, the answer to "do I pay Spanish wealth tax?" is a clean no — the base allowances swallow the whole balance sheet. For a foreign buyer with €2M, €5M or €20M of worldwide net wealth who is thinking about moving to Spain and buying a home there, the question is one of the most consequential of the whole move: which autonomous community you register in changes the annual bill by tens of thousands of euros, and if you get the sequencing wrong you can end up paying both taxes on the same wealth.

This guide is the 2026 foreign-buyer's explainer for both taxes. What each one is, who owes them, how they interact, what the regional map actually looks like after the last three years of political tit-for-tat, how the €700,000 base allowance and the €300,000 primary-home allowance work, what counts as "Spanish-situs" wealth for a non-resident buyer, how the Beckham Law changes the exposure, and the practical mistakes that catch out first-year Spanish residents.

The two taxes, in one paragraph each

Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (IP) — the regional wealth tax

An annual tax on net wealth as of 31 December, filed with your income tax return the following spring on modelo 714. Rates run from 0.2% to 3.5% on a national scale, with a €700,000 base allowance and an additional €300,000 allowance for the primary residence (so, up to €1M sheltered for a resident living in their own home). Cedído — "ceded" — to the autonomous communities, meaning every region can set its own scale, exemptions, and bonifications. Some regions apply the national rules more or less as-is; some go harder; some (Madrid, Andalucía, Cantabria, Extremadura) apply a 100% bonification that effectively zeroes the tax for their residents.

Impuesto Temporal de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas (ITSGF) — the state solidarity tax

Introduced by Law 38/2022 and applying from wealth held at year-end 2022, this is a state-level wealth tax that hits net wealth above €3M at 1.7% to 3.5%. The trick — and the whole political point — is that it is designed to fill the gap left by regional wealth-tax bonifications: whatever regional IP you have paid is deductible against the ITSGF, so residents of Madrid or Andalucía end up paying the state ITSGF where residents of Catalonia already pay a similar amount to the region. Presented in 2022 as a two-year measure, it has been prolonged year after year and remains in force in 2026 under the same design.

Together, these two taxes are what most foreign-buyer articles gloss as "the Spanish wealth tax". In practice, they are related but structurally different, and understanding both is the only way to predict your real annual bill.

Are you liable at all? Resident vs non-resident

Whether you owe either tax depends on your tax residency on 31 December of the year in question, and on the composition of your wealth.

• Spanish tax residents (broadly: >183 days in Spain, or Spain is your centre of vital or economic interests) pay both taxes on worldwide net wealth, with the regional allowances and any bonifications of the community where they are registered on 31 December.
• Non-residents pay both taxes on Spanish-situs net wealth only — most importantly, Spanish real estate — with the €700,000 base allowance applied to the Spanish-situs total. Since Ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU on this in 2018 and its transposition, non-resident EU/EEA taxpayers can choose to apply the more favourable of the state or regional rules; since 2021 non-resident non-EU taxpayers can also opt for the regional rules of the region where most of their Spanish assets sit. So a Californian buying a Marbella villa is assessed on Andalucía's rules if they want — which currently means 100% bonification of IP.
• Beckham Law filers (see our Beckham Law guide) are Spanish residents for social-security purposes but taxed on Spanish-situs wealth only for both IP and ITSGF. The distinction is enormous for high-net-worth foreign buyers.

For the foreign buyer, the practical version is: if you have not moved to Spain, only your Spanish assets count. If you have moved, everything you own worldwide counts — unless you elect Beckham, in which case only your Spanish assets count for up to six tax years.

The €700,000 and €300,000 allowances (and the trap in the second one)

Two allowances stack for a Spanish resident who lives in their own home:

• €700,000 base allowance — subtracted from your total net wealth before the scale applies. Applied per taxpayer, not per household. A married couple in gananciales community property who each hold half the assets each get their own €700,000, so effectively €1.4M is sheltered at household level.
• €300,000 primary-residence allowance — subtracted from the cadastral value (not the market value) of your vivienda habitual. Applied per owner of the property, so a couple who own the home jointly each subtract €300,000 from their half of the cadastral value. Only the excess counts toward taxable wealth.

Two things trip foreign buyers up here:

1. The €300,000 is the cadastral value, not the price you paid. Spanish cadastral values are typically 30–60% of market value, so a €900,000 flat with a €400,000 cadastral value has €200,000 counted (single owner) or €0 counted (joint owner couple, each subtracting €300,000 from their €200,000 half — capped at zero). Do not compare the €300k allowance to the price you paid; compare it to the cadastral value on your IBI receipt.
2. The €300,000 primary-home allowance only applies if the property is your vivienda habitual. Second homes, rentals, and — critically — the property you own but haven't moved into yet don't qualify. If you buy in November and your empadronamiento at the new address is dated in February, that property is not your vivienda habitual on 31 December, and the €300k allowance does not apply to that year.

The €700,000 base allowance also applies to non-residents on their Spanish-situs wealth. So the non-resident who owns a single Spanish flat worth less than €700,000 does not owe IP — even without the €300k allowance, which does not apply to non-residents.

The national scale — and why the regional map is what actually matters

The default state IP scale runs eight brackets:

Taxable wealth (after allowances)	Marginal rate
Up to €167,129	0.2%
Up to €334,253	0.3%
Up to €668,500	0.5%
Up to €1,336,999	0.9%
Up to €2,673,999	1.3%
Up to €5,347,998	1.7%
Up to €10,695,996	2.1%
Above €10,695,996	3.5%

That is the scale that applies if you are a non-resident opting for the state rules, and it is the starting point for every autonomous community — but the actual bill depends entirely on where you register.

The four bonifying regions (in effect, no IP)

• Comunidad de Madrid — 100% bonification of IP for residents. Since the ITSGF was introduced in late 2022, the state solidarity tax now claws back most of the top-tier saving for wealth over €3M, but for residents with €700k–€3M of net wealth Madrid remains substantially cheaper than any high-tax community. For €3M+ residents, Madrid residents now pay the state ITSGF where they used to pay nothing.
• Andalucía — 100% bonification since 2022, expressly to compete with Madrid. Same dynamic: no regional IP, but €3M+ residents caught by the state ITSGF.
• Cantabria — 100% bonification adopted in the 2024 budget and continuing in 2026. Note this region did not previously bonify, so a foreign buyer looking at Santander or the North Coast now has a genuinely competitive wealth-tax posture on top of a lower property-price base than Madrid or Marbella. See our buying property in Cantabria region context for the wider picture.
• Extremadura — 100% bonification since 2023. Rural and lower-cost region, unlikely destination for most foreign HNW buyers but occasionally relevant for retirees or second-home buyers with substantial portfolios.

The high-collector regions

• Cataluña — starts the scale at 0.21% and pushes the top bracket above €10M to 3.48%. Base allowance reduced to €500,000 (not €700,000). A Barcelona resident with €5M of net wealth pays real, non-trivial IP — typically €25,000–€50,000 a year depending on composition.
• Illes Balears — full state scale in effect, no bonification. Very relevant for Mallorca and Ibiza buyers, where property values push many buyers into the taxable range on the property alone.
• Comunitat Valenciana — has raised rates and lowered thresholds in recent years. Base allowance dropped to €500,000 from 2023. Top rate 3.5%. For a foreign buyer in Valencia or Alicante with €2M+ of foreign assets who moves to Spain and doesn't use Beckham, the bill is material.
• País Vasco and Navarra — foral regimes, distinct rules; typically closer to Catalonia's posture than to Madrid's. If you are looking at Bilbao, San Sebastián, or Pamplona, budget for taxable IP on any meaningful non-Spanish wealth.

The middle regions

Most other communities apply the state scale broadly as-is, with modest tweaks. Aragón, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Galicia, La Rioja, Murcia and the Canary Islands sit in this band. For a foreign buyer choosing between, say, Málaga and Valencia, the wealth-tax delta on €2M of foreign assets is a five-figure number every year.

Solidarity tax: the state clawback, in numbers

The ITSGF has its own scale, applied to net wealth above €3M:

Net wealth	Marginal rate
€3M – €5.3M	1.7%
€5.3M – €10.7M	2.1%
Above €10.7M	3.5%

Two crucial mechanics:

1. The regional IP is deductible against the ITSGF. So a Barcelona resident who has already paid €40,000 of Catalan IP subtracts that from their ITSGF assessment; a Madrid resident who paid €0 pays the full ITSGF from the €3M threshold up. The design intent is explicit: the state wealth tax exists to prevent bonifying regions from being a de-facto zero-tax haven for €3M+ residents.
2. The ITSGF has its own €700,000 base allowance (and the €300,000 primary-home allowance) — but these do not stack with the IP allowances; they are the same allowances applied against a different tax base above the €3M threshold. In practice, the €3M threshold is the number that matters.

For a foreign buyer, the €3M line is the psychologically important one. Below €3M of net wealth, ITSGF is irrelevant and the choice of region determines the entire wealth-tax bill. Above €3M, some solidarity tax is essentially unavoidable if you move to Spain and don't elect Beckham — though it can still be much lower in bonifying regions than in high-collecting ones, because the ITSGF only applies from €3M up, whereas Catalan IP starts biting at €500,000.

Worked examples: what the bill actually looks like

Non-resident buyer with a Marbella villa

Profile: US buyer, Delaware LLC or personal ownership, purchases a €2.5M villa in Marbella, no other Spanish assets. Not resident in Spain.

• Assessed on Spanish-situs wealth only. Cadastral value €900,000; villa purchased for €2.5M — for IP purposes, the higher of purchase price, valor de referencia, or cadastral value is used (in practice: usually the €2.5M purchase price for a recent transaction).
• €700,000 base allowance for non-residents applies (post-2018 for EU, post-2021 for non-EU choosing regional rules).
• Andalucía rules elected (allowed for non-EU non-residents whose Spanish assets are mostly in Andalucía). Andalucía has 100% IP bonification.
• Result: €0 IP.
• ITSGF: Spanish wealth is €2.5M, below the €3M threshold. €0 ITSGF.

A Marbella villa held by a non-resident who elects the Andalusian regional rules is, at 2026 rates, a zero-wealth-tax asset.

Non-resident buyer with a Barcelona flat

Same buyer profile, but €2.5M flat in Barcelona.

• Assessed on Spanish-situs wealth only. Catalan regional rules apply (or the state rules, whichever is more favourable — for a €2.5M asset the state rules are actually kinder in this range because of the €700,000 base allowance).
• After €700,000 allowance: €1.8M taxable at the state scale.
• State scale on €1.8M: roughly €15,000 annual IP.
• ITSGF: below €3M. €0.

A €2.5M Barcelona flat held by a non-resident costs roughly €15k a year in IP. The same asset in Marbella under Andalusian rules costs €0. That is the real economic significance of the regional patchwork for foreign buyers who never move.

Resident retiree in Málaga with €2M portfolio + €800k home

Retired UK couple, Spanish-resident on Non-Lucrative Visa (so ineligible for Beckham), €2M UK-based investment portfolio, €800k home in Málaga (cadastral value €350k).

• Andalucía 100% IP bonification: €0 IP.
• Wealth below €3M: €0 ITSGF.
• Modelo 714 filing still required if worldwide assets exceed €2M or gross wealth exceeds the threshold triggering the filing obligation. Zero tax, but the paperwork is not optional.

Andalucía for a retiree with €2–3M of wealth is essentially free of wealth tax — but the filing obligation and the 720 disclosure on the UK portfolio still bite. See our modelo 210 non-resident guide for the parallel non-resident filing regime.

Resident senior executive in Barcelona with €5M net wealth, no Beckham

Foreign-national director of a Catalan company, worldwide net wealth €5M (€1.5M Barcelona flat, €3.5M foreign portfolio and pension), Spanish-resident, ineligible for Beckham because they exceeded the five-year prior-residency test.

• Catalan IP scale on €5M − €500,000 base allowance − (€300k primary-home cap on €400k cadastral value halved for joint ownership) ≈ €4.4M taxable. Catalan scale yields roughly €35,000–€45,000 IP.
• ITSGF: net wealth €5M, above the €3M threshold. Gross ITSGF on €2M above €3M at 1.7% = €34,000. Minus the regional IP already paid = broadly €0 additional ITSGF because the Catalan IP eats the credit.
• Result: ~€35,000–€45,000 total wealth-tax bill.

Same profile in Madrid: 100% bonification means €0 regional IP. ITSGF then applies at €34,000. Total bill: ~€34,000 — actually a little cheaper than Barcelona at this wealth level, but the gap is much narrower than most foreigners assume because the state solidarity tax has partly closed it. Below €3M, the Madrid-vs-Barcelona gap is dramatic; above €3M, it narrows and only widens again at very high wealth.

Beckham-electing DNV holder with €10M worldwide wealth, €1.2M Valencia flat

Foreign remote worker moves to Valencia, elects Beckham, worldwide net wealth €10M of which €1.2M is a Valencia flat and the rest is a foreign investment portfolio.

• Beckham filers assessed on Spanish-situs wealth only for both IP and ITSGF.
• Spanish-situs wealth: €1.2M. After €700,000 base allowance and €300,000 primary-home allowance on cadastral value ≈ €150,000: taxable IP base = €50,000.
• Valencian scale on €50,000 → ~€100 IP.
• ITSGF: Spanish-situs €1.2M, below the €3M threshold. €0.
• Total: ~€100 a year.

A €10M-net-worth buyer using Beckham in Valencia pays roughly €100 a year in wealth tax — where the same buyer as a standard resident in Valencia would pay several tens of thousands. This is the biggest single reason Beckham is worth six figures a year for the right buyer.

What counts as Spanish-situs wealth for a foreign buyer

For non-residents and Beckham filers, only Spanish-situs wealth is in scope. The important assets to know:

• Real estate located in Spain — the flat, villa, plot, commercial premises. Valued at the greater of purchase price, cadastral value, or valor de referencia (see our valor de referencia guide).
• Cash and deposits in Spanish banks — checking accounts, savings accounts, term deposits.
• Spanish securities and funds — shares in Spanish-resident companies, participations in Spanish investment funds, Spanish government bonds. Foreign securities held in a Spanish broker are a grey area; the substance test is where the issuer is resident.
• Vehicles, boats, aircraft registered in Spain.
• Art, jewellery, and other movable assets located in Spain above certain thresholds.
• Life insurance policies with a Spanish-resident insurer.

Not in scope for non-residents and Beckham filers:

• Real estate in any other country
• Foreign bank accounts, brokerage accounts, pension pots
• Foreign business interests
• Shares in foreign-resident companies (even if you are the sole shareholder)
• Foreign life insurance
• Cryptocurrencies held in foreign wallets or exchanges (Spanish crypto exchanges create a Spanish-situs debate; the safest assumption for now is that if a Spanish platform holds custody, it is Spanish-situs)

The line between "Spanish" and "non-Spanish" is the same line that makes Beckham valuable and the same line the ITSGF was designed to weaken for standard residents.

How Beckham changes everything (for the wealthy foreign buyer)

If you are a foreign buyer with meaningful wealth outside Spain and you plan to actually move to Spain and take up a qualifying activity, the Beckham election shrinks your wealth-tax exposure from "worldwide" to "Spanish-situs only" for both IP and ITSGF, for up to six tax years.

This is where the €120–140k annual salary saving of Beckham is often dwarfed by the wealth-tax saving. A €10M-net-worth buyer moving to Madrid without Beckham pays ITSGF on roughly €7M above the €3M threshold, which even in a bonifying region is a six-figure annual bill. The same buyer using Beckham pays a few hundred euros a year on their Spanish flat.

Two structural points that trip up buyers:

1. The Beckham election shrinks wealth-tax exposure the moment it is granted, not retroactively for the year you moved. If you move in July and elect Beckham in November, your 31 December wealth-tax position is Spanish-situs only. If you move in July and forget to elect until the following March (too late — see the six-month rule in our Beckham guide), your 31 December wealth-tax exposure is worldwide.
2. Year seven — the year after Beckham expires — is the year your worldwide wealth first counts. For a permanent relocator with foreign wealth, this is the year to have already restructured or moved wealth, chosen your final region of residence, and pre-planned the transition. Many long-term relocators leave a bonifying region before the year-seven cliff arrives.

Practical mechanics: modelo 714, modelo 718, deadlines

• Modelo 714 (IP). Filed alongside your personal income tax return in the spring following the tax year. So your 31 December 2026 net wealth is declared on the modelo 714 filed in April–June 2027. Filing is triggered when either (a) tax is owed after allowances, or (b) gross wealth (before allowances) exceeds €2M. Many residents with €2M+ of assets but €0 tax after bonifications still have to file the return.
• Modelo 718 (ITSGF). Filed in July of the year following. Same 31 December basis. Only triggered if net wealth exceeds €3M and some solidarity tax is due after credits.
• Modelo 720 (foreign-asset disclosure). Separate from wealth tax but related — a Spanish resident with foreign assets over €50,000 in any of three categories (accounts, securities, real estate) must file this in Q1 of each year. Beckham filers are exempt. Non-residents are not obligated.

A relocation tax adviser typically handles all of these together; annual cost for a straightforward high-net-worth filing is €2,000–€5,000, more for complex international holdings. Cheap relative to the tax at stake if you are in a high-collecting region; borderline optional if you are a Beckham filer or in a fully bonifying region with only Spanish assets.

Common mistakes foreign buyers make

• Registering their empadronamiento at the property before they have actually moved in. The empadronamiento date is one of the strongest evidences Hacienda uses to determine tax residency and, in dispute, primary-residence status. Registering in a high-tax region "because the paperwork was easier" and then living elsewhere is a recipe for disputes over which region gets to tax you.
• Assuming Madrid's 100% bonification means "no wealth tax". Since 2022, Madrid residents with €3M+ of wealth pay the state ITSGF instead of the regional IP. The saving vs Catalonia is real below €3M, real but smaller above €3M, and only widens again at very high wealth.
• Buying jointly in one spouse's name only. Splitting ownership between two spouses effectively doubles the €700,000 base allowance (each spouse has their own) and doubles the €300,000 primary-home allowance on the cadastral value. On a €1.5M home, that alone shelters an extra €300k of taxable wealth.
• Ignoring the €2M gross-wealth filing threshold. Even if you owe zero tax, gross wealth over €2M triggers a mandatory modelo 714. Missing the filing carries penalties even where no tax is due.
• Confusing purchase price with cadastral value for the €300k allowance. The allowance is against cadastral value, which is typically 30–60% of what you paid. Do not model your wealth-tax bill using the market price of your home.
• Assuming the Solidarity Tax will be repealed. It has now been extended into 2026 for the third time, and its constitutionality was upheld by the Constitutional Court in 2023–2024. Plan as if it is permanent.

How wealth tax should influence where you buy

For most foreign buyers with under €2M of net wealth, wealth tax is a rounding error and the region choice should be driven by lifestyle, price and connectivity — see best cities in Spain for expats and best month to buy in Spain.

For foreign buyers with €2M–€10M+ of net wealth who are considering actually moving to Spain and not using Beckham (retirees, NLV holders, self-employed with too much Spanish-source income), the region choice is one of the largest financial decisions of the move. Andalucía, Madrid, Cantabria and Extremadura zero the regional bill; Catalonia, Balearics and the Valencian Community collect materially; the middle band varies.

For foreign buyers using Beckham, the wealth-tax exposure is Spanish-situs only for six years, so the region choice is dominated by regional income-tax scales (which also vary), lifestyle and property price rather than wealth tax. Post-Beckham year seven, the same regional decision returns, and many buyers restructure their residence before it hits.

The short version

Spain has two wealth taxes in 2026: the regional Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio and the state Impuesto Temporal de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas. Below €700,000 of taxable net wealth (a much higher gross number once the €300,000 primary-home allowance and household splitting are applied), most foreign buyers owe nothing. Above that, the region you register in dominates the bill: Madrid, Andalucía, Cantabria and Extremadura are effectively zero for wealth under €3M; Catalonia, Balearics and Valencia collect materially. Above €3M, the state solidarity tax partially clawback-taxes wealth in bonifying regions, so the residence choice matters less at the very top than it does in the €700k–€3M band.

For the high-net-worth foreign buyer with substantial assets outside Spain, the Beckham Law compresses wealth-tax exposure to Spanish-situs only for six tax years and is often worth more in wealth-tax savings than in income-tax savings. Miss the six-month Beckham window and you inherit the worldwide-assets version of both taxes from day one.

Whichever bracket you sit in, the actionable step is the same: model the number in your intended region before you pick the region, not after you complete on the property.

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Buvivo helps foreign buyers find Spanish property without scrolling through portals built for the Spanish market. Post your requirements with your region shortlist and matching agents come to you — and if wealth-tax planning is part of the move, our partner network of Spanish tax advisers can sit alongside the property search rather than being bolted on after completion.

Related reading: The Beckham Law in 2026 · Spain property taxes explained · Modelo 210 non-resident tax guide · Valor de referencia, cadastral and market value · Cost of living in Spain for foreign residents 2026 · Spain visas for property buyers 2026