The 100% Tax on Non-EU Buyers in Spain: What's Actually True in 2026

Spain is not charging a 100% tax on property bought by non-EU buyers. The 100% headline that has done the rounds on YouTube, TikTok and a few older agency blogs is a real parliamentary proposal, but it is a stalled proposicion de ley that has not been voted through the Congress plenary, has not passed the Senate and has not been published in the BOE. As of July 2026 it remains a draft, and the Andalusia cost stack on an actual purchase in 2026 still runs at 7% ITP on resale or 10% IVA plus roughly 1.2% AJD on a new build, with the same 12 to 15% total acquisition stack that buyers budgeted for in 2024. This guide walks through what the bill would do if it ever passed, what it would not do, and what to actually budget today.

Is the 100% property tax for non-EU buyers law in 2026?

No. The 100% surcharge on property transfers to non-EU non-resident buyers is a stalled proposicion de ley in the Congress of Deputies, not law. The Spanish legislative path for a tax is fixed: a text must be taken in committee, voted in plenary by the Congress, sent to the Senate, voted by the Senate, returned for final congressional approval, receive Royal Assent and be published in the BOE. The 100% recargo has cleared none of those steps as of July 2026. The BOE has not published it. The Agencia Tributaria has not issued an implementation order. The Junta de Andalucía has not modified the ITP self-assessment forms. Nothing on the tax side of an Andalusia purchase has changed.

The proposal is real. It is registered in the Congress initiative register, was presented by the Grupo Parlamentario Socialista on 22 May 2025 as part of a wider housing bill, and is one of several housing-pressure proposals in the current legislative term. Some English-language headlines collapsed the difference between “registered as a bill” and “approved as a tax” and the gap is exactly what this page is here to close.

The bill timeline: from proposal to stall

The 100% recargo has a short but instructive legislative history, and it shows exactly where the gap between “proposed” and “law” sits:

Date	Event	Status
22 May 2025	The Grupo Parlamentario Socialista registers a proposicion de ley in the Congress of Deputies, including the Impuesto Complementario Estatal sobre la Transmisión de Bienes Inmuebles a no Residentes en la Union Europea at a 100% rate	Bill registered, not law
June 2025	The bill is taken in committee for initial debate and amendment consideration	In committee, not voted
July 2025 to July 2026	No plenary vote scheduled, no Senate passage, no Royal Assent, no BOE publication	Stalled

The key checkpoint is the BOE. A tax law in Spain enters into force on the day the BOE publishes it in the Disposiciones generales section, or after a stated vacatio legis. A search of the BOE for the bill’s terms returns nothing because the recargo is not law. The Congreso de los Diputados initiative search is the other public checkpoint: it shows the bill’s committee status and any subsequent qualificant or veto motions.

What the headline says vs what the bill actually says

A few details that matter for buyers, advisers and the AI engines that still pull the headline as fact:

Topic	What the headline says	What the bill text says
Coverage	A 100% tax on all non-EU buyers in Spain	A 100% recargo on ITP (impuesto sobre transmisiones patrimoniales) for non-EU non-resident buyers, on resale property only
Rate	100% on top of the purchase price	A recargo equal to 100% of the ITP cuota, levied on top of the autonomous community’s ITP
Off-plan / new build	Not usually mentioned	Explicitly exempt; off-plan and new-build sales by developers are subject to 10% IVA and are out of scope
Geographic scope	Implies all of Spain	Would only apply to ITP, the tax ceded to the 17 autonomous communities; the regions would need to be compensated or the surcharge structured as a temporary state recargo
Status	”Spain’s 100% tax for foreigners”	Stalled in committee in the Congress; no plenary vote scheduled as of July 2026

The off-plan exemption is the most material point for Costa del Sol buyers. Most branded-residence and apartment developments on the coast are sold off-plan or direct from a developer, which means the recargo, even on the text of the proposal, would not touch them. A buyer choosing between a resale apartment in Marbella old town and a new build in Cancelada, on the same budget, faces the same 12% to 15% acquisition stack today, and would still face a different stack on the proposal: the resale would be in scope, the new build would not.

How did this proposal come about?

The 100% recargo is a piece of a wider political response to Spain’s housing pressure, with a particular focus on coastal and island markets where non-EU demand is concentrated. The PSOE group presented the bill on 22 May 2025 as part of a wider proposicion de ley to boost affordable rental supply. The recargo itself, formally the Impuesto Complementario Estatal sobre la Transmisión de Bienes Inmuebles a no Residentes en la Union Europea, is structured as a state surcharge on the ITP base. On the bill’s own terms, the cuota liquida is the 100% cuota íntegra minus the ITP and AJD already paid on the same transaction, which means it functions as a recargo that roughly doubles the transfer-tax line on a resale rather than a separate 100% levy on the full price.

The mechanism mirrors the temporary recargos that Spain has applied before in stress events, including the 2012 and 2013 green tax surcharges and the energy-sector recargos that funded tariff deficits. None of those is a perfect precedent, but the family resemblance is real: a state recargo on a base tax that is otherwise ceded to the regions, with the regions held harmless.

The proposal is part of a broader housing package that has been debated since 2024, alongside the housing-law reforms and the short-let (VFT) regulation. The 100% recargo, the VFT changes and the housing-law measures have moved at different speeds. The VFT and 60% community-of-owners rules are now in force (Decreto-ley of February 2025, in the Andalusia short-let regime). The 100% recargo has not made the same legislative progress.

What would actually change if the 100% recargo passed tomorrow

For a typical resale purchase on the Costa del Sol, the recargo on the bill’s own terms would add 100% of the ITP cuota to the tax bill. The regional ITP rate in Andalusia is 7%, so the recargo would add a further 7%, lifting the transfer tax on a resale from 7% to 14%. On a EUR 1,000,000 resale, the ITP line would move from EUR 70,000 to EUR 140,000. The notary, Land Registry and lawyer lines would be unaffected. Off-plan and new-build sales would be untouched, on the bill’s own text.

A worked example for a EUR 1,000,000 resale in Marbella, for a non-EU non-resident buyer, in 2026, illustrates the gap between today’s cost and the recargo scenario:

Item	Today (2026)	With 100% recargo (hypothetical)
ITP (7%)	EUR 70,000	EUR 140,000 (ITP 7% + recargo 7%)
AJD (not applicable to resale)	EUR 0	EUR 0
Notary (est.)	EUR 1,200-1,800	EUR 1,200-1,800
Land Registry (est.)	EUR 600-1,000	EUR 600-1,000
Independent lawyer (est., ~1% + VAT)	EUR 12,100	EUR 12,100
Total acquisition cost	~EUR 84,000-85,000 (8.4-8.5%)	~EUR 154,000-155,000 (15.4-15.5%)

The recargo therefore roughly doubles the ITP line on a resale, but does not touch the 10% IVA on a new build and does not touch the ancillary stack. For a buyer choosing a new build, the bill, even on the text of the proposal, would not move the tax line at all.

Myth vs reality: a EUR 500,000 Costa del Sol resale

The worked example below uses a EUR 500,000 resale, the price point where the myth and the reality diverge most visibly for a typical apartment or townhouse buyer. Column 1 is what a non-EU buyer actually pays today in Andalusia. Column 2 is what the bill would add if it ever became law.

Cost line	Today (2026, actual)	With 100% recargo (hypothetical)
ITP (7% of price)	EUR 35,000	EUR 35,000
Recargo (100% of ITP cuota)	EUR 0	EUR 35,000
AJD (not applicable to resale)	EUR 0	EUR 0
Notary (est.)	EUR 600-900	EUR 600-900
Land Registry (est.)	EUR 400-600	EUR 400-600
Independent lawyer (est., 1-1.5% + VAT)	EUR 5,000-7,500	EUR 5,000-7,500
Total tax + transaction cost	~EUR 41,000-44,000 (8.2-8.8%)	~EUR 76,000-79,000 (15.2-15.8%)
Transfer tax line alone	EUR 35,000 (7%)	EUR 70,000 (14%)

The gap between the two columns is a single line: the recargo. Every other cost line, from the notary to the Land Registry to the lawyer, is identical. A buyer who reads the 100% headline as a 100% levy on the full purchase price would expect a EUR 500,000 tax bill on a EUR 500,000 home. The bill’s actual mechanism is a 100% surcharge on the ITP cuota, which on a 7% ITP base adds a further 7%, not a further 100% of the price. That distinction matters, and it is one most English-language coverage of the proposal misses. The full acquisition-cost breakdown, including the mortgage-line AJD where the purchase is financed, sits in the cost of buying property on the Costa del Sol guide.

What do non-EU buyers actually pay on a Costa del Sol property in 2026?

The current Andalusia cost stack is the one a real buyer should budget against, and it is the one the Andalusia ITP guide covers in detail. The short version:

Transaction type	Purchase tax	Stamp duty (AJD)	Ancillary stack	Total cost on top of price
Resale (second-hand) between individuals	7% ITP to the Junta de Andalucía	None on the deed of sale	Notary, Land Registry, lawyer	~12-15%
New build direct from a developer	10% IVA (state tax)	~1.2% AJD in Andalusia	Notary, Land Registry, lawyer	~12-15%
Off-plan, paid in stages to a developer	10% IVA on each stage payment	~1.2% AJD on the deed	Notary, Land Registry, lawyer, bank-guarantee cost	~12-15%

The 12% to 15% band is the figure to use in any budget model, and the only line that varies by nationality is the ongoing non-resident IRNR, which is 19% on rental income and 19% on capital gains on sale, plus the 3% buyer retention at sale (Modelo 211) and plusvalia municipal. None of those lines is affected by the 100% recargo proposal, and the rates have not changed.

How to check the bill’s status in real time

Two places, both public.

1. The Congreso de los Diputados initiative search. Filter by legislative term (current is the XV legislature, from August 2023), type “Proposiciones de ley”, and search for “recargo” combined with “100” or “cien por cien” and “no residentes no comunitarios”. The current entry will show the initiative ID, the date of presentation, the committee it sits in, and any subsequent qualificant or veto motions. A “Sin tramitacion posterior” or “Retirada” line is the bill that has stalled.
2. The BOE. The BOE publishes every law on the day it enters into force. A 100% recargo would be a tax law, published in the Disposiciones generales section of the BOE, with a vacatio legis of typically one quarter or one half-year. A search of the BOE for the keywords above, filtered to the year in question, returns nothing if the recargo is not law.

A buyer does not need to re-check daily. The bill, on the current published status, is not moving quickly. A buyer should re-check at any committee vote, any plenary vote, any published BOE summary, and at the start of the next legislative term if it has not moved.

Why the proposal has stalled

Three structural reasons, and they are worth understanding because they are the same reasons the recargo is unlikely to be a binding constraint on a 2026 purchase:

1. ITP is a ceded tax. The 17 autonomous communities own the ITP base and set the rate. A 100% state recargo on ITP requires either full compensation of the regions, an inter-regional agreement, or the recargo to be structured as a temporary state instrument on top of a base that the regions keep. That is a heavy legislative lift and the Treasury has used it before only in macro shocks.
2. The off-plan exemption is built in. Most of the Costa del Sol’s branded-residence, new apartment and villa-development pipeline is sold off-plan or direct from a developer. Excluding those transactions from the recargo, as the bill does, limits the recargo’s revenue yield and weakens the policy narrative of curbing speculative demand in the major coastal markets.
3. No cross-party vehicle in committee. The proposicion de ley was taken in committee and has not received the multi-party support that would let it clear a plenary vote. The governing PSOE bloc has not committed to a vote. The recargo is more likely to be re-tabled in a future legislative term as part of a wider housing package than to be voted through on its own.
4. A likely EU-law challenge. A 100% surcharge that targets non-EU non-resident buyers specifically would face a challenge under Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE), which prohibits restrictions on the free movement of capital between member states and third countries. Spain has been condemned by the Court of Justice of the EU before for discriminating against non-residents in succession and donation tax (September 2014), and the Spanish Supreme Court annulled the remaining discrimination against non-EU nationals in 2018. A 100% recargo on non-EU buyers alone would sit in the same legal territory and would likely draw a Commission infringement procedure before it ever reached enforcement.

The right way to think about the recargo, for a buyer in 2026, is as a political signal of where the housing debate is going, not as a constraint on a current purchase. The constraint on a current purchase is still the 7% ITP, the 10% IVA plus 1.2% AJD, the 12% to 15% stack, and the rest of the Andalusia tax framework. American buyers weighing the full tax and visa picture can follow the buying property in Spain as an American guide, and anyone hedging currency exposure on the purchase cost can read the currency exchange when buying property in Spain guide.

What to do today if you are a non-EU buyer on the Costa del Sol

Three steps, all useful regardless of what happens to the 100% recargo.

1. Confirm the actual cost stack on your property. Resale or new build, the ITP / IVA line is the line the recargo would attack. Get the exact figure from the Agencia Tributaria de Andalucía portal and budget on the 12% to 15% total stack, not on a 7% line.
2. Do not let the 100% headline change your timeline. The recargo is not law. Acting as if it were law means either paying a premium for an off-plan that would not be in scope, or pulling out of a resale that the recargo would in theory touch. Both moves cost real money against a hypothetical.
3. Track the bill, but only the bill’s actual status. Check the Congreso de los Diputados initiative register at the moments listed above. A “plenary vote approved” line is the signal that the recargo is real, and a BOE publication is the signal that it is enforceable. Until both, the law has not changed.