Gift tax in Spain: parents giving to children in 2026

Which taxes apply when parents give money or property to a child in Spain?

Gift tax in Spain has two sides. The child pays the gift tax of their region, which in 2026 ranges from 1% of the tax in Madrid to a 5% to 9% scale in Catalonia. The parents pay income tax (IRPF) if they give away a flat or shares worth more than they paid for them.

This guide covers 2026 rules in common-regime Spain; the Basque Country and Navarre have their own foral rules. Spain's inheritance and gift tax (Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones, ISD) is a national tax, but its rates and reliefs are set by each region (comunidad autónoma), so the same gift can cost very different amounts.

The recipient pays (article 5 of the ISD law), on the market value of the gift; for property, on the reference value set by the Cadastre (Spain's property register for tax purposes), unless a higher value is declared (article 9). The national scale runs from 7.65% to 34%, but each region sets its own scale, reductions and rebates (article 48 of Law 22/2009).

Which region decides how much your child pays?

Article 32 of Law 22/2009 sets two rules for Spanish residents:

• Property: the rules of the region where the property is located apply.
• Money, shares, funds and other assets: the rules of the region where the child lives, meaning the one where they spent the most days in the 5 years before the gift (article 28).

One deed can involve two regions: a flat in Málaga is taxed in Andalusia and the cash that goes with it in Catalonia if the child lives in Barcelona. Each region applies to its part the average rate that would result on the whole.

If the child lives outside Spain, the second additional provision of the law lets them apply the rules of the region where the property is and, for movable assets located in Spain, of the region where those assets were kept the most days in those 5 years. A child resident in Spain is taxed on everything received, wherever it is located (article 6).

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How much does your child pay in each region in 2026?

The official summary is chapter IV of Regional taxation. Measures 2026 (Tributación autonómica. Medidas 2026), published by Spain's Ministry of Finance and updated on 23 September 2026. This table summarises the rule for a child aged 21 or over (kinship group II) and the condition that triggers it. Each law has further requirements.

The calculation always follows the same order: scale, a multiplier based on the child's existing wealth (article 22), then the rebate. For children, the multiplier is 1 up to €403,000 of existing wealth in Madrid and up to €500,000 in Catalonia, and reaches 1.2 above €4,021,000 and €4,000,000. In Catalonia, without a deed, the general scale runs from 7% to 32%.

Gifts from the same parent to the same child within 3 years are added together to set the average rate (article 30). Splitting a gift into pieces does not change that rate.

Do parents pay capital gains tax when they make a gift?

Yes, if what they give is worth more than it cost them: under the IRPF law, Spain's personal income tax, a gift creates a gain or loss for the giver. Article 36 takes as the transfer value the one used for gift tax (for a flat, the reference value or the declared value), capped at market value. From it you subtract the acquisition value: purchase price plus purchase costs and taxes (article 35).

The gain is taxed as savings income (article 46). Adding the national and regional scales in articles 66 and 76, it is taxed at 19% up to €6,000, 21% up to €50,000, 23% up to €200,000, 27% up to €300,000 and 30% above. It goes in the Renta return for the year of the gift, filed the following year.

Three more rules:

1. A loss does not count. If you give away shares worth less than you paid, that loss is ignored (article 33.5.c).
2. Giving cash creates no gain, because its acquisition and transfer values are the same.
3. The child starts from the gifted value. If the child later sells, their acquisition value is the gift tax value plus their own costs and taxes, not what the parents paid.

When the donor pays no income tax

• Family business. Article 33.3.c says there is no gain when giving a business or shares that meet article 20.6 of the ISD law: exemption from wealth tax, a donor aged 65 or over or with a permanent total incapacity or severe disability who stops running the business and being paid for it, and a child who keeps what they receive for 10 years. The child takes over the donor's acquisition value and date. The regional reduction may be better (Madrid applies 99% from 1 July 2026, with 5 years of holding and no companies that merely manage assets), but income tax looks at the national conditions. More in family business and family holding company.
• Main home of someone over 65. Article 33.4.b exempts the gain of people over 65, or in severe or great dependency, who transfer their main home. The Dirección General de Tributos (DGT, the Ministry of Finance's tax policy directorate) confirmed in binding ruling V1261-25 that this covers a gift, of full ownership or bare ownership, if the home was the main home for at least 3 years and still is or was within the previous 2 years.
• Inheritance. On death there is no gain for the deceased (article 33.3.b).

Is municipal plusvalía due when you gift a flat?

Usually, yes. It taxes the increase in value of urban land on any transfer (article 104 of the Local Finance Law), and on a gift the child pays it (article 106).

• Calculation: the cadastral value of the land times a coefficient based on the years held, up to a maximum of 20 years, or the actual gain if lower (article 107). Each town hall sets the rate, up to 30% (article 108).
• No gain, no tax: if the land has not gained value, the tax does not apply; on a gift, the comparison uses the value declared for gift tax (article 104.5).
• Deadline: 30 working days to declare it (article 110).
• No inheritance discount: the rebate of up to 95% that bylaws can give to children only covers transfers on death (article 108.4).

How do you gift money to a child without problems with the tax office?

With a paper trail and the right document. Many regions require the source of the funds to be stated in the document before they apply their rebate (Madrid, Andalusia, Castilla y León, Murcia and the Balearic Islands, among others). The deadline matters too: 30 working days from the day after the gift under the national rule (article 67 of the Regulation), which is the one that applies in Madrid. Catalonia (Catalan Tax Agency), Valencia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, the Canary Islands and Extremadura set one month.

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A family loan is another option, but it has to be real: a contract, a schedule and payments. If it is never repaid, the tax office can treat it as what it is, a gift, because in a sham transaction the deal actually made is the one taxed (article 16 of the General Tax Law).

Worked example: a €600,000 flat and €200,000 in Madrid and in Catalonia

Carmen (64) and Javier (66) have around €7 million across investments, property and a family business. They want to give their daughter Marta, 38, a flat they bought jointly in 2005 for €240,000, plus €20,000 of costs and taxes, whose reference value is now €600,000 (equal to market value), and €200,000 for renovation, €100,000 from each of their accounts. The flat is not their main home.

We compare the same family in Madrid and in Barcelona, with the flat and Marta in the same region for years. Marta has existing wealth of €300,000 and has received no gifts in 3 years; her parents have no other savings income in 2026. This is an illustrative example, not a forecast of your tax.

Step 1. There are two gifts of €400,000. Each parent gives their half of the flat (€300,000) and €100,000 in cash. If the flat were community property under a Spanish marital regime, the result would be the same: when both spouses give, there are two separate gifts (binding ruling V3751-15).

Step 2. Madrid. With Madrid's scale, a taxable amount of €400,000 gives a gross tax of €80,956.11. The multiplier is 1, because Marta has less than €403,000 of existing wealth. The 99% rebate takes off €80,146.55: €809.56 remains per gift and €1,619.12 in total. The deed for the flat includes the cash and its source, and Marta files within 30 working days.

Step 3. Catalonia. With a deed, the reduced scale gives €10,000 on the first €200,000 and 7% on the next €200,000: €24,000 per gift and €48,000 in total, with no rebate. The deed is signed within the month after the transfers and Marta files within one month.

Step 4. The parents' income tax, the same in both regions. Each transfers €300,000 of a flat that cost them €130,000: a gain of €170,000. That means €1,140 at 19% on the first €6,000, €9,240 at 21% up to €50,000 and €27,600 at 23% up to €170,000: €37,980 each and €75,960 for the two. The €200,000 in cash creates no gain. Javier's age changes nothing: the over-65 exemption only covers the main home.

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Step 5. Municipal plusvalía. Marta pays it. It depends on the land's cadastral value and each town hall's bylaw, so we do not estimate it.

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In Madrid, almost all of the cost is the parents' income tax; in Catalonia, Marta's gift tax weighs in too. If everything belonged to one parent, the taxable amount would be €800,000 and Marta would pay €2,000.06 in Madrid and €56,000 in Catalonia. And if the flat were the couple's main home, Javier's half would be exempt from income tax and Carmen's, at 64, would not.

Should you give during your lifetime or wait for the inheritance?

There are four pieces to compare:

• Income tax. Giving an asset that has gained value makes the gain taxable; inheriting it does not. In the example, that is €75,960.
• The child's tax. Each region's inheritance rules differ from its gift rules. Compare them in inheritance tax by region. Gifts made in the 4 years before death are added to the inheritance to set the average rate (article 30).
• Wealth tax. What you give leaves the parents' wealth tax base and enters the child's. See how it works in each region in wealth tax by region.
• Control. Once you give, the child becomes the owner and decides about the asset; the parents no longer do.

Where a region's own civil law provides for succession agreements with lifetime effect (pactos sucesorios, for example in Galicia or the Balearic Islands), tax accrues when the agreement is signed (article 24) and the law treats it as an acquisition on death: the person transferring pays no tax on the gain. But if the child sells within 5 years of the agreement, or of the death if earlier, they take over the transferor's acquisition value and date when these are lower (article 36 of the IRPF law).

Choosing between the options the law offers is legitimate tax planning (economía de opción). What does not hold up is a gift in appearance only, such as a flat the parents keep using as their own or money that flows back to their account: the tax office can declare a sham (article 16) or, for artificial transactions with no effect other than the tax saving, a conflict in the application of the tax rule (article 15). Document the reason and the payments.

Common mistakes

• Signing late. In Madrid, turning the gift into a public deed after the voluntary period loses the rebate; in Catalonia, the reduced scale needs a deed within one month of handing over the money.
• Forgetting the parents' income tax. In the example, it is the largest tax in the transaction in both regions.
• Giving an asset at a loss. The loss is not taken into account and is simply lost.
• Splitting the gift. Gifts from the same donor to the same child within 3 years are added together for the average rate, and Madrid's €1,000 and €10,000 thresholds also look back 3 years.
• Handing over cash. Without a bank trail it is hard to prove the source of the funds, and several regions require it for their rebate.
• Applying the wrong region. For cash, what counts is where the child has lived for the last 5 years, not where the parents live.

How Melso helps

Melso Private works with families with net wealth from €1 million on lawful tax planning, including gifts, lifetime inheritance planning and the family business. An AI reads deeds, returns and statements and models scenarios; tax advisers review them, choose the measures and stand behind them, and you see each one with its legal basis, risk and cost before you approve it. We coordinate with your notary and private bank, verify your identity and the source of your wealth as Spanish anti-money-laundering law requires, and file the agreed returns once you approve the exact version. The first conversation lasts 45 minutes and is free of charge: Request a conversation.

This article is for information only and does not replace professional advice for your case. Last reviewed: 18 October 2026.