Ecotasa for Holiday Rental Owners: Modelo 017 and Deadlines

If you rent out a holiday apartment on Mallorca, you have to collect the Ecotasa from your guests and pass it on to the Balearic tax agency ATIB. That applies to every tourist rental, including the small flat that only goes on Airbnb over the summer. Many owners keep putting the registration off, yet the effort is manageable: you register once with Modelo 017, and after that, under the standard procedure, the ATIB even does the calculation for you. This post explains the registration step by step, the current rates and all the deadlines. The basics of renting out legally are in the guide to holiday rentals on Mallorca.

What the Ecotasa is and who has to pay it over

The Ecotasa is the tourist tax of the Balearic Islands. Its official name is Impuesto sobre Estancias Turísticas (ITS), it has been in force since 1 July 2016, and it taxes every overnight stay in a tourist establishment on Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The revenue goes into a fund for sustainable tourism.

The guest pays the tax, the owner passes it on. Law 2/2016 calls the operator of the accommodation the sustituto, the substitute taxpayer: you collect the Ecotasa from your guests and forward it to the Agència Tributària de les Illes Balears (ATIB). The person responsible is whoever appears as the landlord in the rental contract, whether that is the owner or a management company acting on their behalf.

One point surprises many people: the tax obligation is not tied to the ETV licence. The law expressly covers apartments that are marketed to tourists without meeting the requirements for it. Anyone renting out without a licence risks a fine under the tourism law and on top of that is evading the Ecotasa. What you face without a licence is covered in the post on the ETV licence and illegal holiday rentals.

How much you charge your guests

The rate depends on the category of accommodation and ranges net from 1 EUR (hostels, campsites) to 4 EUR (five-star hotels) per person per night. Holiday apartments are at 2 EUR. All rates carry 10 percent IVA on top. An increase discussed in 2025 has not come into force so far; as of August 2026 the rates remain unchanged.

A worked example: two adults and a twelve-year-old stay ten nights in July. Each adult pays eight nights at 2 EUR and two nights at 1 EUR, 18 EUR in total. The child is exempt. That makes 36 EUR plus 10 percent IVA, so 39.60 EUR for the whole stay.

Step by step: registering with Modelo 017

Modelo 017 is the census declaration for the Ecotasa. You use it to register your apartment with the ATIB, to change the details later, or to deregister the activity. It is filed exclusively online via the ATIB page on the tourist tax; the agency does not accept paper forms.

Objetiva or Directa: two ways to settle

For holiday apartments the estimación objetiva is the standard. The ATIB calculates the annual tax itself from two figures in your registration: the number of beds and the period per year during which the apartment is available for rent. What counts is availability, not actual occupancy. The first two beds count in full, each additional one only at 35 percent, because the method factors out occupancy by children on a flat-rate basis. If your rental period changes compared with your registration, you report it in January of the following year via Modelo 017; otherwise there is nothing to do.

The alternative is the estimación directa. Then you settle based on the amounts actually collected: four quarterly returns with Modelo 700, each from the 1st to the 20th of April, July, October and January, plus an annual summary with Modelo 790 in January. You also have to keep registers of all guest declarations and payment receipts. Switching happens through an express waiver in Modelo 017, binds you for at least two years and applies to all your properties at once. For a single holiday apartment it rarely pays off; it becomes interesting when the apartment is occupied much less than the flat-rate method assumes.

Receipts and frequently asked questions

Your guests can ask for proof of the Ecotasa paid, either as a separate line on the invoice or as a separate receipt. The receipt must be numbered consecutively and contain at least:

• registration number and location of the apartment
• your tax number as landlord
• name and ID or passport number of at least one guest
• number of nights, rate applied and any exemptions
• the amount collected

Under the estimación directa you also have to keep evidence for exemptions, for children a copy of the ID or the family record book, for example. And one more distinction: the Ecotasa registration replaces neither the ETV licence nor the nationwide NRA registration number, which has been mandatory for platform listings since July 2025. More on that in the post on the NRA registration number.

Do I have to pay the Ecotasa even without an ETV licence?

Yes. Law 2/2016 expressly taxes apartments that are rented out to tourists without authorisation. The missing licence does not protect you from the tax obligation; it comes on top as a separate fine risk.

What happens if I have skipped the registration for years?

The ATIB can claim the tax for the years not yet time-barred, usually four years in Spain, plus surcharges and interest. A voluntary late registration through a gestoría almost always works out cheaper than waiting for an audit.

Conclusion

There is no way around the Ecotasa for holiday rental owners on Mallorca, but the effort stays within limits. Once properly registered with Modelo 017, the standard procedure leaves you with one tax assessment a year and the payment between May and June. What you need to watch is above all the silent publication of follow-up assessments in the official gazette and charging your guests the correct rate. If you have both under control, or hand them to a gestoría, the tourist tax means little work. The wider legal framework of your rental, from the licence to the tax on rental income, is in the guide to holiday rentals on Mallorca.