Plusvalía Municipal on Mallorca: Calculate It and Claim It Back

If you sell, gift or inherit a property on Mallorca, you will run into a tax many people first hear about at the notary appointment: the plusvalía municipal. It goes to the town hall, not the national tax office, and it is due on top of capital gains tax. Because the calculation changed twice in 2026 and the planned increase was scrapped in the end, many people are currently paying more than they have to. This post shows you how the tax is calculated, which deadlines the municipalities on Mallorca set and how to get overpaid amounts back. How the sale works otherwise is covered in the guide to buying property on Mallorca.

What exactly is the plusvalía municipal?

The plusvalía municipal, officially the Impuesto sobre el Incremento de Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana (IIVTNU), is a municipal tax on the increase in value of the land under an urban property. Only the land is taxed, not the building. It arises on every transfer: sale, gift and inheritance.

Who pays depends on the occasion. This allocation matters for foreign owners because it can flip around at the sale:

• Sale: the seller pays.
• Gift: the recipient pays.
• Inheritance: the heirs pay.
• Sale by a non-resident: the buyer is liable, because the municipality must be able to reach a person within Spain.

The last point regularly surprises foreign buyers. If you buy from someone who is not resident in Spain, the plusvalía sticks with you, even if the purchase contract says otherwise. A private agreement with the seller only works between the two of you, not against the town hall.

How is the plusvalía calculated? Two methods to choose from

Since the ruling of the Spanish Constitutional Court of October 26, 2021 (STC 182/2021), the old flat-rate calculation may no longer be applied on its own. Real Decreto-ley 26/2021 then introduced two methods, and you may pick whichever is better for you:

Objective method (método objetivo): the cadastral value of the land is multiplied by a statutory coefficient that depends on the years of ownership. The result is the taxable base, to which the municipality's rate is applied. This method applies automatically unless you request otherwise.

Real method (método real): here the actual difference between purchase price and sale price counts, scaled down to the land share according to the cadastre. You must present both deeds and request this method explicitly.

Example: you bought an apartment in 2014 for 250,000 EUR and sold it in 2026 for 300,000 EUR. The land share according to the cadastre is 40 percent. The real land value gain is then 20,000 EUR. If the objective method produces a higher taxable base, you request the real one.

When you owe nothing at all

If the land did not gain any value between purchase and sale, the tax does not apply at all. That also holds for a loss, for example if you bought in 2007 and later sell below that price.

Important: the obligation to declare remains. Palma's town hall states explicitly that the transfer must be declared even when no tax is due, and that both the purchase and the sale deed must be attached. Skipping the declaration entirely risks penalty proceedings under the general tax law (Ley 58/2003).

Do I also pay the plusvalía on an inheritance?

Yes, but in Palma there is a 95 percent reduction when the main residence passes to a spouse or descendants. It must be requested within the deadline, and the heirs must keep the property for five years. More on this in our post on inheritance tax in the Balearics.

Deadlines and tax rate on Mallorca

The deadlines are short and run from the day of the transfer, not from any assessment notice. In almost all municipalities on Mallorca, the self-assessment procedure (autoliquidación) applies: you calculate the tax yourself, pay at the bank and file the receipt with the deed at the town hall.

Each municipality sets its own rate; the legal maximum is 30 percent of the taxable base. Palma uses this maximum in full, while smaller municipalities on the island are partly below it. So always check the ordenanza fiscal of your specific municipality rather than a figure from a generic online calculator. Municipal tax rates on Mallorca vary widely, and the same goes for the annual IBI property tax.

The 2026 increase did not happen: what that means for you

On December 23, 2025, the government adopted new maximum coefficients for the plusvalía through Real Decreto-ley 16/2025, effective January 1, 2026. For short holding periods under 15 years, that meant a noticeable increase.

Congress refused to confirm it. The resolution of January 27, 2026 was published in the BOE on January 28, 2026, so the decree was in force for only 35 days. Since then, the 2024 coefficients apply again.

In practice this means: if you transferred a property on Mallorca between January 1 and January 27, 2026 and were assessed under the new coefficients, you very likely overpaid. Some municipalities did not reset their calculators right away, so later assessments can be affected too.

Reclaiming overpaid plusvalía

The route depends on how the tax was assessed:

1. Self-assessment (autoliquidación): you request a correction, the rectificación de autoliquidación, and claim a refund of the overpaid amount. You have four years for this, counted from the end of the payment deadline.
2. Assessment by the municipality (liquidación): here a one-month deadline from notification applies for the appeal, the recurso de reposición. After that the assessment becomes final and is very hard to challenge.
3. Gather documents: the purchase deed, the sale deed, the paid autoliquidación and the cadastral extract showing the land share belong in every application.
4. File the application: in Palma at the Sección de Plusvalía at Plaça de Santa Eulàlia 9 or electronically via the Sede electrónica.

Conclusion

The plusvalía municipal is no side note when selling property on Mallorca; with a long holding period and a high cadastral value it can run into four figures. Three things save you the most money: compare both calculation methods, do not miss the 30 working day deadline, and file the zero declaration even when you sold at a loss. If you sold in early 2026, it is worth checking your assessment, because the briefly increased coefficients are void retroactively and the refund claim stays open for four years.