Selling to another EU country is not simply selling VAT-free
A supply of goods to a business in another member state can leave without Spanish VAT, but the exemption does not apply because the invoice is addressed abroad. It applies where three things are met and can be proved. That the buyer holds a valid intra-EU operator number, checked against the European register on the day of the transaction. That the goods genuinely left Spain, with evidence of the transport. And that the transaction was reported on Modelo 349, the recapitulative statement of intra-EU transactions.
That return is not a piece of filler. It is what allows the tax administration in your customer's country to cross your figures against theirs. When Modelo 349 does not reconcile with what was declared on Modelo 303, the quarterly VAT return, or with what the customer declared at their end, the discrepancy surfaces by itself and arrives in the form of a formal request for information. The registration route is set out in registering on the ROI and VIES.
A customer of many years can lose their entry on the intra-EU operators register without telling you. Invoice them without VAT against a number that has lapsed and the exemption falls away, and the tax that was never charged is claimed from you, who can no longer pass it on. The check against the European register is made before each invoice, and the result is kept.
Exporting outside the Union is a different thing
Where the destination is outside the European Union there is no intra-EU supply: there is an export, and then the proof is not the transport document but the customs clearance. The transaction does not go on Modelo 349 and the paperwork supporting the exemption is the customs file. Confusing the two is common in businesses that sell to both, and it is fixed in the accounts before the year closes, not in the annual return. The two routes are compared in invoicing inside or outside the EU.
There is a second difference that shows up in the books rather than in the tax. An intra-EU supply and an export are reported in different boxes of the VAT return, and only one of the two feeds Modelo 349. A business that treats a container bound for a third country as an intra-EU supply does not necessarily pay a euro more, but it produces a Modelo 349 line that no foreign administration can match, and an unmatched line is a line somebody eventually asks about.
The greenhouse and the farming regime
A large part of the countryside here sits in the special VAT regime for agriculture, livestock and fishing, which charges no tax and instead collects a flat-rate compensation from the buyer. The problem appears as the business grows: there are transactions that fall outside the regime, there are turnover limits, and there is a line — processing the product, selling direct — that pushes you out. The percentages and the thresholds are revised and published, so we look at the ones in force for the year before deciding anything.
And when you do leave the special regime, everything else arrives at once: record books, Modelo 303 each quarter, the annual summary, and the right to deduct input VAT, which until then did not exist as such. It is a change of system rather than an adjustment. We take it in invoicing abroad from Spain.
Who writes to us from Almería
| Who | What gets looked at first |
|---|---|
| A producer selling to a German or Dutch customer | Validity of the European number, transport evidence and Modelo 349 against Modelo 303 |
| A trading company selling inside and outside the Union | Which transaction is an export and which is an intra-EU supply |
| A farmer inside the special regime whose business has grown | Whether they are still in, and what happens on the day they are not |
| A British or Norwegian owner with a house on the coast | Modelo 210 and the rate that follows their country of residence |
| A seasonal worker with more than one payer | Whether that obliges them to file, and why the return comes out payable |
Our way of working in Almería
With the books kept up to date rather than assembled at the year end, because in a business that invoices abroad the mistake is invisible until the cross-check lands, and by then it affects several quarters at once. We set the circuit up once — check the customer, keep the transport document, post the entry, file the return — and after that it is routine.
We work in Spanish, English and French, which matters here: a good share of the customers and the buyers do not speak Spanish, and although we write the replies to the administration ourselves, you are the one who has to understand them. Where an exemption rests on evidence rather than on certainty, we tell you what the evidence is worth and what is missing, and we do not guarantee how a review would end.
An Almería grower who only sells abroad: the VAT left waiting
A grower under the general VAT regime who sells his whole production to customers in Germany and the Netherlands, plus the odd load to Switzerland, charges VAT on none of his invoices: intra-EU supplies and exports are exempt, but with the right to deduct. Meanwhile, he pays VAT on everything he buys: plastic sheeting, seeds, fertilisers, greenhouse repairs. The result is a Modelo 303 showing a refund quarter after quarter.
| Quarter | Input VAT | Accumulated balance in his favour | What can be done |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 7,200 € | 7,200 € | Only carry it forward |
| Second | 5,800 € | 13,000 € | Only carry it forward |
| Third | 9,400 € | 22,400 € | Only carry it forward |
| Fourth | 8,100 € | 30,500 € | Claim the refund in the Modelo 303 due on 30 January |
Under the general regime, those 30,500 € cannot be claimed until the last quarter, and the tax authorities then have six months to pay before they owe interest. In other words: VAT paid in February that may come back to the account in the middle of the following year. For a farm that finances the season with a credit line, that is expensive money.
The monthly refund register, designed for Almería exporters like this one
Whoever joins the monthly refund register files Modelo 303 every month and can claim the refund at the end of each period, without waiting for January. In exchange, they move to immediate supply of information (SII): the VAT books are sent to the tax agency within a few days of each invoice, which exempts them from the annual summaries. Modelo 349, from 1 to 20 of the month after the period, remains compulsory and must match the 303.
| General quarterly regime | With monthly refunds | |
|---|---|---|
| 303 | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Refund | Only in the fourth quarter | Every month |
| Books | Kept and stored | Sent almost in real time |
| 390 and 347 | In January and February | Not filed |
The exemption on all those sales depends on proving that the goods left Spain. Since 2020 there has been a European presumption that helps: transport to another member state is taken as proven when the seller holds at least two non-contradictory documents issued by parties independent of each other and of the seller and buyer, such as the signed CMR, the haulier's invoice, the cargo insurance policy or the bank proof of payment for the transport. In a packing house loading lorries every day, those papers are filed with the invoice, shipment by shipment; they are not hunted for when the review arrives.
Registration is generally requested in November for the following year, and the tax authorities check before admitting anyone. Once inside, a delay in sending the books or a monthly 303 filed late can lead to exclusion and to penalties specific to the system. It only pays if invoices are recorded day by day; otherwise the cure costs more than the wait. Before applying, it is worth having the European side properly set up, as we explain in registering for the intra-EU operators register, and the engagement starts with the form for the self-employed with clients abroad.