On the day you register as self-employed, a calendar begins that nobody has taught you to read. Tax forms appear that did not exist for you before, quarterly deadlines that forgive nothing, and an income tax return (the one for the following year) in which unemployment benefit and the income from your activity meet for the first time. This guide walks through that first quarter from registration, and then the first April, when the Spanish annual return season opens.
What follows describes the usual case for a service activity under simplified direct assessment (the standard way a small self-employed business works out its profit from real income and expenses). If your case involves withholding, intra-EU transactions, sales to consumers in other EU countries or an activity code with its own rule, there are variations, and they are worth looking at before the first quarter, not after.
Week zero · Registration, and the form that no longer exists
There are two separate registrations and they are not interchangeable. The census registration with Hacienda, the tax authority, which declares what activity you will carry on, under which code and with which obligations; and registration in the RETA, the special social security scheme for self-employed workers, which is what generates your monthly contribution.
The census registration is done today with the Modelo 036. The Modelo 037, the simplified version many people will remember, was abolished from 3 February 2025 by Order HAC/1526/2024: there are no longer two forms, there is one. If someone sends you off to file a 037, the information they are working from is out of date. The step-by-step is in registering as self-employed, step by step and on the page on how to register as self-employed.
In that same step you choose your IAE code (the activity heading under the Spanish business activity tax), which determines whether your invoices carry withholding, whether you can deduct certain expenses and how the authorities see you. Choosing it in a hurry is one of the hardest things to correct later: we deal with it in how to choose your IAE code.
If you are coming from drawing contributory unemployment benefit, the order is the SEPE, the state employment service, first and registration afterwards. The pago único, the lump-sum payment, is applied for with a date before the activity starts, and compatibility within the fifteen days that follow. It is set out in the three routes, and arriving here without having sorted it out is the first mistake.
From day 1 to day 90 · What to do each week
- Number your invoices from one. A consecutive series, with all the mandatory details and the VAT that matches your activity. If you invoice in a foreign currency, the exchange rate has its own rules: here.
- Keep expense invoices in your name and with your NIF, your Spanish tax number. A till receipt without your details is not deductible, however real the expense.
- Keep the record books of income, expenses and capital assets from the first entry, not in March.
- Check whether you need the ROI, the register of EU intra-community operators, before invoicing a business in another EU country, because registration is not immediate: registering in the ROI and VIES.
- Look at your contribution. Under the system of contributions based on real income, it is worth reviewing the band you chose, because it is adjusted afterwards: how it works. And if you qualify, check the flat rate (tarifa plana), which is compatible with the lump sum: they are benefits from different administrations.
The first quarter you file
Quarterly returns are filed in the first twenty days of the month after the end of each quarter, with the well-known exception of the fourth quarter, which goes in January and runs until the 30th. These are the ones that usually appear:
| Form | What for | When it affects you |
|---|---|---|
| 303 | VAT self-assessment: VAT charged less VAT paid | If your activity is not exempt from VAT. Detail in Modelo 303 |
| 130 | Income tax instalment, an advance on the profit built up so far | Unless the exception explained below applies to you. Here |
| 111 and 115 | Withholding that you make: on professionals, on employees, or on the rent of your premises | Only if you withhold from someone: Modelos 111 and 115 |
| 349 | Declared intra-EU transactions | If you invoice EU businesses while on the ROI |
And the one almost nobody expects: the Modelo 390, the annual VAT summary, in January, together with the fourth-quarter return as applicable, plus the annual withholding summary if there was any withholding. A self-employed worker's first January is always busier than the three previous quarters put together.
The Modelo 130 exception that saves many people the paperwork
Article 109.2 of the Income Tax Regulations (the IRPF regulations) provides that taxpayers carrying on professional activities are not required to make instalment payments if, in the previous calendar year, at least 70 % of the activity's income was subject to withholding or payment on account. And paragraph 5 of the same article solves the first-year problem: when an activity starts, what counts is the percentage of income subject to withholding or payment on account during the period the instalment refers to.
Applied to the first quarter: if you are a professional and your clients are Spanish businesses that withhold on your invoices, it is quite possible you will not have to file the 130. If your clients are private individuals or are outside Spain, there is no withholding and the 130 does appear. It is the first question to answer before the 20th.
Unemployment benefit and the year's income tax
Here is the surprise almost everyone gets, and it depends on the route chosen with the SEPE.
| Route | How it enters your income tax |
|---|---|
| Lump sum | Exempt under article 7.n) of the Spanish Income Tax Act, on condition that the activity is kept going for five years, or the share or stake where applicable |
| Compatibility | Employment income, which sits in the same tax year alongside the income from your business activity |
| Suspension | No benefit received this year: nothing to declare under this heading |
When you use compatibility, two payers of employment income appear in the year (the former employer and the SEPE), and that lowers the threshold above which you are obliged to file a return compared with the one that applies with a single payer. We do not give the figure here because it has been updated over time and should be checked for the specific year in the rules in force, not on a website.
Unemployment benefit is employment income subject to withholding, but with the usual amounts the rate that comes out of the table is usually zero. The money arrives in full and gives a feeling of tidiness that does not match reality: that income tax appears in full in the following year's return. You can ask the payer to apply a higher withholding rate than the one that results, and in this scenario it is a very sensible request.
The first income tax return
In the following year's filing season, three things sit together for the first time: the salary for the months you worked as an employee, the unemployment benefit if it was not taken as a lump sum, and the net profit from your activity. The general base adds all three together, and the average rate goes up. The return often shows tax to pay, even in a year in which you earned less than the year before, because no payer withheld with the whole picture in mind.
That is why the moment to do the calculation is March of the current year, not June of the following one. With the numbers in front of you, you can adjust the instalment payments, ask for a higher withholding rate, or simply set the money aside. Any of the three is better than finding out at the end.
And if the result is high and there is no cash, the debt can be split into instalments or deferred, with its own requirements and its own cost: it is covered in deferring or splitting a tax debt.
If you also received the lump sum
The amount came in whole, with nothing withheld, and it is not declared as income because it is exempt. But the five-year commitment starts running from that moment and has to be noted: keeping the activity (or the share or stake, depending on the case) going for that period. If the business closes earlier, the right course is to claw back the tax benefit in the relevant return.
There is also an accounting effect that surprises people: the lump-sum money is not income of the activity and is not entered in the income book. It is an exempt benefit that goes into your personal assets and is put towards the declared investment. What is reflected in the activity is the investment financed with it, with its depreciation rules if it consists of capital assets. Mixing the two in the books later complicates both the proof of use before the SEPE and the deduction of depreciation.
What should be settled before the 20th
A short checklist: the right activity code and census obligations consistent with what you really do; invoices numbered and books up to date; clarity on whether the 130 applies to you or not; the ROI sorted if you are going to invoice abroad; your contribution band reviewed; and the effect of the benefit on your income tax calculated. With that, the first quarter is a formality.
If you would rather we handled it from the start, the form for this service covers the unemployment benefit and the registration, and the recurring work is in our service for the self-employed. The full calendar for the first year is in this guide.