Clara Espinosa is a career coach in Cádiz. She sells one-hour individual sessions from her website and takes payment through Stripe; some clients in the United Kingdom pay her through Wise and a few old clients still use PayPal. In the first quarter of 2026 she sold 50 sessions to private individuals in Spain at 121 € each, VAT included. When she came to prepare her 303 (the quarterly VAT return) and her 130 (the quarterly income tax payment on account), she opened her bank account and saw that Stripe had paid in quite a lot less than she had sold, in several grouped payments that did not match any particular sale. Her first idea was to declare what had reached the bank. It is the quickest way to make the figures stop adding up.
The income is the sale, not the transfer
A payment platform is an intermediary: it collects from the client, deducts its fee and pays you the rest. For tax purposes these are two separate transactions:
- Your sale to the client, at the full price. That is your business income and, if there is VAT, the base on which you charge it.
- The service the platform provides to you, for which it charges a fee. That is a business expense.
Declaring the net amount mixes the two and makes the second disappear. It also breaks the link between the invoices or simplified invoices you have issued and your returns: the sum of your sales will not match what you have declared, and the difference will have no explanation.
Clara's quarter, step by step
The fees we use are examples; each platform publishes its own and they vary with the type of card and the country.
- Sessions sold: 50, at 121 € VAT included.
- Base of each session: 121 ÷ 1.21 = 100 €. VAT on each session: 21 €.
- Total base for the quarter: 50 × 100 = 5,000 €. VAT charged: 50 × 21 = 1,050 €. Total collected from clients: 6,050 €.
- Assumed Stripe fee: 1.5 % of the amount collected plus 0.25 € per transaction. Percentage part: 6,050 × 1.5 % = 90.75 €. Fixed part: 50 × 0.25 = 12.50 €. Total: 103.25 €.
- Paid out by Stripe into the account: 6,050 − 103.25 = 5,946.75 €.
| Item | Amount | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Base of the sales | 5,000.00 € | 303 (VAT due) and 130 (income) |
| VAT charged | 1,050.00 € | 303 |
| Platform fee | 103.25 € | Expense in the 130 and in the expense record book |
| Amount paid into the account | 5,946.75 € | Reconciliation, not declaration |
| Error: declaring the net amount as the base | 5,946.75 ÷ 1.21 = 4,914.67 € | Base under-declared by 85.33 € |
The error in the last row looks small in a single quarter. Multiplied over years and by the volume of a growing business, it stops being small. And it does not cancel itself out: the fee no longer appears as an expense, but the VAT charged is also calculated wrongly.
The VAT on the fee
Here you have to look at the invoice each platform issues. The most widely used ones invoice European users from entities established in other EU countries, and they may classify their fee in two ways:
- As an exempt financial service. Article 20.One.18 of the Spanish VAT Law, in its letter h), exempts transactions relating to transfers, payment or credit cards and other payment orders. If the fee is exempt, there is no VAT to self-assess. Nor does it go into Modelo 349, the EU summary return, because article 79 of the VAT Regulations only includes services that are subject and not exempt.
- As a service subject to VAT. Then, since the supplier is not established in Spain and you are a business, you are the person liable for the tax (art. 84.One.2 of the VAT Law): you self-assess 21 % and deduct it in the same 303, and the transaction goes into the 349 as an intra-Community acquisition of services. That requires being on the register of intra-Community operators (ROI).
Which classification applies to each specific service is not always obvious, and we do not decide it here in the abstract. The practical thing is to download each platform's monthly fee invoice, see what it says and treat it consistently with that. The mechanics of self-assessment are in the guide to the reverse charge.
The platform's statement shows the fee, but it is not an invoice. To deduct the expense safely, it is best to download the invoice or fee document the platform issues each month in your name and with your tax number. If the platform account is in someone else's name or has out-of-date details, the expense and its VAT may be left without support.
Wise and accounts in another currency
With Wise the problem is usually twofold: the transfer fee and the currency exchange. If Clara invoices 400 GBP to a client in London, her income is the value in euros of those pounds on the tax point date, not what Wise leaves her after converting. The difference between that rate and the one applied on conversion is an exchange difference, and the conversion fee is another expense. We explain it with figures in what exchange rate to use for an invoice in dollars.
If you hold balances in a Wise account or with another institution outside Spain, remember that they may count for Modelo 720, the return on assets held abroad, together with your other accounts abroad; the details are in do I have to file the 720 if I do not reach 50,000.
Traceability: why Hacienda already sees these payments
Since 2024, payment service providers in the Union have had reporting obligations on the cross-border payments their customers receive, which are centralised in a European system (CESOP) that tax authorities can access. Your Spanish banks, for their part, report your accounts. This means that the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, may have a view of the money that has reached you through several channels. If your returns start from the net amount from each platform, without reconciliation, any comparison will show differences that you will have to explain.
The useful reconciliation, every quarter, has three columns: gross sales according to your record of invoices, fees according to each platform's invoices and receipts in the bank according to the statements. If the third equals the first minus the second, plus or minus refunds and exchange differences, your figures hold up.
If you have been declaring the net amount for some time, it can be rebuilt: each platform's reports are downloaded, the bases are recalculated and whatever is needed is corrected. You can send us those reports and your returns through the form for self-employed people with international clients. If you sell to private individuals in other EU countries, remember that the VAT on those sales may go through the One-Stop Shop.
How to organise payments from clients in several countries, with platforms, currencies and fees, is explained together with the other obligations on the Salama Tax page for self-employed people with international clients.