How to pay your income tax return (Modelo 100): NRC, direct debit and deferral

Thomas is a Dutch engineer who has lived in Málaga since 2024 and works remotely for a Spanish company. His first full income tax return, for 2025, showed €3,200 to pay because of some shares he sold and the low withholding in his first year. He did not have that money available on 30 June, because his extra month's pay and a bonus were due in July. His question was a practical one: how do I pay it, can I split it and what does it cost me?

The income tax return has more ways of paying than most taxes, and the best one for him was not the first one the program offers. This page goes through them, with the real date the money leaves your account in each case. If you are in your first year of residence, you will also be interested in our self-employed in Spain page, which summarises the annual obligations of individuals.

The five ways of paying the income tax return

Method	When it is chosen	When the money leaves	Cost
Direct debit of a single payment	Filing by the campaign's direct-debit cut-off date	The last day of the campaign	None
Interest-free 60/40 split	Filing on time	60 % at the end of the campaign; 40 % on 5 November	None
NRC or account debit on filing	At any point in the campaign	The day you pay	None
Acknowledgement of debt with an application for deferral	On filing, if you cannot pay within those periods	According to the timetable granted to you	Late-payment interest
Acknowledgement of debt with an application for set-off	If the tax office owes you a refund of another tax	It is deducted from what you are owed	None

Direct debit closes a few days before the campaign does. In recent campaigns the date has been 25 June, with the charge on the 30th; it is checked each year in the Agencia Tributaria's calendar. Anyone filing in the last few days can no longer set up direct debit for a single payment and has to pay with an NRC (the payment reference code the bank gives you) or from the online office.

The split almost everyone wastes

Article 97 of the IRPF Act (IRPF being the personal income tax) and the regulations developing it allow the result of the return to be split into two payments, 60 % on filing and the remaining 40 % by 5 November, with no interest or surcharge. Requirements: file on time and not have set up direct debit for a single payment. The second payment can be made by direct debit or with an NRC before that date.

Thomas's figures

1. Amount to pay: €3,200.
2. First instalment, 60 %: €1,920, charged on 30 June.
3. Second instalment, 40 %: €1,280, on 5 November.
4. Financial cost: zero.

Compared with an ordinary deferral of that €3,200 over twelve months, which would accrue late-payment interest (at an assumed rate of 4 %, around €70 spread across the instalments), the 60/40 split is free and does not require anyone to grant you anything. Its only limit is that the 60 % has to be in the account on 30 June. Thomas, whose bonus arrived in July, needed something else for that first payment.

When even the 60 % is not possible: deferral

If you cannot pay even the first part, the correct course is to file on time, ticking the acknowledgement of debt with an application for deferral or payment in instalments. An application made within the voluntary period prevents the debt from moving into enforced collection while it is being processed (article 65.5 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act).

• Guarantee: since 15 April 2023, Orden HFP/311/2023 waives the guarantee for debts of up to €50,000.
• Periods: for applications processed automatically without a guarantee, the usual maximum is 12 months; for individuals, the Agencia Tributaria's internal instructions of 2023 allow up to 24 in certain conditions. It is an administrative practice, not a right, and it is checked when applying.
• Cost: late-payment interest for the time deferred.

Thomas applied to defer the €3,200 for three months, falling due in September, after he received his bonus. He paid a few euros in interest. There is more detail in deferring within the voluntary period and in deferral of tax debts. If you would rather we organised it, tell us about your case in the self-employed form.

If your account is outside Spain

Direct debit, the NRC and account debit work through the banks that collaborate in tax collection, which are banks operating in Spain. Someone who has just arrived and still has all their money in an account in their home country finds themselves in the last week of June with no simple way of paying. The Agencia Tributaria does provide channels for payments from abroad in specific cases, but it is not wise to count on them at the last minute: the practical course is to open an account with a collaborating bank before the campaign and keep the money for the first instalment in it. If you pay by card from the online office, check beforehand that the payment gateway accepts your card; not all foreign cards work. And always keep the receipt with the NRC, which is the only proof that the payment reached the tax office and did not end up as a returned transfer.

Joint returns and payment

With a joint return, the debt belongs to both spouses jointly and severally. It does not matter which account it is paid from, but if it is not paid, the Agencia Tributaria can go after either of them. With individual returns, by contrast, each spouse pays their own, and it can happen that one has tax to pay and the other a refund due: the law allows the one due a refund to waive it so that it is applied to the other's payment, through the suspension of payment mechanism. It is worth deciding this before filing both returns.

Program options lost through habit

The 60/40 split is not available if you set up direct debit for a single payment, and the program only offers it on the final screen. Many people choose direct debit out of habit and lose the option.

If you do not pay the second instalment on 5 November, only that 40 % moves into enforced collection, with its surcharge; the first payment remains valid.

And residents arriving from another country often find their first return shows tax to pay for something they did not expect: a sale of shares or funds in their home country, or a withholding that was miscalculated. What was not expected does not have to be paid in one go if it is prepared in time.

And a deferral once granted obliges you to keep to its timetable. If you stop paying an instalment, whatever is outstanding moves into enforced collection with its surcharge, and any later applications you make are looked at differently. Ask only for the periods you will really be able to meet: a nine-month instalment plan that is kept is better than a twelve-month one that breaks down in the sixth.

Thomas paid in September, three months later than he would have had to pay with direct debit, and at minimal cost. If what worries you in your case is what happens when the tax simply is not paid, we cover it in what happens if you do not pay your income tax return.