Lucía runs a language school in Córdoba as a self-employed person (autónoma). She has three teachers on the payroll, and in the summer she hired a lecturer for two intensive courses, with two invoices of 1,200 € each. Her Modelo 111 for the third quarter comes to 1,746 €: 1,386 € of withholding from the July, August and September payslips and 360 € from the lecturer, 15 % of his two invoices. October is the school's slow month, and she asked us two things: how exactly it is paid, and whether she could spread it over three or four months.
The first has a simple answer. The second, not the one she was hoping for.
The payment calendar: filing and paying go together
With the 111 there is no separate moment for declaring and another for paying. The quarterly return is filed from the 1st to the 20th of the month after the quarter, and the payment is made in the same act. What changes with the payment method is the last day on which you can choose it:
| Quarter | Filing period | Direct debit until | NRC or account charge until |
|---|---|---|---|
| First (January-March) | 1-20 April | 15 April | 20 April |
| Second (April-June) | 1-20 July | 15 July | 20 July |
| Third (July-September) | 1-20 October | 15 October | 20 October |
| Fourth (October-December) | 1-20 January | 15 January | 20 January |
When the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or national public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day, and the Agencia Tributaria (the Spanish tax agency) publishes the calendar with the exact dates every year. It is worth looking at it in January, not on the 19th.
Three ways to get the money there
Direct debit: convenient, but with five fewer days
You give the IBAN when filing and the bank charges the amount on the last day of the period. It is the most relaxed option, because the receipt stays linked to the return and there is no need to log in again. The condition is the date: it is only accepted until the 15th. The account has to be held at a collaborating bank (entidad colaboradora) and be in the name of the taxpayer; on the day of the charge there has to be money in it, because a returned direct debit leaves the return filed and the debt unpaid.
Account charge from the online tax office
If the 15th has passed, the usual route is to pay from the tax agency's own online office (sede electrónica): you identify the account, the online office talks to the bank and returns a full reference number, the NRC, which is added to the return. All in one session.
NRC obtained from the bank
The traditional route: you first pay through online banking, in the taxes section, with the exact Modelo, year, period and amount, and the bank gives you the NRC. Then you file with that code. An NRC is only valid for the return it matches in every respect: one cent out, or the period ticked wrongly, and the system rejects it.
When the charge does not go through
A direct debit can fail for lack of funds, a closed account or a mistyped IBAN. In any of those cases the return stays filed, which is what matters to avoid committing an offence, but the debt stays unpaid and moves into the enforcement period (periodo ejecutivo) the day after the deadline. The bank does not tell Hacienda it will try again, and Hacienda does not give a second attempt: the charge is made once.
What you should do if you find out the charge has been returned is pay as soon as possible, without waiting for the letter. The 5 % enforcement surcharge (recargo ejecutivo) applies if payment is made before the enforcement order (providencia de apremio) is notified, and payment is made with the payment document obtained from the online office for debts already assessed. The later you leave it, the more likely it is that the enforcement order crosses in the post and the surcharge goes up to 10 %.
The same care applies to the NRC: if you pay at the bank and then do not finish filing the return, the money has been paid in but the return does not exist. Hacienda does not have it, and the quarter shows as not filed. The NRC only does its job when it is added to the return and the return is sent; the receipt that matters is the filing receipt, not the bank's.
Lucía's sum, line by line
So that there are no surprises on the 20th, the amount is built up like this:
- Payroll: three teachers, 1,400 € gross a month each, with an average withholding of 11 % according to their circumstances. That is 154 € per teacher per month: 154 × 3 × 3 = 1,386 €.
- Lecturer: a professional invoicing courses, 15 % withholding. Two invoices of 1,200 €: 2,400 × 15 % = 360 €.
- Total of the third-quarter 111: 1,386 + 360 = 1,746 €.
The relevant thing about that sum is that Lucía has already paid the teachers and the lecturer their net amounts. The 1,746 € have been in her account since July, August and September. If she does not have them in October, it is not because the tax is expensive: it is because the withholding has been used to pay for something else.
Spreading it over three months: why the answer is no
Withholding is one of the debts that article 65.2 of the Ley General Tributaria (the General Tax Act) declares cannot be deferred. The waiver of a guarantee up to 50,000 € and the automated applications that work for income tax or for other debts do not apply here: the application is declared inadmissible and, for all purposes, it is as if it had never been filed. Meanwhile, the debt runs its course. We explain it with the full list in the debts that cannot be deferred, and how to apply for a deferral when it is possible in this other guide.
If there is no money on the 20th, what you have to do is file on time anyway, using the acknowledgement of debt option (reconocimiento de deuda) the form offers. Filing without paying is not an offence: the debt moves into the enforcement period the next day and carries a 5 % surcharge if it is paid before the enforcement order arrives. In Lucía's case that would be 87.30 €. Not filing, on the other hand, is an offence, and opens the door to a penalty when Hacienda detects it.
If you have a refund already recognised in your favour by the Agencia Tributaria, it may be worth asking for it to be set off (compensación) against the 111 debt. It is a different mechanism from a deferral, with its own requirements, and it is looked at case by case: do not take it for granted without checking that the credit exists and has been recognised.
What almost nobody tells you about paying the 111
The most common cash-flow mistake is not forgetting to pay, but planning the month badly. In January the fourth-quarter 111 coincides with the 303 (the quarterly VAT return), the 130 if you are under the direct assessment method and the annual summary in Modelo 190, which involves no payment but does involve work. Anyone with employees also adds the December extra month's pay, with its withholding, to the 111 paid in January. It is the largest payment of the year and it comes straight after the holidays.
The solution Lucía has used since then is to set the withholding aside on the same day the salary or the invoice is paid: a secondary account into which only the withholding goes and out of which only the 111 is paid. In October that account held exactly 1,746 €. If you would like us to review your calendar of returns and match it to your payments, leave your details in the self-employed form.
And one last practical detail: the payment receipt is issued by the bank or the online office, not by the employee or the professional. Keep it with the 111, because it is the proof that what you will certify to each recipient in January was actually paid in.