Lucía is a self-employed architect in Valencia. During 2025 she paid three collaborators (a draughtsman, a building surveyor and a structural engineer) invoices with 15 % income tax withheld, and she filed the four quarterly Modelo 111 returns on time. What she did not file was Modelo 190, the annual summary that was due on 31 January 2026. She found out in May, when the building surveyor rang her, annoyed: her draft income tax return did not include the €2,700 Lucía had withheld from her during the year, and it showed tax to pay.
The good news for Lucía is that this oversight costs her no tax: what she withheld she already paid in with the 111s. The bad news is that Modelo 190 has its own penalty regime, different from the surcharge people know about, and that until she files it there are three people whose returns do not add up. The general picture of the obligations of a self-employed person (autónomo) who pays others is on our self-employed in Spain page.
Why Modelo 190 carries no surcharge
Modelo 190 is an information return: the annual summary of withholdings and payments on account of IRPF, the personal income tax, on employment income, business and professional income, prizes and certain gains and imputed income. Article 108 of the IRPF Regulation requires anyone obliged to withhold to file it, and it is filed from 1 to 31 January of the following year, electronically only. Nothing is paid with the 190: the money was already paid in quarter by quarter with Modelo 111.
Since there is no tax due, there is no recargo under article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act (the surcharge for filing late unprompted), which is calculated on what is paid late. What applies instead is the offence in article 198: failing to file an information return on time, without financial loss to the tax authorities.
What it costs depending on the moment
| Scenario | Fine per recipient | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late filing on your own initiative | €10 | €150 | €10,000 |
| Filing after a formal request, or not filing at all | €20 | €300 | €20,000 |
The law speaks of €20 for each item or set of data relating to the same person, with those minimums and maximums, and halves them when the return is filed late without a prior request from the tax office. In the 190, each recipient is one set of data.
Lucía's sums
- Recipients left out: three collaborators.
- If she files now, before the tax office writes to her: 3 × €10 = €30. As it does not reach the minimum, the fine is €150.
- If she waits to be sent a formal request: 3 × €20 = €60, which rises to the minimum of €300.
- The fine imposed can be cut by the prompt-payment reduction in article 188.3 (40 % if paid on time and not appealed): €150 would become €90; €300, €180.
These are small amounts, and that is exactly why the 190 gets left for another day. But the minimum applies per return and per year: if Lucía had also failed to file the 2024 one, there would be two fines. If you would like us to review yours, tell us about it in the self-employed form.
The one who discovers this oversight is not the tax office
The 190 has a peculiarity: the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, uses it to build each recipient's tax data. What you declared as a lump sum in the 111s (so much withheld from professionals, so much from employees) is broken down here person by person, with their tax number, the code for the type of payment and the amounts. Without a 190, the withholdings you made exist for you, since you paid them in, but they do not appear in the draft return of the person who bore them.
That is why the warning usually comes in April or May, with the income tax campaign open, and it comes from the recipient. They can still deduct the withholding if they prove it with the certificate you are obliged to give them (article 108.3 of the Regulation), but it is quite possible that the Agencia Tributaria will ask them to justify it and, by cross-checking the data, will get to you.
How to file a late 190 without breaking anything
- Reconcile it with the 111s first. The total of the withholdings in the 190 has to match that of the four quarters. If it does not, a 111 is missing or an amount is wrong, and that does involve tax: the 111 has to be put right first, with its surcharge. How the two relate is explained in Modelos 111 and 115.
- Check the tax numbers. A mistyped tax number means the withholding does not reach the recipient even though the 190 has been filed.
- Assign the codes correctly. Employees get one code and professionals another; mixing codes throws the recipient's draft return out.
- File through the online office, under the procedure for the year concerned, not the current one.
- Hand over the certificates to the recipients with the same amounts.
The mismatch that surfaces when preparing a late 190
A 190 filed late can be the occasion for discovering a more expensive mistake. It is very common for an invoice with tax withheld that never went through the 111 to turn up while the summary is being prepared, or a quarter paid with an amount that does not add up. That mismatch does involve tax, and tax withheld but not paid in is one of the things the General Tax Act treats most harshly. Better that you find it, in your 190, than the inspector in your 111.
And another point: the oversight is not fixed by putting last year's data in this year's 190. Each year goes in its own return; adding two years together in one throws out both years and every recipient.
When several years have gone unfiled
There are cases in which the 190 was not forgotten for one year but was never filed: self-employed people who started withholding from a collaborator and nobody told them there was an annual summary. The offence for each year becomes time-barred after four years, as does the Agencia Tributaria's right to penalise it, so the sensible job is to file the years that are not time-barred, each under its own procedure and with its own data, starting with the oldest. They are separate returns and each carries its own minimum fine if one is imposed, but filing voluntarily keeps all of them at half. How to put a regularisation of several years in order is explained in the order for regularising several years.
Once the formal request arrives, filing no longer halves the fine; the advantage of filing voluntarily is lost. Even so, answering the request on time prevents the failure to respond from turning into a different offence, that of resistance or obstruction, which is more expensive than the one for the 190.
Four signs that your 190 has a problem
- A collaborator or employee tells you their draft return does not show what you withheld from them.
- You receive a communication from the Agencia Tributaria about discrepancies between your 111s and the annual summary.
- You cannot find on the online office the receipt for the 190 for a year in which you filed 111s.
- You changed adviser mid-year and nobody confirmed to you who was filing the January summary. What to do if the letter has already arrived is explained in a letter from the tax office.
Lucía filed her 2025 Modelo 190 the following week, reconciled with the four 111s and with the certificates sent to the three collaborators. The fine, if it comes, will be the minimum for late filing. We cannot promise that the Agencia Tributaria will not impose it, but we can say that filing before it acts is what keeps it at that minimum.