Irene is a self-employed photographer in Barcelona. In 2025 she filed her four Modelo 303 returns (the quarterly VAT return) on time, the last one on 28 January 2026, and considered the year closed. In September, when she applied for a loan to refurbish her studio, the bank asked her for «the annual VAT summary». Irene did not know what they were talking about. She had not filed the Modelo 390 for 2025, which was due on 30 January, and looking on the online tax office she saw that she had not filed the 2024 one either.
Her first reaction was to calculate surcharges. There was no need: the 390 involves no payment, and where there is no amount to pay, the article 27 recargo, the surcharge for filing late unprompted, has nothing to apply to. What had to be looked at was something else.
What the 390 is, and why forgetting it costs little… sometimes
Modelo 390 is the annual VAT summary return. It gathers in a single document what was declared quarter by quarter on the 303s, in more detail: the volume of transactions, the VAT on capital goods, the pro rata if there is one, and the activity each transaction belongs to. It is filed from 1 to 30 January of the following year, at the same time as the fourth-quarter 303 but as a separate return.
Because it carries no tax, filing it late does not generate a recargo. What it can generate is a penalty for not filing on time a return that causes no financial loss, which article 198 of the Ley General Tributaria (the General Tax Act) punishes with a fixed fine of 200 €. If it is filed late but without a prior request from the tax office, the fine is halved: 100 € for each year. These are the figures in the current text of the Act, which it is worth confirming in its consolidated version. For Irene, in the worst case, 200 € for the two years.
If Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority) had sent a request first, the fine would be the full one, 200 € per year, and ignoring the request would add another offence. That is why the rule is the same as for any other lapse: move before they write. What counts as a request (requerimiento) is explained in this guide.
Before filing, reconcile
What really matters in an overdue 390 is not the fine but that the figures fit. This Modelo is the tool the Administration uses to compare the full year with what was declared each quarter. A summary that does not match the sum of the four 303s is one of the signals that opens the most VAT checks. These were Irene's figures for 2025:
| Quarter | Taxable base | Output VAT (21 %) | Deductible VAT | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 9,800 € | 2,058 € | 640 € | 1,418 € |
| Second | 12,400 € | 2,604 € | 910 € | 1,694 € |
| Third | 7,200 € | 1,512 € | 1,120 € | 392 € |
| Fourth | 14,600 € | 3,066 € | 780 € | 2,286 € |
| Year (390) | 44,000 € | 9,240 € | 3,450 € | 5,790 € |
The check is arithmetic: 44,000 × 21 % = 9,240 €, and 9,240 − 3,450 = 5,790 €, which matches the sum of the four results. If the total had not matched in any quarter, the right thing would have been to correct that 303 first and then file the 390 with the correct figures, never the other way round.
What almost nobody tells you: the 390 asks for things the 303 does not
Irene's deductible VAT for the third quarter included 882 € on a 4,200 € camera. All fine on the 303, where input VAT is declared as a block. But the 390 separates the VAT on capital goods, which are durable goods of more than 3,005.06 € per unit, because their deduction may have to be adjusted over the following years if their use changes. In Irene's annual summary those 882 € have to be broken out from the other 238 € of the quarter. If that is not done, the 390 adds up in the total but says something false in the detail.
The annual summary also records the year's volume of transactions and the activity code. These are figures that do not appear in the quarterly returns and that the Administration later uses for other purposes, from classifying the taxpayer to comparing with what their clients declare. Filling them in hastily, copying last year's, is a way of creating a problem that did not exist.
And there is one last detail that explains why the bank wanted it: the 390 is the document that sums up a self-employed person's activity over a year with official figures. Banks, landlords of business premises and some public bodies ask for it as proof of income. Not filing it is not only a breach: it is not having the paper when you need it.
Not everyone who files the 303 files the 390. Those left out include, among others, people taxed only under the simplified regime (régimen simplificado) or only for letting urban property, in exchange for completing the additional information on the fourth-quarter 303, and those who keep their books through the Suministro Inmediato de Información (SII, the immediate supply of invoice data system). If that was your case, there is nothing to file and no fine. The exact list is in the order governing the Modelo, which should be checked in its current version.
The two years do not weigh the same
The 2025 summary is eight months late; the 2024 one, more than a year and a half. The fine is the same for both, but the risk is not. VAT for 2024 is still open to review quarter by quarter, until four years after the end of each one's filing period, and a year without an annual summary is a year the Administration has not seen closed. If, in addition, there is a balance to carry forward from 2024 that has been used in 2025, that carry-forward rests on a year without a summary, and justifying it is harder. That is why, when several years are missing, you start with the oldest: it is the one that supports the ones after it.
A particular case is the year you deregister. Anyone who stopped their activity in June still has to file the 390 for that year, with the quarters in which they were registered. Deregistering from the census closes the future, not the year already lived, and it is one of the most common lapses precisely because it comes in January, when you no longer think of yourself as self-employed. If that was your case, the reasoning on this page applies all the same: file without a request and with the figures reconciled.
How Irene sorted it out, and in what order
- She checked that she was not exempt. Direct assessment, general VAT regime, no SII: she had to file.
- She reconciled the four 303s for each year with her books of invoices issued and received, before touching the annual summary. She found a December 2024 invoice declared in the first quarter of 2025. A supplementary return (complementaria) had to be filed for the fourth quarter of 2024, with its small recargo, and the first quarter of 2025 corrected. The table above already reflects that correction.
- She filed both 390s late, on the online tax office, with the breakdown of capital goods and the volume of transactions correct.
- She waited for any proposed penalty, halved because she filed without a request.
If you have annual summaries outstanding and do not know whether your quarters reconcile, tell us in the self-employed form. The real work lies in reviewing the 303s; with that done, the 390 is filed in an afternoon. The quarterly mechanics are in the guide to Modelo 303 for the self-employed.