Sofía has been a self-employed graphic designer in Santander for a year. She works in a coworking space for which she pays 250 € a month, rents a parking space at 70 € a month for the motorbike she uses to visit clients, and a storeroom at 60 € a month to keep material for trade fairs; the parking space and the storeroom belong to the same owner, a neighbour in the building. A colleague told her that «if you pay rent for the business you have to do the 115», and Sofía wanted to know whether that was true, for which of the three, and from when.
The short answer is yes, but not for the one she thought. And the reason lies in a figure almost nobody looks at: the 900 € threshold is counted per landlord. Everything that follows applies in the common tax territory; in the Basque Country and Navarre income tax is governed by their own foral rules, with their own Modelos, and is checked there.
The three questions that decide the 115
There is an obligation to withhold and file the 115 when three conditions are met at the same time:
- You pay rent on an urban property. Commercial premises, an office, a warehouse, a parking space, a storeroom. Not rural land, nor a service that simply happens to be provided in a building.
- You pay it as a businessperson, professional or entity. If you rent as a private individual, for yourself, there is no withholding, even if the landlord is a company.
- You are not in any of the exceptions in the income tax (IRPF) regulations. The most common: rents that do not exceed 900 € a year paid to the same landlord; a landlord who shows they are registered in the heading of the Impuesto sobre Actividades Económicas (the business activities tax) for letting premises with a non-zero charge; and housing rented by a company for its employees.
Sofía's three rentals, with numbers
| Rental | Per year | A lease of property? | Withholding? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coworking desk | 3,000 € | Depends on the contract | If it is, 570 € a year |
| Parking space | 840 € | Yes | Yes: same landlord, 1,560 € a year, above 900 €. Withholding of 296.40 € |
| Storeroom | 720 € | Yes |
The 900 € threshold is measured per landlord, not per property. Separately, the parking space and the storeroom would both be below it and there would be no withholding. Together, because they belong to the same owner, they add up to 1,560 € and the withholding covers both: 1,560 × 19 % = 296.40 € a year, 74.10 € a quarter. It is one of the things almost nobody checks: two small contracts with the same person can oblige you to withhold.
If the two belonged to different owners, each below 900 €, Sofía would have no 115 for them. And since the figure that counts is the annual one, if a contract starts mid-year or the rent goes up, you have to foresee from the start whether the threshold will be exceeded, because withholding from November onwards leaves the previous months without withholding.
The coworking desk: what is contracted, not what the invoice says
A place in a shared space can be two very different things. If the contract grants the use of a specific, defined space, an office or an identified room, it is a lease of property and carries withholding. If what is contracted is a service, with a desk that changes, reception, meeting rooms by the hour, cleaning and internet, the tax treatment may be that of a supply of services, without withholding. The label on the invoice does not decide; the content of the contract does. In Sofía's case, the contract spoke of a «flexible desk» with no assigned space and services included, and the conclusion was that she did not withhold on it. It is a ten-minute analysis with the contract in front of you, and it is best done before the first invoice.
If you have similar rentals and do not know which ones count, describe them in the self-employed form and we will tell you which carry withholding and from which quarter.
Cases that often lead to mistakes
- Working from the flat you rent and live in. The contract is a residential one and you sign it as a private individual. Using one room as a studio does not, on its own, turn the rental into a lease of business premises. It is an area with nuances, especially if the contract mentions the activity, and it is looked at case by case.
- The landlord lives abroad. There is no 115, but there is withholding: that of the Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes (non-resident income tax), paid in with Modelo 216.
- The landlord is a joint ownership (comunidad de bienes) or an undivided estate. There is still withholding, even though there is no particular individual on the other side.
- A warehouse on an industrial estate, outside the town centre. What decides whether it is urban is its cadastral classification, not where it is. Warehouses on industrial estates are almost always urban properties.
If you have gone some time without withholding and have only just realised
This is the most frequent situation when someone asks this question after a year in business. If the rent carried withholding and you did not make it, the obligation for past quarters is still alive and is put right by filing those 115s late, with the recargo (the surcharge for filing late unprompted) that applies to each one and no penalty if you do it before any request from the tax office. It is developed, with a three-year case, in what to do if you forgot to file the 115. What is not advisable is simply starting to withhold from now on and leaving the past as it is: the landlord will declare what you certify to them, and the gap from the earlier quarters will still be there.
The obligation to withhold on rent is notified in the census of businesses (censo de empresarios) on Modelo 036, which since February 2025 is the only one, because the 037 was abolished. If it is not ticked, the Agencia Tributaria does not expect your 115, but that does not mean you do not have to file it: it means nobody will tell you it is missing until they detect it another way, usually through the landlord's own return. Ticking it when the first rental with withholding begins, and unticking it when the last one ends, is what keeps the census and reality in step.
It happens often, especially with private landlords who do not want any fuss. The obligation to withhold is the tenant's and is imposed by law; if you do not withhold, Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority) claims from you what you should have withheld. The only thing that exempts you is one of the exceptions in the regulations, proved with documents, not with words.
What is filed, and when
With the parking space and the storeroom, Sofía will file a 115 every quarter, from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January, with 74.10 € of withholding, and in January Modelo 180 with the details of the landlord and of the two properties. Her monthly payment to the neighbour becomes 130 € of rent, plus 27.30 € of VAT, minus 24.70 € of withholding: 132.60 €. VAT appears because renting a parking space and a storeroom that are not let together with a home is not exempt, something many private landlords do not know and which obliges them to meet their own obligations. The neighbour will receive a certificate every year with the 296.40 € withheld, which he will deduct in his income tax return. The overall picture of the withholding a self-employed person makes is in the guide to Modelos 111 and 115, and the first-year calendar in the calendar of returns for your first year as an autónomo.