Marisa has three holiday apartments in Cádiz that she manages herself, with no employees. This year she paid a lawyer for a claim, a self-employed plumber for renovation work and a cleaning company. Her new adviser asked her whether she filed the 190, and Marisa did not even know what it was. It turned out she did not have to file it, and not because of the amounts, but because of something that comes first: she was not obliged to withhold tax from anyone. But had she been a self-employed person (autónoma) running a business rather than an owner, the lawyer's invoice would have taken her squarely into the form.
Modelo 190 is decided in two steps: first, whether you are someone obliged to withhold; then, whether you paid income of the kind that goes in this summary. The general picture of who withholds and when is on our self-employed in Spain page.
First filter: are you obliged to withhold?
Article 76 of the IRPF Regulation (IRPF is the personal income tax) lists who is obliged to withhold. For individuals, the key is that they pay the income in the course of a business or professional activity. A private individual who hires a lawyer for their divorce does not withhold. A self-employed person who hires that same lawyer for a matter concerning their business does.
Owners who let property without the letting being a business activity obtain income from real estate capital, not from a business activity, and so, as a general rule, they are not obliged to withhold on the services they hire. It is different if they have a person employed on a full-time employment contract to manage the letting, which is what the IRPF Act requires for letting to become a business activity: then everything changes, not least because that person receives a payslip with tax withheld.
Second filter: does what you paid go in the 190?
The 190 covers withholdings on employment income, business and professional income, prizes and certain gains and imputed income. Other payments with withholding go in other summaries:
| What you paid | Is tax withheld? | Quarterly | Annual summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A payslip to an employee | Yes, according to the tables | 111 | 190 |
| A professional's invoice (lawyer, architect, psychologist) | Yes, 15 %, or 7 % in the first three years | 111 | 190 |
| A trader's invoice (plumber, electrician, shop) | No, in general | — | — |
| Rent of premises for the business | Yes, 19 % | 115 | 180 |
| Interest on a loan from a private individual | Yes | 123 | 193 |
| A non-resident professional's invoice | Depending on the tax treaty | 216 | 296 |
| Remuneration of a company director or board member | Yes | 111 | 190 |
The difference between a professional and a trader is marked by the heading of the Business Activities Tax (IAE, Impuesto sobre Actividades Económicas) under which the person invoicing is registered: professionals are in the second section of the tariffs. An IT consultant, depending on their heading, may be on one side or the other, and it is worth checking their registration rather than assuming. How to choose and read headings is explained in IAE headings.
Three cases solved
Marisa, an owner with no business activity
She pays €1,200 to the lawyer, €3,500 to the plumber and €2,400 to the cleaning company. She is not obliged to withhold: she files no 111 and no 190. The lawyer invoices her without withholding.
Pedro, a self-employed photographer
He pays €4,000 to a lawyer over a dispute with a client and €2,000 to a graphic designer registered under a professional heading. He withholds 15 % from both: €600 and €300. He files the 111s for the quarters in which he paid and, in January, a 190 with two recipients and €900 of withholdings in total.
Ana, self-employed with one employee
She pays an administrative assistant a salary of €16,000 a year. Given the amount and the employee's personal situation, the withholding produced by the tables is low, but the employee still appears in the 190 with her pay and the corresponding withholding, even if in some month it was zero. Under the form's instructions, the summary includes recipients of income subject to withholding even if, because of the amount, nothing was withheld from them; it is something worth checking each year in the order in force.
If your case does not resemble any of these, tell us about it in the self-employed form and we will tell you which forms apply to you.
Less obvious payments that also end up in the 190
There is income that does not look like a payslip or a professional's invoice and that nevertheless carries withholding and goes in the annual summary:
- Courses, lectures and seminars. If your business pays someone to give a talk or a course, the IRPF Act treats that income as employment income with its own withholding rate, even if the person giving it is not your employee.
- Prizes. A promotional draw with a prize in cash or in kind may be subject to withholding or a payment on account when it exceeds the regulatory threshold, which for prizes is a base of €300.
- One-off work by a professional from another province. The professional being far away or invoicing only once changes nothing: if they are resident and registered under a professional heading, tax is withheld.
- Salary arrears paid in a year other than the one they relate to, which are declared with their own indication of the year they accrued.
In all of them the mechanics are the same: withholding on payment, payment in with the quarter's 111 and summary in the January 190.
Obliged to withhold even if the professional invoices without withholding
Filing 111s during the year and not filing a 190 is the combination that triggers the most warnings. If you withheld in one quarter, there is a summary in January, even if you paid nobody for the rest of the year. The Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, knows you filed 111s and expects the 190 to back them up.
You are obliged to withhold even if the person invoicing gets it wrong. If a professional sends you an invoice without withholding and you are obliged to withhold, the obligation is still yours: the Agencia Tributaria will claim from you the withholding you should have made. Accepting the invoice without withholding because "that is how they issue it" does not let you off.
And the 190 is not replaced by the certificate. Giving each recipient their withholding certificate (article 108.3 of the IRPF Regulation) is an additional obligation, not an alternative to the annual summary.
Ceasing to be obliged to withhold also shows: if you stop your business activity mid-year, the 190 for that year is still compulsory for what you withheld up to the date you stopped. Registration and deregistration are reported with Modelo 036, but deregistering does not exempt you from the January summary.
It is an annual return: it is filed for each year in which there were withholdings within its scope, even if the recipients and the amounts are the same as the year before. There is no automatic renewal, and it is not treated as filed because you filed it before.
The checklist, in order
- Do you pay that income in the course of a business activity, or are you an entity obliged to withhold? If not, there is no 190.
- Was any of the payments a payslip, a professional's invoice, a director's remuneration or a prize? If so, there was withholding and a 111.
- Did you file at least one 111 during the year? Then there is a 190 in January, from the 1st to the 31st.
- Are the recipients resident? If any of them is non-resident, their withholding goes through other forms.
Once you have answered all four, you will know whether it applies to you. What we cannot confirm without seeing the invoices is whether each recipient counts as a professional or a trader, which is where most doubts arise. If the situation worrying you is the opposite one, a 190 you have already missed, we cover it in I forgot to file Modelo 190.