Tomás is a programmer in Granada and has worked for himself since January 2026. In the third quarter he signed his first big contract: a Berlin start-up commissioned him to develop an app for €9,000. He also pays an Irish hosting company for a server every month, about €80, spends money on ads invoiced to him by the European subsidiary of a large search engine, €610 in the quarter, and uses a project management tool invoiced by a company in the United States. His adviser told him he had to file Modelo 349, the recapitulative statement of intra-community transactions. Tomás wanted to understand why, and which of all that went into it.
Three questions that decide whether there is a 349
Modelo 349 lists intra-community transactions, and it is filed when three conditions are met at the same time:
- The other party is a business or professional in another European Union member state, identified by its intra-community VAT number. A private client does not count, and nor does a company outside the Union.
- The transaction is one the law requires to be declared: intra-community supplies or acquisitions of goods, and supplies or acquisitions of services located in the recipient's country.
- You act as a business or professional, registered in the ROI, the register of intra-community operators.
If there is no such transaction in a period, there is no 349 for that period. Unlike the 303, the quarterly VAT return, it is not filed as a nil return.
What goes into Tomás's 349, line by line
| Transaction in Q3 2026 | Does it go on the 349? | Code | Effect on the 303 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development for the Berlin start-up, €9,000 | Yes | S (supply of services) | Declared as a transaction not subject to VAT in Spain; no VAT |
| Hosting from an Irish company, €240 | Yes | I (acquisition of services) | Self-charges €50.40 and deducts it: zero effect |
| Ads invoiced from Ireland, €610 | Yes | I | Self-charges €128.10 and deducts it: zero effect |
| Tool invoiced from the United States | No | — | Self-charged all the same, but it is not intra-community |
| A website for a private individual in Lisbon | No | — | A private individual is not an operator: as a rule, it carries Spanish VAT |
Tomás's 349 will therefore have three lines: the German client under code S for €9,000, and the two Irish suppliers under code I for €240 and €610. Each line carries the other party's VAT number, its country and the amount. Step by step:
- Identify the transactions with EU businesses: three of the five.
- Check the VAT numbers in VIES, the EU's VAT number validation system: all three valid.
- Assign the code: S for what he supplies, I for what he receives.
- Total by operator and code for the period: €9,000, €240 and €610.
- File from 1 to 20 October, together with the 303 for the quarter.
The rule that decides where each service is treated as supplied, and why the invoice to Berlin goes without VAT, is in the guide on where each service is taxed. If you work with European clients or suppliers and do not know which transactions oblige you, the form for the internationally self-employed lets us review them with you.
Quarterly or monthly
The VAT Regulations, in article 81, set the period: as a general rule the 349 is monthly, but it can be quarterly when the amount of the transactions to be declared does not exceed €50,000 either in the quarter concerned or in any of the four previous quarters. Exactly which transactions count towards that limit is spelled out in the article itself, and it is worth reading when you get close to the figure. Tomás, with €9,850 in the quarter, files quarterly: from 1 to 20 April, July and October, and until 30 January for the fourth quarter. If one day a big contract takes him above €50,000, he will move to filing every month from that point.
What almost nobody tells you: the client's VIES number
The invoice to Berlin goes without VAT because the client is a business. The practical way to prove that is its intra-community VAT number, checked in VIES before invoicing. If the number is not valid or the client does not have one, the VAT-free invoice is left hanging: the tax authorities may take the view that it has not been shown that the recipient was acting as a business, with the consequence of demanding the Spanish VAT that was not charged. Keeping a dated screenshot of the VIES check each time you invoice a new client is a cheap precaution.
The American tool is the other surprise: it does not go on the 349, which only covers transactions with other member states, but it does oblige you to charge yourself VAT on the 303 under the reverse charge. The mechanism is in the reverse charge. And if you sold digital services to private individuals in other EU countries you could fall, depending on your volume, under the one-stop shop scheme, explained in the OSS one-stop shop, which is a different return altogether.
For your intra-community transactions to work, you have to be registered in the ROI, which is applied for with Modelo 036 since the 037 disappeared on 3 February 2025. Without that registration your number does not appear in VIES, your client cannot check it and your European suppliers may invoice you with their own country's VAT. Tomás applied in June, before signing with Berlin, and that is what allowed him to invoice without VAT from day one. How it is done is explained in registering in the ROI and the VIES.
If what you move is goods, not services
Tomás's case is about services, but the 349 was born for goods, and its rules are somewhat different. Someone who sells goods to a business in another EU member state, with transport to that country, makes an intra-community supply exempt from VAT and declares it under code E. Someone who buys goods from a business in another member state, which ships them to Spain, makes an intra-community acquisition, charges themselves VAT on the 303 and declares it under code A.
For the sale to go without VAT two things are needed that are not required in the same way for services: the client must have a valid VAT number, and the goods must actually leave Spain for another member state. That departure is proved with the transport documents, which are best kept with each invoice. If the goods stay in Spain, even if the client is foreign, the sale carries Spanish VAT and does not go on the 349.
There are also special cases, such as call-off stock sales or triangular transactions, which have codes of their own. They are uncommon for a self-employed person, but if your activity includes any of them, it is worth checking the code before your first 349.
A pointer for next year
The 349 is cross-checked with the 303: the transactions you declare as intra-community in one have to appear in the other, in their corresponding boxes, with the same amounts. And it is cross-checked with what your clients and suppliers declare in their own countries. A discrepancy in any of those cross-checks is the most frequent source of the letters a self-employed person with European clients receives. Filing both returns at the same time, with the same list of invoices in front of you, is the simplest way to make them match.