Registering this quarter? If you register before 31 December 2026, your first Modelo 303 and Modelo 130 are filed from 1 to 30 January 2027, together with the annual Modelo 390.
Every quarter, the books up to date
Self-employed tax returns in Spain
If you are registered as autónomo, four forms shape your year, and one of them is calculated in a way that catches almost everybody out the first time.
The four forms that shape your year
| Form | What it is | When |
|---|---|---|
| 130 | Advance payment of income tax: 20 % of your profit | Quarterly, in the first 20 days of April, July and October, and to 30 January |
| 303 | VAT: output tax less input tax | Quarterly, the same windows |
| 111 | Tax withheld from staff and from professionals you pay | Quarterly |
| 115 | 19 % withheld from your business landlord | Quarterly |
On top of those come the annual summaries: the 390 for VAT and the 190 for withholding, both in January, and the 349 whenever you trade with businesses elsewhere in the EU.
The mistake that costs most: treating the 130 like the 303
VAT form 303 is a snapshot of the quarter. Income tax form 130 is not. It is cumulative from 1 January: in the third quarter you declare income and expenses for January to September, take 20 % of that running profit, and then deduct what you already paid in the first and second quarters, plus any tax withheld from your invoices.
Calculating the 130 quarter by quarter produces a number that looks perfectly plausible and is simply wrong. It usually only surfaces in the annual return, when the figures stop adding up — by which point four returns have to be corrected instead of one.
What you can deduct, and what will not hold up
Three conditions have to be met at the same time: the expense is connected to the activity, it is backed by a complete invoice in your name and with your NIF, and it is entered in your books. A till receipt fails the second test, however genuine the expense was.
| Expense | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| Your accountant, your professional insurance, your bar association fees | Fully deductible |
| A computer, a camera, furniture | Depreciated over several years, not expensed in one |
| Utilities at home, where part of the home is attributed to the business | 30 % of the attributed proportion, and only if that proportion was declared on form 036 |
| Meals while working | Only with limits per day, paid by card and while away from your usual place of work |
| A car | The hardest one of all: for VAT, half is presumed; for income tax, exclusive business use has to be proved, which in practice almost nobody can |
The books they actually ask for in a review
Being self-employed in direct assessment means keeping a register of invoices issued, a register of invoices received, and a register of capital assets. They are not accounting ledgers in the commercial sense, but they are what the tax office asks for first, and they have to match your returns to the cent.
The usual problem is not that they do not exist: it is that they were rebuilt at the end of the year from a bank statement. A review compares them with the returns already filed, and differences are where the questions start.
Registering, and what you pay in the first year
Becoming self-employed means two separate registrations: the tax census through form 036, and social security through the RETA. Two authorities, two deadlines, and no communication between them. Since 2023 you contribute on real net earnings, so the base you choose during the year is settled the following year against what you actually earned.
The reduced contribution — the "flat rate" — runs for twelve months, extendable by another twelve if your earnings stay below the minimum wage, and it requires not having been registered in the RETA for the two previous years. It is not automatic: it has to be claimed. We cover the whole process in registering as self-employed, at 210 € one off.
The activity code decides more than it looks
The IAE code you declare defines what you are entitled to invoice for and, through that, what you can deduct. It also decides whether your invoices carry withholding: professional activities are invoiced with 15 % withheld, or 7 % in your first year and the two that follow, while business activities are not.
That has a direct consequence for form 130: if at least 70 % of your income was invoiced with withholding, a professional does not have to file it at all. Plenty of people file it for years without needing to.
Your case, in two minutes
What applies to your self-employed work, in two minutes
The form for this service asks only what matters here. At the end you have your map of obligations, the deadlines running against you and a fixed price.
When there is something international about it
Invoice a company in another EU country and the VAT rules change completely: you need to be on the ROI register, your invoice carries no Spanish VAT, and form 349 appears. Invoice outside the EU and the place-of-supply rules decide, and they have to be evidenced. Sell digital services to consumers across the EU and the one-stop shop comes into play above a 10,000 € threshold.
None of that is exotic any more — it is the ordinary situation of anyone working remotely from Spain for clients elsewhere. It has its own line, invoicing abroad.
What a review looks at
Almost always the same four things: whether your declared income matches what your clients reported, whether your expenses are backed by proper invoices, whether your books agree with your returns, and whether anything has been deducted that requires business use to be proved. Being ready for that is mostly a matter of order, not of argument.
Two situations that change the whole picture
You also have a salary. Being employed and self-employed at the same time is pluriactividad: you contribute under both schemes and, if the combined contributions exceed the legal ceiling, you may be entitled to a refund of the excess. It is not applied automatically, it has to be claimed, and the deadline is short.
You rent out a property as well. Holiday lets without hotel services are a separate line with its own rules, and the interaction with your self-employed activity is not obvious: the nights actually let decide how costs are apportioned, and that apportionment is the first thing a review looks at. It has its own page: holiday lets.
The calendar, and what happens if you miss it
The quarterly windows are the first twenty days of April, July and October, and January runs to the 30th. Filing late without being asked carries a surcharge that rises with the delay; filing late after the tax office has written to you carries a penalty instead. The gap between the two is large and it depends only on who moves first.
A quarter with nothing to declare still has to be filed. "I had no income, so I did not file" is one of the most common ways of collecting a penalty for an amount of zero.
What we do with a self-employed client
You drop your invoices into your folder as they come in, or forward them by email if that suits you better. We read them, post them, keep the registers, calculate form 130 the way it should be calculated, prepare the VAT return, and send you the figures before anything is filed. In January we do the annual summaries.
From 69 € a month, taxes included. What sets the price is not what you bill, it is how many invoices have to be recorded. We work in English, Spanish and French, and if something in your case stops being routine — a letter from the tax office, a foreign client, a share plan — it is a lawyer who looks at it, not a data-entry clerk.