Yes. If you calculate your business income under estimación directa (the direct assessment method), the cuota de autónomo (your monthly Social Security contribution as a self-employed person) is a business expense. It lowers your modelo 130 every quarter and your Renta (the annual income tax return) at the end of the year. This article expands on how to deduct expenses as an autónomo, the guide that covers every deductible expense and its conditions.
Here is where the rule comes from, how the cuota enters your 130, in which year the regularisation counts, what happens with the tarifa plana, why there is no IVA on it and what changes if you are a partner in an SL. Each rule cites its source.
Why the cuota is a deductible expense
Under estimación directa, your business income is calculated with the Corporate Tax rules plus the special rules of the IRPF (personal income tax) Law (article 28.1 of Ley 35/2006). With those rules you subtract your business expenses. Your contribution to the RETA (the Social Security scheme for the self-employed) is one of them. The IRPF Law has no article naming the cuota. The AEAT treats it as an expense in its Renta practical manual and modelo 100 gives it its own box: 0186, Seguridad Social del titular de la actividad, in the Renta 2025.
What the law does regulate expressly is the alternative. If you are a professional outside the RETA who pays into a mutual society acting as the alternative, those payments are deductible up to the maximum RETA contribution for common contingencies of each year (article 30.2.1.ª of the IRPF Law).
How it enters your modelo 130
The 130 is 20% of your net income accumulated from 1 January to the end of the quarter, minus what you paid in earlier quarters and, if you are a professional, the withholdings on your invoices (article 110 of Real Decreto 439/2007, the IRPF Regulation). The cuota is one more expense in that net income. Each euro of cuota lowers your 130 by 20 cents.
| Item | Without the cuota | With the cuota |
|---|---|---|
| Income | €9.000 | €9.000 |
| Other expenses | €1.500 | €1.500 |
| Cuota de autónomo (3 months) | €0 | €900 |
| Net income | €7.500 | €6.600 |
| Modelo 130 (20%) | €1.500 | €1.320 |
The €900 of cuota lowers the quarter's payment by €180. How to fill in each box is in modelo 130.
The regularisation: which year it counts in
Since 2023 each month's cuota is provisional. When Hacienda reports your income for the year, Social Security regularises the contribution: it refunds what you overpaid or charges you the difference (article 308.1.c of the consolidated General Social Security Law). How it is calculated is in the regularisation of the cuota de autónomos.
For the AEAT, the cuotas you paid during the year are the ones owed that year even if provisional, so you do not correct the previous Renta. According to its Renta 2025 practical manual:
- If you are charged a difference, it is more expense in the year of the regularisation (box 0196).
- If you get money back, it is less expense that year (box 0197). If the refund exceeds that year's cuotas, the excess counts as income.
The tarifa plana is an expense too
With the tarifa plana (the reduced flat rate for new autónomos) you pay a reduced cuota for your first 12 months and can keep it another 12 if your income stays below the minimum wage (article 38 ter of Ley 20/2007, the Self-Employment Statute). The expense is what you pay: the reduced cuota is deducted just like the full one. The first 12 months are not regularised either (article 38 ter.6). The conditions are in what the tarifa plana is and how to apply.
There is no IVA on the cuota
IVA (Spanish VAT) taxes supplies of goods and services made by businesses or professionals (article 4 of Ley 37/1992, the IVA Law). The cuota is a compulsory Social Security contribution, not the price of a service. So the receipt from the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social (TGSS, the Social Security treasury) carries no IVA and there is nothing to subtract in your modelo 303. For IRPF the whole amount on the receipt counts.
If you are a partner in an SL
If you control your SL and work in it, you still pay into the RETA (article 305.2.b of the General Social Security Law). That is what is called an autónomo societario. What your company pays you for working in it usually counts as employment income. There the law lets you subtract Social Security contributions (article 19.2.a of the IRPF Law). What changes is who pays:
- You pay it. You subtract it from your employment income in your Renta.
- The company pays it and bears the cost. For the Dirección General de Tributos (DGT, the tax policy directorate) that is pay in kind for you (article 42.1 of the IRPF Law). The company makes a payment on account on it, which is added to your pay unless it charges it back to you (article 43.2). You still subtract the cuota as an expense (binding ruling V1796-25 of 13/10/2025).
- The company gives you the money to pay it. Then it is cash pay and carries withholding (article 42.1, second paragraph, of the IRPF Law; ruling V1796-25).
How much to pay yourself and how it is taxed is in an SL administrator's salary.
How Facturaz handles it
In Facturaz you upload the TGSS receipt as an expense in the Social Security cuota category. It counts in full as an expense in your 130, with no IVA. If a month's receipt is missing, Facturaz tells you which month so you can add it. When it prepares your Renta it compares your receipts with the cuotas Social Security reports to Hacienda and warns you if they do not match. In an SL, that expense counts as the administrator's pay in kind in its modelos 111 and 190. Autónomo Go costs €24 + IVA a month and Autónomo Plus €44 + IVA a month, with 14 days free, on Facturaz pricing.
