Modelo 202: Corporate Tax prepayments for SLs in Spain

An SL (sociedad limitada, the Spanish limited company) pays Corporate Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades) once a year with modelo 200, but pays part of it in advance three times a year with modelo 202: these are the prepayments (pagos fraccionados). Here is when they are filed, the two ways of calculating them, who does not have to file them and how they are deducted at the end, with the article of the law behind each rule.

It is one of the obligations you take on when you set up a company and do not have as an autónomo. The full comparison is in autónomo vs SL: when a limited company makes sense.

When it is filed

Within the first 20 calendar days of April, October and December (article 40.1 of Ley 27/2014, the Corporate Tax Law). Each payment is on account of the tax period in progress on the 1st of that month. For a company whose financial year matches the calendar year:

The form was approved by Orden HFP/227/2017, which sets the same deadlines plus the 1 to 15 window if you want to pay by direct debit (article 5). It is filed online only.

The two methods

Based on the last declared year's tax

This is the method that applies unless you choose the other (article 40.2). The payment is 18% of this base:

• The gross tax (cuota íntegra) of the last tax period whose filing deadline had passed on the first day of the payment window.
• Minus that period's deductions and allowances.
• Minus that period's withholdings and payments on account.

If that last period lasted less than a year, the 12 months are completed with the proportional part of earlier periods' tax.

The key is which year is used for each payment. Modelo 200 is filed within the 25 calendar days following the six months after the year end (article 124.1), that is, 1 to 25 July if your year ends on 31 December. So in 2026:

• The April 2026 payment is calculated on the 2024 modelo 200, because the 2025 one is not yet due on 1 April.
• The October and December 2026 payments are calculated on the 2025 modelo 200, filed in July 2026.

An example: if your company's 2025 modelo 200 showed gross tax of €9.500 with no deductions or allowances and €300 had been withheld from it, the base is €9.200. You pay 18%, €1.656, in October 2026 and another €1.656 in December.

Based on the current year's taxable income

The alternative is to calculate the payment on the taxable income (base imponible) of the first 3, 9 or 11 months of the year, calculated under the tax rules (article 40.3). The percentage is five sevenths of the tax rate, rounded down: with the general 25% rate, 17%. If your company is taxed at another rate, the percentage changes with it. From the result you take off allowances, withholdings and payments on account and the prepayments already made that year.

An example at the general rate: if taxable income from January to March is €20.000, the April payment is 17%, €3.400. If from January to September it reaches €50.000, the October payment is €8.500 minus the €3.400 already paid, €5.100.

How you choose it and when it is compulsory:

• You choose it in the census return (modelo 036) during February of the year you want it to apply, if your financial year matches the calendar year. If not, within the first two months of the period or before the first payment, if that is sooner.
• It binds you for that period and the following ones until you opt out, also with the 036 and within the same windows.
• It is compulsory if the company's turnover exceeded €6 million in the 12 months before the period began.
• Companies with turnover of at least €10 million also have a minimum payment based on the accounting profit and a higher percentage (fourteenth additional provision).

The taxable income method follows the current year: if your profits fall this year you pay less than with last year's tax. If they rise, you pay more.

Who does not have to file it

Orden HFP/227/2017 only requires companies with turnover above €6 million in the 12 months before the period began to file modelo 202 every time. For everyone else, if nothing is payable there is no need to file (article 1.3). In practice, under the method based on last year's tax and with a financial year that matches the calendar year:

• A new SL pays nothing in its first year. It does not yet have a declared year to use as the base.
• Nor in April of its second year, because the return for its first year is not yet due. The first payment comes in October of the second year, if the first year's modelo 200 showed tax.
• If the last declared year came out at zero or withholdings covered the tax, the payment is zero and you file nothing.

Under the taxable income method, if the cumulative taxable income is zero or negative there is no payment. A new company can also choose this method, in a 036 filed in its first two months or before the first payment.

How it is deducted in modelo 200

Prepayments are not a separate tax: they are an advance. In modelo 200 they are taken off the net tax together with withholdings and payments on account. If what you paid in advance exceeds what you owe, Hacienda (the tax agency) refunds the difference on its own initiative (article 41). How the year's tax is calculated is in modelo 200 for Corporate Tax.

Following the first example: if the 2026 Corporate Tax comes to €10.000 with no withholdings and you paid €1.656 in October and €1.656 in December, in July 2027 you pay €6.688.

If you do not pay on time

The prepayment counts as a tax debt (article 40.5). If you file late, the surcharges of the General Tax Law apply, which we explain in surcharges for filing late.

In Facturaz the app keeps your SL's accounts, so the 202 comes from last year's modelo 200 or from your cumulative taxable income without redoing your figures. With Empresa Go (€44 + IVA a month) you file the returns yourself with everything prepared. With Empresa Plus (€84 + IVA a month) our team files them all, the 200 and 202 included, legalises the books and files the annual accounts. Both plans come with 14 days free on pricing for SLs.