Autónomo taxes in Spain: what you pay, when and how

Once you register as an autónomo (self-employed in Spain), the Agencia Tributaria (the Spanish tax agency, often just called Hacienda) expects several returns from you each year. Almost all of it comes down to two taxes. IVA (Spanish VAT) is collected from your clients on the tax agency's behalf. IRPF (personal income tax) taxes what you earn. The rest is withholding you deduct from other people's pay and returns that only report information.

This guide explains in plain words each tax, which form covers it, when it is due and which article of the law each rule comes from. Every return is filed on a numbered form that the tax agency calls a modelo. If the word is new to you, start with what a tax modelo is and what it is for.

Autónomo taxes at a glance

This table sums up what may apply to you in a normal year if you work out your profit under estimación directa (direct assessment), the general method (article 30 of Ley 35/2006, the IRPF Act). Not everything applies to everyone: the 303 and the 130 are the usual ones; the others depend on what you do.

If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day (article 30.5 of Ley 39/2015). That is why the 303 for the fourth quarter of 2026 is due on 01/02/2027: 30 January 2027 is a Saturday. You have every date, already adjusted, in the Facturaz tax calendar and explained month by month in the 2026 tax calendar for autónomos.

IVA: the tax you collect for the tax agency

IVA (Impuesto sobre el Valor Añadido, Spanish VAT) is not your money. When you invoice, you add IVA to the price and your client pays it to you: that is output IVA (IVA repercutido). When you buy something for your business, your supplier charges you IVA: that is input IVA (IVA soportado). Each quarter you subtract the second from the first and pay the difference to the tax agency (articles 92 and 99 of Ley 37/1992, the IVA Act).

The standard rate is 21% (article 90). There is a reduced rate of 10% and a super-reduced rate of 4% for the goods and services listed in article 91, such as hospitality, passenger transport or many foods. Some activities are exempt, meaning they carry no IVA: for example, healthcare given by doctors and health professionals or certain teaching services (article 20). If your activity is exempt, you charge no IVA and you cannot recover the IVA you pay on purchases either. There is a gentler explanation in how IVA works in Spain. What each invoice must contain is covered in how to invoice as an autónomo.

Modelo 303, every quarter

Modelo 303 is the IVA return. The period is the calendar quarter and it is filed in the first 20 days of the following month. The fourth quarter is filed in the first 30 days of January (article 71.4 of the IVA Regulation, Real Decreto 1624/1992). You must file it even if you invoiced nothing that quarter (article 71.1).

An example. In one quarter you invoice €10.000 plus IVA, so you collect €2.100 of IVA. Your business purchases add up to €2.000 plus €420 of IVA. On the 303 you report €2.100 of output IVA, subtract €420 of input IVA and pay €1.680.

If a quarter comes out in your favour, the balance is carried forward to the following ones for up to four years (article 99.Cinco of the IVA Act), or you ask for a refund on the fourth-quarter 303 (article 115). To file it yourself, follow how to fill in modelo 303 step by step. If you only want to know whether it applies to you and when, read the short guide to modelo 303.

Modelo 390, the year's summary

In January, alongside the last 303, you file modelo 390: a summary of all the IVA of the year. You pay nothing with it. It is filed in the first 30 days of January (article 8 of Orden EHA/3111/2009).

You do not file it if you only carry out operations exempt under article 20 of the IVA Act (article 71.7 of the Regulation). Nor do you file it if you declare quarterly, are taxed only in the common territory and your only activity is under the simplified IVA scheme or is renting out urban property: in that case you fill in an extra section on the last 303 (article 1.3 of Orden EHA/3111/2009). More detail in modelo 390 explained.

If you sell to the public in a shop

Retailers who are individuals may fall under the recargo de equivalencia (equivalence surcharge scheme, article 148 of the IVA Act). Your supplier charges you IVA plus a surcharge and that settles the IVA of that activity: you do not declare it on the 303 and you do not deduct the IVA on the purchases you use for it either (article 154).

Clients in other European Union countries

If you provide a service to a business or professional established in another country, the general rule is that the service takes place where your client is (article 69.Uno.1.º of the IVA Act). Your invoice carries no Spanish IVA and must say «inversión del sujeto pasivo» (reverse charge), because your client accounts for the IVA in their own country (article 6.1.m of the Invoicing Regulation, Real Decreto 1619/2012).

For this to work inside the EU, your NIF (tax ID) must be registered as an intra-community operator: you request it on your census return and it puts you on the register every EU country checks. We cover it in how to register in the ROI and the rest of the rules in intra-community operations explained.

These operations are also reported on modelo 349. It is normally filed quarterly, in the first 20 days of the following month. The fourth quarter goes in the first 30 days of January. If in the quarter or any of the four previous ones you go over €50.000 in these operations, it becomes monthly (article 81 of the IVA Regulation). The modelo 349 guide explains it.

IRPF: the tax on what you earn

IRPF (Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas, personal income tax) taxes your profit, not your turnover. Your net income is what you earn minus the expenses of your activity. Which expenses count and with what limits is covered in the guide to deductible expenses for autónomos.

If your turnover did not exceed €600.000 the year before, you work out that profit under estimación directa simplificada (simplified direct assessment), unless you opt out (article 30.1 of the IRPF Act and article 28 of its Regulation, Real Decreto 439/2007). Some activities can be taxed under módulos (estimación objetiva, a flat-rate system), with their own rules that this guide does not cover.

You pay IRPF in three ways over the year: the withholding your clients deduct, the payments on account on modelo 130 and the annual return, which settles the final figure.

Withholding on your invoices

If you are a professional (a designer, lawyer, developer or consultant, for example) and you invoice a company or another autónomo, your client withholds 15% of the invoice base and pays it to the tax agency in your name (article 101.5 of the IRPF Act and article 95.1 of its Regulation). It is an advance on your IRPF, not a separate tax.

If you are starting a professional activity, withholding is 7% in the year you start and the two following years, as long as you had no professional activity in the year before you started. You must tell your client in writing (article 95.1). If you invoice private individuals there is no withholding, because only businesses and autónomos paying within their activity withhold (article 99.2 of the Act). How to choose the rate in each case is set out in how to choose IVA and IRPF rates for your invoices.

Modelo 130: each quarter's advance

Modelo 130 is the IRPF payment on account. Each quarter you take 20% of your profit from 1 January to the end of the quarter and subtract what you already paid on earlier 130s that year and the withholding deducted from your invoices (article 110 of the IRPF Regulation). It follows the same deadlines as the 303: 1 to 20 April, July and October, plus 1 to 30 January for the fourth quarter (article 111). If it comes out at zero or below, you still file a nil return.

An example. Between January and March you earn €12.000 and have €4.000 of expenses. Your profit is €8.000 and 20% of it is €1.600. If your clients withheld nothing, that is your first-quarter 130. If your net income the year before was €12.000 or less, you can also subtract between €25 and €100 per quarter, using a table in article 110.3.c.

You do not have to file the 130 if you are a professional and at least 70% of your income the year before had withholding (article 109.2). If you have just started, the percentage of the quarter itself is used (article 109.5). The practical side is in how to fill in modelo 130 and the summary in the short guide to modelo 130.

The annual return: modelo 100

Once a year you file the income tax return, known as the Renta, on modelo 100. You add up all your income, apply the progressive scale and subtract everything you already paid through withholding and 130s. The result can be a payment or a refund. The 2025 return was filed between 08/04/2026 and 30/06/2026 (article 7 of Orden HAC/277/2026). If you owe money, you can split the payment into 60% when you file and 40% later, with no interest (article 62.2 of the IRPF Regulation); for the 2025 return, that second payment was due by 05/11/2026.

As an autónomo you always have to file: the law requires a return from anyone registered in the RETA at any point in the year, whatever they earned (article 96.2 of the IRPF Act). The Renta for autónomos covers it step by step.

The scale has two halves. This is the state half from article 63 of the IRPF Act, applied to your general taxable base:

Your autonomous community adds its own scale on top (article 74), so the total rate depends on where you live. See it with examples in the IRPF tax bands and step by step in the modelo 100 guide.

Withholding you deduct: modelos 111 and 115

Just as your clients withhold from you, you have to withhold when you pay certain things within your activity (article 99.2 of the IRPF Act). What you withhold is not an extra cost: it is part of the payment, which you pay to the tax agency in the other person's name.

Modelo 111 covers what you withhold from employees on payroll and from professionals who invoice you with IRPF, such as a lawyer or a designer. Modelo 115 covers the 19% withholding on the rent of premises or an office (article 101.8 of the IRPF Act). There is no withholding if the rent you pay to the same landlord is no more than €900 a year (article 75.3 of the Regulation). Both are filed from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January (article 108.1 of the Regulation). Each has an annual summary in January: the 190 for the 111 and the 180 for the 115 (article 108.2).

The details are in modelo 111 explained and modelo 115 explained.

Modelo 347: large clients and suppliers

Modelo 347 involves no payment. It tells the tax agency about each client or supplier with whom your dealings over the year added up to more than €3.005,06 (article 33 of Real Decreto 1065/2007). It is filed during February (article 10 of Orden EHA/3012/2008). Left out, among others, are operations for which you did not have to issue an invoice or identify the client or those you already report on another periodic return with the same data (article 33.2).

If you do not live in Spain: modelo 210

If you are not tax resident in Spain but receive income from here, such as rent from a flat, you are taxed under non-resident income tax rather than IRPF, using modelo 210. From the income of 2026 on, rent is declared once a year, from 1 to 20 April of the next year, and the days the home is not let are taxed too. The modelo 210 guide covers it.

What is not a tax but you also pay

The cuota de autónomo is not a tax but a Social Security contribution. It is paid monthly based on your earnings. How much you pay and how it is adjusted is explained in the guide to Social Security contributions.

No individual pays the Impuesto sobre Actividades Económicas (IAE, the business activity tax) (article 82.1.c of Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2004). Even so, when you register you choose an IAE heading on your census return, modelo 036, because it identifies your activity.

What happens if you file late

If you file late without the tax agency having asked you to, you pay a surcharge: 1% plus another 1% for each full month of delay. After 12 months, the surcharge is 15% plus late-payment interest from then on (article 27.2 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act). If you pay the tax when you file and the surcharge when you are notified of it, the surcharge is cut by 25% (article 27.5). If the tax agency finds it first, it is no longer a surcharge but a possible penalty.

How to keep on top of it

Three habits cover almost everything. First, record each invoice and each expense on the day it happens, not at the end of the quarter. Second, put aside in a separate account the IVA you collect (it is not yours) plus part of your profit for the 130 and the annual return. The tax calculator gives you a rough figure. Third, check your numbers before each deadline: a missing NIF or an expense without an invoice is easier to fix before you file. That check is what the AI audit before you file does.

There is a shorter version of this guide: the 303, the 130 and your deadlines in plain language.

How Facturaz helps

Facturaz works out each quarterly and annual return from your invoices and expenses as you add them, so you know what you owe on any day. Before each deadline you get a reminder by email and in the app. A review of more than 30 checks also goes over your invoices, expenses and contacts. On Autónomo Go (€24 + IVA a month) you file yourself with the official file and a step-by-step guide. On Autónomo Plus (€44 + IVA a month) you review and approve the figures and our team files for you. You can try it free for 14 days. It is all in taxes in Facturaz.