The quarterly return is filed between the 1st and the 20th of April, July, and October, with the fourth quarter filed in January.
In each return you subtract the input VAT on your business expense invoices from the output VAT you charged on your own invoices. If the result is payable, you pay it; if it is in your favour, you carry it forward to later quarters. Besides the general 21% rate there are reduced rates for certain goods and services, and some transactions are exempt, such as many healthcare or education activities.
The typical mistake is treating the VAT you collect as your own income and spending it. That money belongs to the tax agency: set it aside as soon as you are paid. Another slip is deducting VAT on expenses that lack a complete invoice or are not linked to the business.
With clients in other EU countries the rules change: the invoice often carries no Spanish VAT because of the reverse charge. In many cases there is also an annual summary return. Everything comes from your records of issued and received invoices. In kontora you invoice with Verifactu and the quarterly modelo is prepared box by box from your books, with deadline reminders.
Guides that use this term
- Can I invoice without IVA in Spain if I earn under 85,000 euros? No, and here is why
- Quarterly tax returns for the self-employed in Spain: which forms you file each quarter and by when
- Modelo 303: the Spanish quarterly VAT return, explained
- Verifactu invoice example: the QR, the phrase and the hash, field by field
- Invoicing foreign clients from Spain: when there is no VAT and what you still declare
Related terms
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