Corporate income tax in Spain: your SL's first year

Who pays corporate income tax and what it taxes

The Impuesto sobre Sociedades, Spain's corporate income tax, is a direct tax on the profit of companies resident in Spain: sociedades limitadas (SL, Spanish limited companies), sociedades anónimas and other entities with their own legal personality. The company pays it, not you as a shareholder. That is the big difference from an autónomo (self-employed in Spain), who is taxed personally under IRPF, the Spanish personal income tax: your SL is a taxpayer separate from you.

What is taxed is the income earned during the year, meaning the profit. The starting point is the accounting result of your profit and loss account, which is then corrected by a set of tax adjustments (ajustes extracontables) and reduced, where applicable, by losses from previous years. The rate is applied to the resulting figure, the base imponible (taxable base).

One thing that surprises newcomers: every SL is a taxpayer and must file the return, whether it made a profit, a loss or nothing at all. There is no such thing as an SL that skips the return because it earned nothing. The return goes to the Agencia Tributaria (the Spanish tax agency, AEAT) even when the result is zero.

Tax period, accrual and the modelo 200 deadline

The tax period for corporate income tax matches your financial year, normally the calendar year (1 January to 31 December), and it can never exceed twelve months. For a newly created SL, the first period runs from the incorporation date to 31 December, so it is almost always shorter than a full year.

The tax accrues on the last day of the period: 31 December if your year is the calendar year. That is when the clock starts for filing.

You settle it with the modelo 200, filed within the twenty-five calendar days following the six months after year-end. In calendar-year terms: from 1 to 25 July of the following year. So the 2026 tax is filed in July 2027. The legal framework is the Corporate Income Tax Act.

kontora prepares the modelo 200 and modelo 202 drafts box by box, together with the year-end close, the depreciation entries and the reconciliation check (a feature on the Business plan); filing the forms on the AEAT website is still done by you.

The tax rates: general, new-company and micro-company

Once the taxable base is calculated, the rate is applied. These are the ones that matter for a small SL:

• General rate: 25%. The baseline rule of the tax.
• Newly created entities: 15%. If your SL carries out a genuine business activity, it is taxed at 15% in the first tax period in which the taxable base is positive and in the following one. This is the key rate for your first profitable years.
• Micro-companies (turnover under 1 million euros): a reduced scale. In 2026 it is 19% on the first 50,000 euros of base and 21% on the rest. From 2027 that scale drops to 17% and 20%.

The 15% new-company rate is lower than any band of the micro-company scale, so while its two-year profitable window lasts, that is the rate you use. The reduced scale takes over afterwards, or from the start if you do not meet the new-company conditions.

And those conditions are real: for the 15%, your company cannot be part of a group, the activity cannot have been carried on before by a related person or entity, and you cannot be an entidad patrimonial (a company that only manages assets, with no real business activity). If you do not qualify, your rate is the general 25% or the micro-company scale.

Prepayments: the modelo 202

Corporate income tax is not paid in one go: through the year it is prepaid in instalments, declared with the modelo 202 in three windows: 1 to 20 April, 1 to 20 October and 1 to 20 December.

The method almost every small SL uses sets each instalment at 18% of the tax due on the last modelo 200 that had already fallen due (specifically the box for the tax due for the year, already reduced by deductions, allowances and withholdings). In other words, the prepayment is based on what you declared last year, not on this year's running profit.

Who has to pay it? You only file the 202 if that reference figure is positive. In your first year there is no prior 200, so the base is zero and you file no 202 at all. The first instalment with an amount comes later: for an SL set up in 2026, it would be the October 2027 window, based on the 2026 modelo 200 filed in July 2027.

One confusing detail: the April instalment looks at an older return than the October and December ones, because the previous year's 200 is not due until July. Large companies use a different method based on the year's running profit; a small SL stays with the standard one.

The first year almost always shows a loss (and what to do)

Closing the first year at a loss is very common: incorporation costs, initial investment, little billing yet. The result is a base imponible negativa (negative taxable base, a tax loss). That is not a problem, and it does not change your duty to file.

You still file the modelo 200, with a negative base, and the tax for that year is zero: you pay no corporate income tax. The important thing is that these losses are not wasted. Negative taxable bases are offset against the profits of future years, reducing the tax you will pay once your SL starts earning. As a general rule they can be offset with no time limit, subject to a high annual cap that small companies rarely reach.

One detail works in your favour: the 15% new-company window starts in the first year the base is positive, not in the company's first year of life. A first year in the red does not use up that reduced rate, which stays available for when you actually have profits.

That said, to make use of the losses you must have declared them and kept proper accounts from the start: no record, no offset.

The company-law duties that run in parallel

Corporate income tax does not travel alone. As an SL you also have a set of company-law duties that run in parallel and are worth keeping in view, even if we only summarise them here:

• Accounting books: the Libro Diario (journal) and the Libro de Inventarios y Cuentas Anuales are mandatory and are filed electronically with the Registro Mercantil (the Commercial Register) within the four months following year-end. For a calendar year, by 30 April.
• Annual accounts (cuentas anuales): the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes (a small company does not need the statement of changes in equity or the cash-flow statement). They are approved by the shareholders' meeting within the first six months of the following year and then deposited at the Registro Mercantil.
• Retention: books and supporting documents are kept for six years.

These are separate from the modelo 200, with their own deadlines, but they belong to the same year-end calendar. The framework is in the Capital Companies Act.

Common first-year mistakes

The slips we see most often in an SL's first year:

• Thinking no profit means no filing: every SL files the modelo 200, even with a loss or a zero base.
• Confusing the accounting result with the taxable base: not everything in your books reduces the tax. Some items are adjusted, for example the corporate income tax expense itself and fines, which are not deductible.
• Not setting aside the money for the bill: the tax is paid in July, almost seven months after year-end; set the estimated amount aside from the start.
• Applying the 15% without meeting the new-company conditions, and getting a nasty surprise in an inspection.
• Forgetting the company-law duties: the April book filing and the accounts deposit run alongside the tax.
• Mixing personal and company expenses: the SL has its own legal personality, and its expenses must relate to the business and be documented.

Filing late has consequences: if you file late on your own initiative, before the tax office asks, you pay a reduced surcharge; if the AEAT finds it first, penalties and interest are added. To avoid missing any date, lean on the 2026-2027 tax calendar.

Frequently asked questions

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