How to fill in modelo 111 box by box: 2026 instructions with a worked example

Before filling in modelo 111: who files it, deadlines and identification

Modelo 111 is filed by anyone who pays income subject to retención (withholding tax): companies and other entities, and autónomos (self-employed people) when they pay that income as part of their business (art. 99.2 of the Personal Income Tax Act, LIRPF, and art. 76 of its Regulations, RIRPF). One employee, one paid director or one lawyer's invoice with withholding is enough. There is a single 111 per withholding payer: payroll and invoices go in the same return.

Frequency and deadline (art. 108.1 RIRPF):

• Quarterly, the general rule: from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January, for the previous quarter. The return for the third quarter of 2026 is due on 20 October 2026.
• Monthly, from 1 to 20 of the following month: large businesses, including those whose turnover exceeded 6,010,121.04 € in the previous year (art. 71.3 of the VAT Regulations), and public administrations with a budget above 6 million euros.
• If the last day falls on a Saturday or a non-working day, it moves to the next working day (AEAT instructions).
• If you pay by direct debit, the deadline ends earlier: from 1 to 15 of those same months (Annex II of Orden EHA/1658/2009).

SAs (sociedades anónimas, public limited companies) and SLs must file online with an electronic certificate (art. 4 of Orden EHA/586/2011 and art. 3.1 of Orden HAP/2194/2013); individuals can also use Cl@ve, the government identification system that does not require a certificate. You file from the modelo 111 page on the AEAT website. You will find every date of the year in the 2026-2027 tax calendar.

The header of the form:

All amounts are entered in euros with two decimal places.

Where the figures come from: payslips, invoices with withholding and the record book

Before opening the form, gather three sources of data for the period:

• Payslips: the gross amount subject to withholding (the total earnings before any deductions, excluding tax-exempt travel and subsistence allowances and exempt income) goes under payments, and the IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) withholding line goes under withholdings. The employee's Social Security contribution does not go in the 111.
• Invoices received with withholding: those from professionals (lawyers, advisers, architects, consultants) and, at other rates, those from agricultural, livestock or forestry activities or from businesses under the módulos (flat-rate) system (art. 75.1 RIRPF). The practical approach is for your record book of invoices received to have a withholding column; if you are not sure how to keep it, see the record books, one by one.
• Benefits in kind: health insurance, company car, housing. These are the ones most often forgotten.

The rule that governs everything is the date of payment, not the invoice date: the obligation to withhold arises when the income is paid (art. 78.1 RIRPF). If the lawyer invoices you on 25 September and you pay on 5 October, that withholding goes in the 111 for the fourth quarter, not the third. VAT (IVA in Spain) follows devengo (the point at which the tax arises, normally the date of the transaction), so the 111 and the modelo 303 for the same quarter may not include exactly the same invoices.

If you keep your books in software such as kontora, the 111 comes out prepared box by box from what you have recorded, and you file it from the app itself with your digital certificate, by direct filing, or your gestor (tax adviser) does.

I. Employment income: boxes 01 to 06

This is where payroll and other employment income go, including the director's pay.

You do not choose the payroll rate: it comes from the general procedure in the Regulations (art. 80.1 RIRPF, which refers to art. 86), based on the employee's expected annual salary and family situation. There are fixed rates for certain cases: 35% on what the director is paid for holding the office, or 19% if the company's turnover was below 100,000 € in the last closed financial year (art. 101.2 LIRPF), and 15% for courses, lectures and arrears from previous years (art. 80.1 RIRPF). The director also goes in boxes 01 to 03. To decide how the director should be paid, see how to pay yourself from your own SL.

A benefit in kind requires an ingreso a cuenta (payment on account) instead of a withholding (art. 74.2 RIRPF): there is no cash to deduct it from, so you pay the amount yourself. It is calculated by applying to the value of the benefit the same rate as the payroll (art. 102.1 RIRPF). Not everything you give in kind is taxable: health insurance is exempt up to 500 € a year per insured person (employee, spouse and descendants), or 1,500 € for a person with a disability, and only the excess is a benefit in kind (art. 42.3.c LIRPF). If an employee's premium is below 500 € a year, there is nothing to enter in boxes 04 to 06.

II. Business and professional income: boxes 07 to 12

This block covers invoices from autónomos that carry withholding. The typical one for an SL is the professional's: they show the withholding on their invoice, and you pay them the net amount and pay the withholding to the AEAT.

The rates (art. 101.5 LIRPF and art. 95 RIRPF):

• 15% for professional activities in general, on gross income.
• 7% for professionals starting out: the year they start and the following two, provided they carried on no professional activity in the previous year. They must tell you in writing, and you must keep that signed statement. There is also a 7% rate for certain specific groups listed in the article.
• 2% for agricultural, livestock and forestry activities (1% for pig fattening and poultry) and 1% for certain business activities under estimación objetiva (the módulos flat-rate system).

The base is the fee, without VAT. On an invoice for 1,000 € plus 210 € of VAT, the 15% withholding is 150 €, not 181.50 €, and box 08 shows 1,000 €, not 1,210 €. Invoices from companies carry no withholding, and nor do those from autónomos running a trading business (a shop, a restaurant, a car repair garage), unless they are taxed under módulos with an activity on the list in art. 95.6 RIRPF (plumbing, bricklaying, carpentry, painting, printing or road haulage, among others): these carry 1% and go in boxes 07 to 09, unless they tell you they are under estimación directa (the actual-profit system). If the professional left the withholding off an invoice that should have had it, you are still obliged to pay it (art. 99.4 LIRPF): ask them to correct it before you pay. You can check an invoice with the 111 and 115 withholding calculator.

III, IV and V. Prizes, public woodland and image rights: boxes 13 to 27

Almost every small business leaves these blocks empty, but it helps to know what they are.

Prizes go here unless they are investment income (interest and dividends, for example), which is reported on the specific form for that type of income. Other withholdings common in an SL do not go in the 111 either: the one on the rent for your premises goes in modelo 115, at 19% (art. 101.8 LIRPF), and the one on dividends or interest you pay a shareholder goes in modelo 123 (we cover it in paying dividends in an SL).

Total and how to pay modelo 111: boxes 28 to 30

The 111 never produces a refund or an amount to carry forward: either there is something to pay or it is a nil return. If box 30 is positive, you choose how to pay: a debit from your account when you file, or domiciliación (direct debit), which, according to the AEAT instructions, since 1 February 2024 also accepts an account at a bank that does not collaborate with the AEAT, provided it is in the SEPA euro payments area.

Withholdings cannot be deferred or paid in instalments: the application is rejected outright (art. 65.2.b of the General Tax Act, LGT). That money does not belong to the company: you have deducted it from other people. We explain this in deferring or splitting payments to Hacienda (the Spanish tax authorities).

Nil return (autoliquidación negativa). Tick this box when you paid income subject to withholding but, because of its amount, nothing had to be withheld, such as a low salary with a 0% rate (art. 108.1 RIRPF). It must still be filed on time.

Quarter with no withholding. If you paid no income subject to withholding in the period (neither payroll nor invoices with withholding), you do not file the 111, not even with empty boxes (this is what the AEAT instructions ask). What you must do, if you stop paying that type of income, is notify the AEAT that you are no longer obliged to withhold with a modelo 036 amendment within one month of the end of the period, and register again when you start withholding once more. For a company that has stopped trading, see dormant SL: what is still compulsory.

Modelo 111 example: a full worked case for an SL with one employee, a lawyer and health insurance

A small SL is preparing its 111 for the third quarter of 2026 (July, August and September). These are its figures:

• One employee with a gross salary of 2,000 € a month, in 12 payments, and a withholding rate of 12% (assumed for the example).
• A lawyer's invoice for 1,000 € plus VAT, with 15% withholding: 1,000 € base, 210 € VAT and 150 € withholding. The SL pays the lawyer 1,060 € in August.
• Health insurance for the employee, with an annual premium of 800 €, paid in one go in July and covering only her. 500 € is exempt; the remaining 300 € is a benefit in kind.

The employee counts as a recipient in box 01 and in box 04, because they are separate blocks. The 500 € of exempt insurance does not appear in the 111, but it does appear in the January 190, which includes exempt income (art. 108.2 RIRPF). The lawyer's VAT (210 €) goes in the 303, not the 111.

As for the 36 € payment on account, the SL can deduct it from the employee's pay; if it does not, that amount is added to the value of the benefit in kind in the employee's IRPF return (art. 43.2 LIRPF). In the 190 the valuation is reported without the payment on account (300 €), the 36 € goes in the field for payments on account made and, if you deduct it from her pay, also in the field for payments on account passed on (record layout in Orden EHA/3127/2009).

Modelo 111 and your accounts: account 4751

In the Plan General de Contabilidad (PGC, the Spanish chart of accounts), withholdings applied and not yet paid go to account 4751 Hacienda Pública, acreedora por retenciones practicadas (tax authorities, creditor for withholdings applied): it is credited when the withholding arises, against accounts in groups 4, 5 or 6, and debited when you pay, against bank (subgroup 57), as defined in the PGC (Royal Decree 1514/2007). For the example, the basic journal entries are these:

At the end of the quarter, the credits to account 4751 for the period should add up to the same as box 28 (906 €), whether or not the payment on account is passed on. If you record the withholding when you book the invoice rather than when you pay it, invoices still unpaid at the end of the quarter explain the difference, because the 111 goes by payment date. If debits and credits confuse you, start with how to keep your books without knowing accounting.

Complementary return, correcting modelo 111 and filing late

If you declared too little: complementary return. If a withholding was missing, you file an autoliquidación complementaria (complementary return, art. 122.2 LGT): you tick the complementary box, enter the 13-digit receipt number of the previous return and fill in boxes 01 to 27 with the correct total amounts for the period, which replace the previous ones. In box 29 you enter the result already declared and box 30 gives the difference, which must always be positive. You use the form in force for the period you are correcting.

Example: after filing the 111 in the previous section, a tax adviser's invoice turns up for 400 € plus VAT, with 60 € withheld, paid on 28 September and forgotten. The complementary return looks like this: 07, 2 recipients; 08, 1,400.00; 09, 210.00; 01 to 06, unchanged; 28, 966.00; 29, 906.00; 30, 60.00.

If you declared too much: request for correction. Modelo 111 has no autoliquidación rectificativa (corrective self-assessment): the law provides for one only where the rules for the specific tax establish it (art. 120.3 and 120.4 LGT), the order governing the 111 does not include it (the one in art. 67 bis RIRPF is for the annual income tax return) and the AEAT instructions of June 2026 refer to the request for correction (solicitud de rectificación, art. 126 of the Tax Management and Inspection Regulations, RGAT). You can request it as long as the AEAT has not issued an assessment on that point and its right to assess has not become time-barred: four years (art. 66 LGT). A complementary return cannot be used to reduce the result.

If you file late of your own accord, without a prior request from the AEAT, there is no penalty, but there is a recargo (late-filing surcharge, art. 27 LGT): 1% plus another 1% for each full month of delay, and 15% plus late-payment interest if more than 12 months have passed. If you pay the debt when you file and pay the surcharge on time, it is reduced by 25%. Following the example, if the 60 € complementary return is filed on 15 December 2026, there is one full month of delay (from 21 October to 20 November): a 2% surcharge, 1.20 €, or 0.90 € with the reduction.

If you file the 111 and do not pay it, when the deadline ends the debt enters the enforcement period (the forced collection stage, art. 161.1.b LGT), with surcharges of 5%, 10% or 20% depending on when you pay (art. 28 LGT). Work out your case with the late-filing surcharge calculator and, if the date has already passed, follow the steps in I have missed a tax deadline.

Modelo 111 and 190: the annual match, the certificate and common mistakes

In January you file modelo 190, the annual summary of withholdings and payments on account for the previous year, with details per recipient: NIF, income paid and withholdings, including exempt income or income without withholding (art. 108.2 RIRPF). Online, the deadline runs from 1 to 31 January (art. 5 of Orden EHA/3127/2009), and an SL must file it electronically. The total withholding in the 190 must match the total of the year's 111 returns; the AEAT website lists limited verification procedures covering both forms. In addition, before the annual income tax return campaign (campaña de la renta) opens, you must make available to each recipient a withholding certificate with those same figures (art. 108.3 RIRPF).

Common mistakes when filling in the 111:

• Declaring the VAT on the invoice. Box 08 takes the base before VAT.
• Mixing up the 111 and the 115. The withholding on the rent for your premises goes in the 115.
• Forgetting the payment on account for benefits in kind. Health insurance above the exempt limit, a company car or housing provided to an employee all trigger it.
• Using the invoice date. The 111 goes by payment date.
• Counting payments instead of people. Boxes 01, 04 and 07 count distinct recipients, not payslips or invoices.
• Applying 7% without the signed statement from the professional starting out, or continuing to apply it after the third year.
• Not matching the 190. If you discover in January that something was missing, you will need complementary returns for closed quarters, with a surcharge if their deadline has passed.

Frequently asked questions

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