Modelo 131: the quarterly IRPF prepayment under módulos

What modelo 131 is and who files it

Modelo 131 is the self-assessment with which you prepay the IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) on an activity whose income is determined by the estimación objetiva method (the flat-rate system), which everyone calls módulos. It is a pago fraccionado (instalment payment): not a separate tax, but part of the year's IRPF that you pay in advance and then deduct in your annual income tax return.

The general obligation is in article 109 of the IRPF Regulation: every taxpayer who carries on economic activities self-assesses and pays prepayments each quarter. Those in direct estimation (estimación directa, based on real income and expenses) use modelo 130; those in módulos use the 131. It is filed by individuals. If the bar is run by a comunidad de bienes (a co-ownership of assets) or another entity under the income attribution regime, the entity does not file the 131: each member files it in proportion to their share of the profit (article 112 of the IRPF Regulation).

The activities that can use módulos in 2026 are those listed in Order HAC/1425/2025, which develops the method for that year. They include cafés and bars (IAE heading 673.2), taxi transport (721.2), bricklaying (501.3) and road freight transport (722).

How modelo 131 is calculated: 4, 3 or 2%

The 131 calculation does not start from your invoices but from the base data of your activity (staff, floor area of the premises, electrical power, tables, kilometres) as at 1 January. With them and the amounts in the módulos Order you obtain the annual net módulos income. You then apply the percentage from article 110.1.b of the IRPF Regulation:

• 4% as a general rule, that is, if you have two or more employees.
• 3% if the activity has a single employee.
• 2% if you have no employees.

That percentage is paid in each of the four quarters on the same annual income. That is why the 131 comes out the same quarter after quarter even if you invoice twice as much in summer as in winter, unless the reductions or withholdings change.

Three nuances from the same article. If a base data item cannot be determined at 1 January, the one from the previous year is used; if none can be determined, the payment is 2% of the quarter's sales or income. In agricultural, livestock, forestry or fishing activities, whichever method applies, the payment is 2% of the quarter's income, not counting capital grants or compensation (article 110.1.c). And the percentages are reduced by 60% for activities entitled to the deduction for income obtained in Ceuta or Melilla (article 110.2).

For 2026 there is also a reduction: the first additional provision of Order HAC/1425/2025 allows the módulos net income to be reduced by 5% and expressly says that this reduction is taken into account for the 2026 prepayments.

What you can subtract: withholdings and reductions

From the amount that comes out of the percentage you can deduct, under article 110.3 of the IRPF Regulation:

• The quarter's withholdings. Some activities in módulos suffer a retención (withholding) of 1% when they invoice companies or professionals: metal carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, painting, road freight transport or removals, among others (article 95.6 of the Regulation). In the 131 you subtract those of the quarter itself, not the cumulative ones. If they exceed that quarter's payment, the excess is subtracted in the following quarters of the same year, down to zero.
• The reduction for low income. If your net income from economic activities in the previous year was 12,000 euros or less, you subtract a fixed amount per quarter: 100 euros up to 9,000; 75 euros between 9,000.01 and 10,000; 50 euros between 10,000.01 and 11,000; and 25 euros between 11,000.01 and 12,000. Whatever does not fit in one quarter is carried over to the following quarters of the year.
• The deduction for main home. Only for those who keep the right to the transitional deduction for investment in a home financed with a loan: 0.5% of the módulos net income when it is below 33,007.2 euros, with the limits and exclusions of article 110.3.d.

A bar or a taxi does not usually have withholdings, because its customers are private individuals and its heading is not on the 1% list. For them the 131 is, almost always, the percentage minus the reduction. If the result is zero, the form is still filed as a nil return (article 111.1).

Modelo 131 deadlines in 2026 and 2027

Article 111 of the IRPF Regulation sets the same deadlines as for the 130, and the módulos Order itself repeats them:

• First, second and third quarters: 1 to 20 April, July and October.
• Fourth quarter: 1 to 30 January of the following year.

In practice, the third quarter of 2026 is filed up to 20 October 2026. The fourth quarter of 2026 falls due in January 2027, and as 30 and 31 January 2027 fall on a weekend, the deadline moves to Monday 1 February, like that of the quarterly IVA (VAT). All the dates, adjusted for public holidays, are in the 2026-2027 tax calendar, and what happens if you are late is in the guide to I have missed a deadline.

Examples: the modelo 131 of a bar and a taxi driver

The income figures are illustrative: yours comes from applying the amounts of the 2026 módulos Order to your base data.

A bar with one waiter. The bar (heading 673.2) calculates from its data at 1 January a módulos net income of 20,000 euros. It applies the 2026 reduction of 5% and ends up at 19,000 euros. As it has a single employee, the percentage is 3%: 570 euros per quarter. It has no withholdings and earned more than 12,000 euros the previous year, so there is no reduction. It pays 570 euros in April, July, October and January: 2,280 euros of IRPF in advance, which it will deduct in its income tax return.

A taxi driver with no employees. The taxi (heading 721.2) obtains a módulos net income of 13,000 euros, which with the 5% reduction becomes 12,350. With no employees, the percentage is 2%: 247 euros. Its net income for the previous year was 10,500 euros, so it has a reduction of 50 euros per quarter. It pays 197 euros each quarter.

Modelo 130 or modelo 131: the differences

Both are prepayments of the same tax and use the same calendar, but their logic is opposite. The 130 looks at your real figures and is recalculated on the year's cumulative total; the 131 looks at your base data and repeats the instalment. One person cannot have one activity in módulos and another in direct estimation: article 31.1.3.ª of the IRPF Law excludes from módulos anyone who determines the income of any activity in direct estimation. The exclusion takes effect from the following year: if you start an activity in direct estimation during the year, the ones you already had stay in módulos that year (article 35 of the Regulation).

The exemption for those with at least 70% of their income subject to withholding is in paragraphs 2 to 4 of article 109 of the Regulation and only covers professionals and agricultural, livestock and forestry activities. How the 130 is filled in, box by box, is in the guide to modelo 130 box by box.

Who can be in módulos in 2026 and what happens if you waive

Besides having an activity included in the Order, you must not exceed the excluding limits. For agricultural, livestock and forestry activities, article 3 of Order HAC/1425/2025 sets for 2026 a limit of 250,000 euros of income. For the rest, article 3.1.a of the Order refers to what is provided for 2026 in article 31.1.3.ª of the IRPF Law, and the limits in force are those of the text of the law, referring to the previous year:

• 150,000 euros of gross income for all activities together, except agricultural ones, whether invoiced or not (letter b.a´).
• 75,000 euros of gross income from operations invoiced to businesses or professionals (same letter).
• 150,000 euros of purchases of goods and services, not counting fixed assets (letter c).

Why these figures and not the 250,000 and 125,000 euros that circulate: the thirty-second transitional provision of the Law, which raised them, only covers the years 2016 to 2024, and its extensions for the following years (royal decree-laws 9/2024, 16/2025 and 2/2026) were repealed by Congress. If the BOE publishes a new extension, these figures would change: check before you decide.

You can also leave módulos by your own decision. The waiver is made in December, for the following year, or when you register; and it is deemed made if you file the first-quarter prepayment on time in the form of direct estimation, that is, if in April you file a 130 instead of a 131 (article 33 of the IRPF Regulation). Its effects:

• You move to simplified direct estimation and file modelo 130 on your real profit.
• You stay in direct estimation for all your activities for at least three years (article 31.1.5.ª of the Law and 33.3 of the Regulation).
• You also waive the simplified IVA regime for all your activities (article 33.2 of the IVA Regulation), so you move to general IVA with modelo 303 (the quarterly VAT return).

If your activity suffers the 1% withholding, tell your clients: from the moment you file that first 130 you are deemed to be in direct estimation and that withholding no longer applies (article 95.6.5.º).

Frequently asked questions

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