Modelo 349: invoicing EU clients from Spain

What is reported in modelo 349

The Agencia Tributaria calls it the declaracion recapitulativa de operaciones intracomunitarias: a recap, client by client and supplier by supplier, of your operations with businesses in other EU member states. It covers:

• Entregas intracomunitarias de bienes: intra-EU supplies of goods, when you sell goods shipped from Spain to another EU country.
• Adquisiciones intracomunitarias de bienes: intra-EU acquisitions, when you buy goods that arrive in Spain from another EU country.
• Intra-EU supplies of services: you invoice services to an EU business, the typical freelancer case.
• Intra-EU purchases of services: you buy services from EU providers, for example software or advertising.
• Transfers of goods under call-off stock arrangements: a more specific case for businesses sending stock to another member state.

It is purely informative: it never produces an amount to pay or to refund. The official form page is on the Agencia Tributaria website.

Who has to file it

Any business or professional in Spain carrying out intra-EU operations of the kinds above, whatever their VAT regime. There is no minimum amount: a single invoice to an EU client in a period is enough to trigger the 349 for that period.

The most common profile is the autonomo or small company providing services to EU business clients. Those invoices are issued without Spanish VAT under the inversion del sujeto pasivo rule, the reverse charge: your client accounts for the VAT in their own country. Issuing the invoice without VAT does not remove your obligations, quite the opposite: that operation must appear in your 349.

The other direction counts too. If you buy services from EU providers for your business, such as software tools or advertising campaigns, those intra-EU purchases of services are also reported.

Before you invoice: ROI registration and the VIES check

To operate with the EU without VAT you need one thing first: registration in the Registro de Operadores Intracomunitarios (ROI), the Spanish register of intra-EU operators, requested with form modelo 036. Registration gives you a NIF-IVA, which is your Spanish tax ID with the ES prefix, and puts you in VIES, the EU-wide database of intra-EU operators. The Agencia Tributaria explains it on its page about identification for operating with other EU businesses.

Before issuing an invoice without VAT, check your client's VAT number in VIES. If the client does not show up as a valid intra-EU operator, the general rule is that you must charge Spanish VAT. Keep proof of the check: it is your backup if the tax office ever asks.

The check works both ways: your EU client will also verify your NIF-IVA in VIES before accepting an invoice without their local VAT.

How it relates to modelo 303

Intra-EU operations live in two forms at once. In modelo 303, the periodic VAT return, they have their own specific boxes: the supplies and services you invoice to the EU are reported without Spanish VAT charged, and your intra-EU purchases are self-assessed, meaning you declare the VAT due and, if you have the right to, deduct it in the same return. In modelo 349 you report those same operations broken down by each client and supplier and their VAT number.

The practical consequence: the figures in both forms must be consistent with each other and with what your EU clients and suppliers report in their own countries, because tax administrations cross-check this information. A 303 showing intra-EU operations with no 349 filed is an inconsistency that is very easy to detect.

kontora builds your 349 draft from the same invoices that feed your 303, so both forms match, and guides you through filing on the AEAT website; submitting the form is still done by you.

Periodicity and deadlines

The default rule for the 349 is monthly filing, but you can file quarterly if neither in the current quarter nor in any of the four previous quarters your total intra-EU supplies of goods and services exceeds 50,000 euros (VAT excluded). In practice, most freelancers and small companies file the 349 quarterly.

• General deadline: the first 20 calendar days of the month after the period. Q1 is filed from 1 to 20 April, Q2 from 1 to 20 July and Q3 from 1 to 20 October.
• Last period of the year: Q4, or December if you file monthly, is filed during the first 30 calendar days of January.
• July for monthly filers: it can be filed during August and the first 20 calendar days of September.

The old annual version no longer exists: since fiscal year 2020 the 349 can only be monthly or quarterly, under Orden HAC/174/2020. One detail that saves work: the 349 is only filed for periods in which you actually had intra-EU operations; there is no such thing as an empty 349.

Common mistakes and what happens if you skip it

The slips we see most often among foreigners starting to invoice from Spain:

• Invoicing without VAT without checking VIES: if the client is not in VIES, that invoice should generally carry Spanish VAT, and the mistake ends up costing the VAT plus interest.
• Forgetting the 349 because nothing is due: the obligation exists even though the amount is zero; this is the most common error of all.
• Confusing the EU with the rest of the world: an invoice to the UK, Switzerland or the US is not an intra-EU operation and does not go in the 349; it is an export or a service located outside the EU, with its own treatment.
• Mismatches between the 303 and the 349: reporting an operation in one form but not the other, or with different amounts.
• Missing the January deadline: the last period of the year has 30 days instead of the usual 20, and January still fills up fast with all the other filings.

Not filing the 349, or filing it late or with errors, is penalised with the fines set for informative declarations: fixed amounts per omitted or incorrect data item, with minimums that make even a small forgotten 349 expensive. Filing late on your own initiative, before the tax office demands it, reduces the penalty, so if you missed one, fix it as soon as possible.

Frequently asked questions

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