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.

Modelo 349 operation keys: E, A, T, S, I, M, H and the rest, with examples

Each operation in the 349 is reported with a letter, the operation key (clave de operación): E for goods you sell to the EU, A for goods you buy, S for services you supply, I for services you buy, and T, M, H, R, D and C for special cases. The official list is in the record layout of Orden EHA/769/2010, the order approving the form:

• E: exempt intra-EU supplies of goods; you sell goods that leave Spain for another EU country.
• A: taxable intra-EU acquisitions of goods; you buy goods that arrive from another EU country.
• T: supplies in another member state following exempt intra-EU acquisitions, in triangular transactions.
• S: intra-EU supplies of services made by you.
• I: intra-EU purchases of services: services supplied to you by a business established in another member state, located in Spain, where you are the recipient.
• M: intra-EU supplies of goods following an exempt import (art. 27.12 of the Spanish VAT Act).
• H: those same supplies when made by the fiscal representative (representante fiscal, art. 86.Three of the VAT Act).
• R, D and C: call-off stock arrangements; R for transfers of goods, D for returns of those goods from the other member state and C for the replacement of the intended business recipient.

Operations are added up per client or supplier and per key: a single record for each VAT number, key and period. Corrections to earlier periods use the same letters.

Example: you are a self-employed designer (autonomo) in Valencia. In the quarter you invoice 6,000 EUR without VAT to an agency in Berlin and pay 300 EUR for software licences to a company based in Ireland that invoices you without VAT. Your 349 has two records: the German agency under key S for 6,000 EUR and the Irish supplier under key I for 300 EUR, each with its VAT number (DE and IE prefixes). Both are reverse charge operations (inversion del sujeto pasivo) that you also report in your 303.

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, when you press "File", sends it to the AEAT through the TGVI channel with your digital certificate and archives the receipt.

Modelo 349 monthly or quarterly: how to know your filing period

You file the 349 quarterly if your intra-EU supplies of goods and services do not exceed, in total, 50,000 euros (VAT excluded) either in the current quarter or in any of the four previous quarters; if they do, you file monthly. This is set by article 81 of the Spanish VAT Regulation (Reglamento del IVA). On paper, monthly is the default rule and quarterly the exception, but in practice almost all freelancers and small companies file the 349 quarterly.

• What counts towards the limit: only the supplies of goods and services you report in the 349. Your intra-EU purchases (keys A and I) do not count.
• If you go over 50,000 EUR mid-quarter: you switch to monthly from that point. If you exceed it in the first month, you file a monthly return for that month; if in the second month, one return covering the first two months, flagged as a truncated quarter (trimestre truncado). It is filed within the following 20 calendar days (art. 10.2 of Orden EHA/769/2010).
• Going back to quarterly: since the four previous quarters are checked, the quarter in which you exceeded the limit keeps you on monthly filing for at least the next four quarters.

The deadlines:

• 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, that is, by 30 January (if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the next working day: in 2027, 1 February).
• 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: it was removed by Real Decreto-ley 3/2020 in the VAT Regulation and by Orden HAC/174/2020 in the order governing the form, both effective from 1 March 2020. Today the 349 is only monthly or quarterly, and it 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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