How to fill in the modelo 390 box by box: instructions, a full-year example and how to reconcile it with your 303 returns

Before you start: who files the modelo 390 and the January deadline

Who files the 390 and why is covered in the guide to the modelo 390. Before you begin, find your row: Orden EHA/3111/2009 sets out in article 1.3 who is left out, and art. 71.1 RIVA (the VAT Regulation) requires the 390 «even where no output VAT has accrued and no deduction is made».

Modelo 390 deadline: January. The first thirty calendar days of January of the following year (art. 8 of the Orden). 30 January 2027 falls on a Saturday; the instructions move deadlines that fall on non-working days to the next working day, and the date is confirmed in the tax calendar. You file it from the modelo 390 page on the AEAT electronic office and there is nothing to pay.

Modelo 390 exemption: who does not file it and which boxes they complete in the fourth-quarter 303

You do not file the modelo 390 if you keep your VAT books online at the AEAT (Spanish Tax Agency) (SII), whether compulsorily or by choice, or if you file quarterly, are taxed only in the common territory (all of Spain except the Basque Country and Navarre) and your activity is exclusively under módulos (the simplified VAT regime) and/or letting of urban property. This is set by art. 1.3 of Orden EHA/3111/2009, as worded by Orden HAC/1148/2018, which is the version in force.

• Módulos and urban lettings (letter a): the exemption still applies if you also carry out activities for which you file no 303. If you add an activity under the general VAT regime, it is no longer «exclusively» and you file the 390.
• SII (letter b): art. 62.6 RIVA (the VAT Regulation) makes it compulsory for monthly filers and lets everyone else opt in with a census return (art. 68 bis RIVA).
• No 303 for the last period, no exemption: if you deregister before the fourth quarter (or December) and do not file that 303, you file the 390.

In exchange, the 303 for the last period of the year (4th quarter if you file quarterly; December if monthly) asks for full-year data (art. 1.4 of the Orden and the modelo 303 instructions):

1. In the identification section, you tick that you are exempt from the 390 and state whether your annual turnover is other than zero.
2. On page 4, for exempt filers only: main activity, code (A01 property lessors, A03 other business activities, A05 other professionals, among others), IAE heading (business activity tax) and an X if you have transactions to report in the modelo 347.
3. Turnover: 80 (general regime), 81 (cash accounting), 93 (intra-EU), 94 (exports and exempt with right to deduct), 83 (exempt without right to deduct), 84 (not subject owing to place of supply), 125 to 128, 86 (simplified regime) and 95 to 98 (farming, equivalence surcharge, second-hand goods, travel agencies), minus 79 (non-habitual property and financial transactions) and 99 (capital goods). The total goes in box 88.
4. On page 5, if you apply pro rata (boxes 500 to 524) or have differentiated sectors (700 to 805).

Watch out: on that page of the 303, box 95 is farming and box 99 is capital goods. They have nothing to do with boxes 95 and 99 of the 390, explained further down.

Identification, tax period and statistical data (sections 1 to 4)

The first page has no amounts, but its ticks decide which sections you will open later. Fill it in with your census registration (alta censal, the modelo 036 or 037 you filed with the AEAT) to hand.

Two details. The IAE heading (epígrafe IAE, the code that classifies your activity) and the code must match your registration; if you changed activity, check it with the guide to the modelo 036 box by box. And tick D tells you that Hacienda (the Spanish tax authorities) will cross-check the 390 with your modelo 347. If you use the cash accounting scheme (criterio de caja), dedicated boxes open in the output VAT and specific transactions sections.

Modelo 390 output VAT boxes: 01 to 47

This is the annual sum of the top half of your 303s, in more detail: it also splits EU purchases by rate and separates goods from services, which in the 303 go together. Tax bases exclude VAT.

This is where you see that the 390 is not filled in simply by adding up: if in box 10 of the 303 you combined an Irish software licence and equipment bought in Germany, in the 390 the licence goes in 551-552 and the equipment in 25-26. Corrective invoices go in 29 to 32, never deducted from sales; how they are issued is explained in the guide to the corrective invoice (factura rectificativa). Other regimes have their own rows: second-hand goods (07 to 12), travel agencies (13-14) and intra-group (500 to 505).

Deductible VAT and general regime result: boxes 48 to 65

The big addition compared with the 303: deductible input VAT (IVA soportado) is broken down by rate and capital goods are shown separately. The base goes «in all cases, without applying the pro rata»; the VAT amount, after applying the pro rata rule if it applies to you.

A capital good, under art. 108 LIVA, is one used as a working tool for more than a year; nothing worth less than 500,000 pesetas (3,005.06 €) qualifies. A 1,200 € laptop goes in 605-606 even if you depreciate it; a 20,000 € van, in 613-614.

For intra-EU purchases with full deduction, the deductible amount mirrors the output amount: the total 597-598 matches the sum of boxes 545 to 552 (in the example, all at 21%: 551-552). VAT you cannot deduct does not go in this block: only its base goes, in box 232.

Result of the annual return and offsets: boxes 84 to 98

Section 7 is completed by those taxed only by the State Administration; section 9 records what happened in each 303.

Boxes 65 and 84 are the ones that reconcile with the 303s: you will see how in the reconciliation section below.

If you are also taxed in the Basque Country or Navarre, you complete section 8 instead of section 7: percentages in 87 to 91, result attributable to the common territory in 92 (84 × 87), offset in 93 and result in 94 (92 + 659 - 93 - 112).

Modelo 390 box 95: total amounts payable under your 303s for the year

Box 95 of the modelo 390 is the sum of the amounts payable that came out of your periodic returns for the year (the 303s), including those you deferred, paid in instalments or did not pay. That is how the AEAT modelo 390 instructions define it, in section 9.1 («Periods not taxed under the special regime for groups of entities»).

• Only 303s with an amount payable count: each contributes its box 71 when positive. A quarter to be offset or refunded does not subtract here; whatever remains at year end goes in box 97 (to offset), 98 (to refund) or 662 (balances to offset generated in other periods of the year and not applied).
• What you declared counts, not what you paid: a deferred, instalment or unpaid 303 goes in in full.
• Corrective and supplementary returns: if you corrected a 303, count the amount payable that remained after the correction. Under the 390 instructions, the amount of a supplementary return “is added to that of the corresponding self-assessment”, and a downward corrective return reduces the figure for its quarter.
• Monthly refunds: if you are on that register, the refunds requested go in box 96, not 95.
• Groups of entities (modelo 322): they use boxes 525 and 526 in section 9.2, not 95.

Example: Q1 payable 1,200 €, Q2 payable 900 € with a deferral, Q3 to offset 300 € and Q4 payable 650 € after applying those 300 € in box 78 of the 303. Box 95 = 1,200 + 900 + 650 = 2,750 €. Q3 does not subtract, and since the balance was already applied within the year, boxes 97 and 662 stay empty.

Box 95 does not enter the calculation of box 86: it reflects what you declared as payable during the year. If it does not match the sum of what remained payable in each 303, corrective returns included, you are missing a quarter or have included one that was to be offset.

Modelo 390 box 99: general regime turnover and the box 108 total

Box 99 of the modelo 390 holds the amount, excluding VAT and the equivalence surcharge, of the supplies of goods and services you made during the year under the general regime, including zero-rated transactions. It does not include exempt transactions (boxes 103, 104 and 105), those not subject owing to place-of-supply rules (110), those subject to reverse charge (inversión del sujeto pasivo) (125), those made from permanent establishments outside the VAT territory whose costs are not borne by an establishment within it, or self-supplies under letters c) and d) of art. 9.1.º LIVA (390 instructions, section 10). Cash accounting sales are also reported in box 653, under the general accrual rule.

Box 108 of the modelo 390 is turnover (volumen de operaciones) as defined in art. 121 LIVA: all supplies of goods and services excluding VAT, «including those exempt from the Tax», counted on accrual (devengo, when VAT arises, usually the date of the transaction), excluding occasional supplies of property, of capital goods and non-habitual financial transactions. The form also adds transactions not subject to Spanish VAT under the place-of-supply rules.

Turnover is not what you invoiced with VAT: it is everything you invoiced. If you work for clients outside Spain, you have income that does not pass through any output VAT box but must appear here; the guide to invoicing foreign clients without VAT explains whether each case falls in 103, 104 or 110. The figure has consequences: exceeding 6,010,121.04 € requires you to file monthly the following year (art. 71.3 RIVA).

Specific transactions, pro rata and other regimes: sections 6, 11, 12 and 13

Section 11 is for information only: each amount is entered «regardless of whether it has already been included in previous sections» and does not change any result.

Box 232 is the one most often forgotten. It holds the base, not the VAT, of purchases with non-deductible VAT: client hospitality such as business meals (art. 96.Uno.5.º LIVA) or the non-business part of a mixed-use asset. What is deductible for VAT and for IRPF (personal income tax), which does not always match, is covered in the guide to deductible expenses for the autónomo (self-employed person).

The pro rata applies if you carry out transactions both with and without the right to deduct. Under the general pro rata (art. 104 LIVA) the final percentage divides transactions with right to deduct by the total, and the adjustment goes in 522. With differentiated sectors (art. 101 LIVA), each declares its deductible VAT in section 13.

How to reconcile the 390 with your four 303s and with the 349

Put the four 303s side by side in columns and compare. Where the 303 combines what the 390 separates, go to your books.

The box that reconciles with the 303s. Box 65 of the 390 must be exactly the sum of box 46 of the four 303s, and box 84 the sum of their box 64. If they do not match, a 303 is wrong or the 390 does not come from the same books. Box 86 may not match the sum of the 303 results because of offsets: box 78 of the 303 includes both the balance from the previous year and one generated in a quarter of the same year, whereas box 85 of the 390 includes only the former. If you carry no balance from previous years (and have no amounts in 659 or 112), box 86 is box 95 minus whatever remains to be offset or refunded at year end (97, 98 and 662); if those three are zero, 86 and 95 match. Any excess to be offset expires four years after filing the 303 in which it arose (art. 99.Cinco LIVA).

With the modelo 349 (the EU transactions return) the cross-check is by key: box 103 matches keys E (supplies of goods; also M or H if you use them) and S (services supplied) for the year; the bases in 21 to 26 match key A (goods acquired), and those in 545 to 552 match key I (services acquired). If they do not match, look for invoices allocated to different periods in each return. To rebuild a quarter, use the modelo 303 estimator.

If the discrepancy is in a 303, you correct the 303 with a corrective self-assessment (autoliquidación rectificativa, the one that corrects a 303 already filed), not by forcing the 390. If you keep your books in kontora, the 390 is prepared box by box from the same entries that fed your four 303s and the app reminds you of the deadline; you, or your gestor (tax adviser), file it through the AEAT electronic office.

Modelo 390 example: a full year for an autónomo

Marta, a self-employed graphic designer, is in the general regime, files quarterly, has no pro rata and no balance from the previous year. Her 2026:

• Q1: 9,000 € of sales at 21%, expenses of 2,500 € and 8,000 € of photographic equipment, a capital good (it exceeds 3,005.06 € and will last for years). The result is a balance to offset.
• Q2: sales of 11,000 € and expenses of 2,800 €; she offsets the Q1 balance. She also spends 400 € plus VAT on meals with clients, which are not deductible.
• Q3: the quarter from the 303 guide: sales of 12,000 €, 500 € of advertising from an Irish company and expenses of 3,000 €.
• Q4: domestic sales of 10,000 €, 2,000 € to a French agency with an EU VAT number (NIF-IVA; 303: 59), 1,500 € to a US company (303: 120) and expenses of 2,600 €.

Her 390 for the 2026 tax year:

Box 65 reconciles with the sum of box 46, including the -315 € from Q1. Box 86 matches box 95 because that balance was offset within the year and at year end nothing remains in 97, 98 or 662. And turnover exceeds sales with VAT by 3,500 € because of the amounts invoiced to France and the United States. In the 349, key I for Q3 (500 €) matches box 551, and key S for Q4 (2,000 €), box 103.

If the 390 does not reconcile or is filed late, and typical mistakes

How to correct a 390 already filed, information requests and the penalty for late filing are covered in the guide to the modelo 390; if you have already received the letter, see how to reply to a notice from Hacienda. The details that change the numbers:

• No surcharge: since the 390 has no amount payable, there is no late filing surcharge (recargo), which is calculated «on the amount payable» (art. 27.2 LGT, the General Tax Law). What applies is a fixed tax penalty (sanción tributaria): 200 € (art. 198.1 LGT), or 100 € if you file it on your own initiative before any request (art. 198.2).
• Incomplete or inaccurate: 150 € (art. 199.2 LGT). If you correct it with a late replacement return before any request, the law applies art. 198.2 instead.
• Reductions: the reduction for accepting the proposed penalty (conformidad) only covers penalties under arts. 191 to 197; the 40% reduction for paying on time without appealing does apply (art. 188.3 LGT): 200 € becomes 120 € and 100 €, 60 €.

What to do, step by step, if the date has already passed is in I missed a tax deadline. Typical mistakes:

1. Incomplete turnover: forgetting exports (104), transactions with EU businesses (103) or services to clients outside the EU (110).
2. Offsets handled wrongly: putting a same-year balance in 85 or forgetting the one from the previous year.
3. Non-deductible VAT among deductions: only its base goes in 232; in 48-49 it throws out box 64.
4. Intra-EU services entered as goods: they go in 545-552 and 597-598.
5. Capital goods misclassified: below 3,005.06 € they are not capital goods.
6. Figures that do not come from your VAT books: any you cannot trace will end up in an information request.

Frequently asked questions

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