Corporate tax, IVA, director compensation, quarterly filings, deductions and the Beckham Law. The full tax landscape for expat-owned autónomos and SLs — in plain English.
Spanish business tax is not inherently difficult — but there are five or six moving parts that need to work together, and most expat founders discover this only when one of them breaks. This page is the overview of how it all fits: corporate tax, IVA, personal tax on director compensation, quarterly filings, the special regimes that can materially reduce the total burden, and the documentation Hacienda expects.
We cover this because most of our Business & Corporate work crosses the tax line. You can't sensibly advise on SL formation without modelling corporate tax. You can't register someone as autónomo without confirming their IVA regime. You can't review a director contract without understanding how the compensation will be taxed.
Where you see a link, there's a dedicated page going deeper — the corporate tax, IVA, and Beckham Law pages. This page is the map.
One-off advisory, structuring calls, annual tax planning and dispute representation — all scoped and quoted in writing. We work alongside your gestor for monthly bookkeeping.
Five tax systems touch every Spanish business. They connect, but they're administered by different agencies and governed by different laws. Getting one wrong rarely reveals itself until the annual return — by which point the damage is done.
SLs and SAs pay corporate tax on their worldwide profits — 25% standard rate, with a 15% reduced rate for genuine startups in their first two profitable years, and 23% for companies with turnover under €1M. Quarterly advance payments on Modelo 202, annual return on Modelo 200.
The tax base is accounting profit adjusted for specific Spanish rules — non-deductible expenses, depreciation limits, thin-capitalisation rules, anti-abuse provisions. We focus on the adjustments that actually move the number: director compensation, related-party transactions, and the startup reduction where available.
Autónomos pay IRPF on business profits at progressive rates — 19% to 47% depending on bracket and region. SL directors pay IRPF on salary and on dividends separately, with different effective rates.
The Beckham Law offers a flat 24% up to €600k for qualifying expat directors, which can dramatically reduce the personal tax burden for incoming founders. Window for application is six months from Social Security registration. See the Beckham Law page.
Standard 21%, reduced 10% for specific categories (hospitality, some cultural goods), super-reduced 4% for essentials. Quarterly returns on Modelo 303, annual summary on Modelo 390. Some activities are exempt (medical, education, financial services) which changes the filing picture.
Intra-EU B2B supplies are zero-rated if you and your client both have valid EU VAT numbers (ROI / VIES). Non-EU supplies are generally outside scope. Getting this right matters — misclassified invoices create reclaims that take months.
Autónomos pay the tiered monthly cuota based on income. SL-employed directors pay through payroll — employer contribution around 30% on gross salary, employee contribution around 6.35%. Non-employee administrators of SLs they don't control can in some cases stay outside Social Security; majority-owner administrators cannot.
This is often the biggest single line on a founder's total compensation. We model it explicitly at structuring, not as an afterthought to the tax calculation.
Spanish businesses act as withholding agents on multiple categories — employee salary IRPF, professional invoice retentions (15% on some autónomo invoices), rent (19%), dividends, non-resident payments. Each has its own Modelo.
Miss the withholding and you're liable for the tax you should have withheld. This isn't a grey area — it's a direct Hacienda claim on the company for the unpaid amount plus surcharges. We check withholding obligations on every contract review.
This is what your tax year actually looks like once you're operational. The exact list depends on structure, activity and employment, but these are the major dates every business needs to know.
Quarterly IVA return. Due 20 days after quarter-end (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct). The operational heartbeat of most businesses.
Quarterly IRPF advance payment for autónomos not under withholding. Due 20 days after quarter-end, same cycle as 303.
Quarterly corporate tax advance payment for SLs. Due 20 days after the close of April, October and December.
Intra-EU supplies declaration if you have EU B2B clients. Filed in parallel with Modelo 303.
Annual income tax (100 for individuals, 200 for companies). 200 filed July, 100 filed June.
Annual IVA summary. Consolidates all four quarterly 303s. Filed January.
Annual report of third-party transactions over €3,005.06. Filed February. Often forgotten — and often triggers mismatch letters from Hacienda.
Annual accounts filed at the Mercantile Register within six months of financial year-end. Includes balance sheet, P&L and directors' report.
Most of the tax calendar above is handled monthly by a gestor. Our role is the strategic layer — the decisions that shape how much tax you pay, not the mechanical filing.
At formation — SL vs autónomo, administrator structure, share classes, Beckham Law eligibility, regional considerations. Decisions that set your tax base for years.
For directors — salary vs dividends vs director fees. Each is taxed differently; the mix affects effective rate, Social Security and corporate deductibility.
If you have a foreign parent or sister company, transfer pricing between entities is the #1 audit risk area. We document arm's-length terms to pre-empt challenges.
Hacienda requirements, inspections, appeals. We represent you through the requerimiento → allegations → TEAR appeal process where disputes arise.
UK/Spain, US/Spain, Ireland/Spain double-tax treaty application. Foreign credit claims, tiebreaker rules for dual-residents, permanent establishment analysis.
Once a year, a structured review of the previous year's position and the coming year's plan — income projections, compensation, any structural changes.
Strategic tax work isn't about filing returns — it's about making decisions before the return is due. These are typical briefs we get.
The situation. Closing a UK Ltd with £400k retained earnings. Wants to take the money out cleanly before becoming Spanish tax resident.
How we'd handle it. Sequence the UK Ltd wind-up and liquidation distribution before Spanish tax residency is triggered (183 days). Spanish residency then starts with a clean personal tax base. Beckham Law assessed for the move.
The situation. Both operational. LLC bills US clients, SL bills EU clients. Wants transfer-pricing documentation before any IRS or Hacienda review.
How we'd handle it. Draft a services agreement between the two entities on a cost-plus basis. Economic substance in each entity documented. Transfer pricing file prepared under the Spanish/OECD standard. Pre-empts both sides of any audit.
The situation. Just received a Hacienda requerimiento challenging the deduction of some director expenses. Deadline to respond is 10 working days.
How we'd handle it. Immediate response drafted with documentary support. Where positions are defensible, we argue them; where they aren't, we correct voluntarily to avoid penalty amplification. Case closed within 30 days.
The situation. High net-worth family moving to Málaga. Wealth tax exposure is the primary concern. Family business income is secondary.
How we'd handle it. Pre-arrival wealth tax structuring — domicile timing, reorganisation of foreign-held assets, review of Andalucía wealth tax position. Beckham Law for the working spouse. Succession planning integrated.
Autonomous communities set their own surcharges on personal income tax, run separate wealth tax regimes, and have varying inheritance tax rules. For founders making enough to notice, region is a real lever.
Most favourable top-bracket personal tax across major regions. Wealth tax materially suppressed by autonomous bonification. The default domicile for founders who can live anywhere in Spain.
Highest personal income surcharges (top rate approaches 50%). Active wealth tax. Strong business ecosystem but tax-heavy for high-earning directors — something we always model explicitly.
Competitive wealth tax regime and moderate personal income surcharges. Inheritance tax heavily reduced for direct descendants. The region of choice for many high-net-worth relocations.
Middle-of-the-pack personal tax, reasonable wealth tax position. Thriving digital-nomad and consulting ecosystem in Valencia and Alicante. A sensible choice for lifestyle-first founders.
ZEC regime offers 4% corporate tax for qualifying companies with genuine substance. IGIC instead of IVA (7% standard vs 21%). Significant tax advantages — but only for real operations, not letterboxes.
Foral tax regimes with separate rules. Can be attractive for certain industries (heavy industry, renewables, specific R&D-heavy sectors). Only relevant if you're actually based there.
Most tax penalties are modest. The expensive mistakes are the structural ones — choices made at formation or during compensation planning that compound over years.
Six months from Social Security registration. Miss it and the flat 24% expat regime is gone forever for that employment. For a founder earning €200k, that's roughly €30-40k/year of unnecessary tax — for six years.
Paying yourself entirely in dividends looks attractive (lower rate, no Social Security) but eliminates the corporate tax deduction. The optimal mix is nearly always some of each — and the maths changes every year as tax rates move.
If you have a foreign parent or sister company and you haven't documented the arm's-length basis of inter-company transactions, Hacienda can reassess at their preferred number. The burden of proof is on you, not them.
Charging IVA to a client who shouldn't have paid it is an admin problem. Not charging IVA to a client who should have paid it is a direct liability — the tax is due from you even though you never collected it.
Entertainment, certain travel, gifts over €300, some director expenses — all partially or fully non-deductible. Over five years, even a modest misclassification compounds into material back-tax plus surcharges.
Missed annual accounts filing at the Mercantile Register blocks the company from filing any further deeds. That means no share transfers, no director changes, no capital increases — until the backlog is cleared. A frozen company is an expensive company.
Spanish business tax has enough complexity that most expat founders hit a wall somewhere in year one or two. The question isn't whether you need professional support — it's whether you have the right team in place before the issue surfaces.
Our tax work is led by bar-registered Spanish solicitors with corporate tax specialisation, supported by gestores for execution. You get strategy and advocacy from us, and monthly compliance from a gestor we trust — all coordinated so nothing falls between the two.
Book a structuring call with a bar-registered Spanish solicitor and a tax specialist. Compensation, Beckham Law, cross-border planning and dispute risk — scoped and quoted before we begin.