Modelo 303

What it is

Modelo 303 is the quarterly VAT self-assessment. You tell the tax office how much VAT you charged on your invoices (output VAT) and how much you paid on your business expenses (deductible input VAT). The difference is what you pay, or what you have in your favour.

The VAT you charge isn't yours: you collect it on the tax office's behalf. That's why it pays to know, at any point, how much of your bank balance isn't really yours.

Who files it

• Freelancers and companies that make transactions with VAT, even in a quarter with no invoices (then it's filed as a nil return).
• Not those who only make exempt transactions, such as some healthcare or education activities.
• The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla have no VAT: they have IGIC and IPSI instead, with their own forms.
• The Basque Country and Navarre have their own regional tax offices, forms and deadlines.

Deadlines

Q1 (January–March)

1–20 April

Q2 (April–June)

1–20 July

Q3 (July–September)

1–20 October

Q4 (October–December)

1–30 January of the next year

If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or national holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Regional holidays don't count.

How it's calculated, with an example

Output VAT minus deductible input VAT. Invoice a €5,000 subtotal at 21% in a quarter and you've charged €1,050. If your business expenses carried €300 of VAT, you pay €750.

Spain's VAT rates are 21% (standard), 10% (reduced) and 4% (super-reduced). Most professional services are 21%.

If the result is negative

If you paid more VAT than you charged, the result is negative and carries over to the following quarters: it isn't lost. In the last quarter of the year you can choose between carrying it forward or asking for a refund.

Common mistakes

• Deducting VAT on an expense without an invoice in your name: a receipt without your details usually isn't enough.
• Deducting expenses that aren't for the business, or mixed-use ones as if they were fully business.
• Forgetting an invoice you issued. The one that's always missing.
• Invoicing a business in another EU country and not also filing modelo 349.

How Nyrut helps

Nyrut works out each quarter's 303 from what you invoice and the expenses you log, carry-forwards included, and reminds you of the deadline. It's an estimate so you arrive with the numbers done, not the return: it doesn't cover pro-rata, capital assets or exempt transactions, and it says so. Filing is still up to you or your gestor.

This is a guide to understand the system, not tax advice: for your specific case, ask your gestor.