Autónomo with foreign clients: VAT, invoices, ROI, form 349 and IRPF based on your client's location

It depends on who your client is and where they are located. The Ley del IVA (the Spanish VAT Act, art. 69) establishes where a service is provided: if the client is a business or professional, it is where their headquarters or establishment is located. Therefore, you invoice a company established outside Spain without Spanish VAT, whether it is in Germany or the United States.

If the client is an individual, the rule is reversed: the service is located where you are, and as a general rule you charge Spanish VAT, whether the individual lives in Madrid, Lisbon or Toronto. There are 2 main exceptions: certain services to non-EU individuals (art. 69.Dos) and electronic, telecommunications and broadcasting services to individuals in other EU countries when a limit is exceeded (art. 70.Uno.8.º).

Pay attention to the vocabulary: a service to a foreign company is not "exempt", it is "not subject" to Spanish VAT. Each case goes to a different box on form 303 and carries a different mention on the invoice.

This guide covers standard freelance services (consulting, design, programming, translation, marketing). Those related to real estate in Spain, passenger transport or events held here follow special rules (art. 70).

The invoice goes without Spanish VAT and it is your client who declares the VAT in their country. This is the reverse charge mechanism, which operates in the client's country. The Reglamento de Facturación (the Spanish invoicing regulations, RD 1619/2012, art. 6.1.m) requires that, when the taxpayer is the recipient, the invoice must include the mention "inversión del sujeto pasivo" (reverse charge).

Before the first invoice, check that your client is genuinely a company: ask for their intra-community VAT number and verify it in the European Commission's VIES system. Keep the search result with the invoice. The invoice must show your NIF-IVA (your tax identification number with the ES prefix) and your client's.

3 obligations accompany these invoices. The first is registration in the Registry of Intra-Community Operators (ROI), which is requested using form 036 by ticking box 582 and indicating the expected date of the first operation in box 584. The AEAT (the Spanish tax agency, also known as Hacienda) has 3 months and its silence means a negative response: request it with plenty of time. What makes the service not taxable in Spain is that your client is a company in another State, not the ROI, but registration is mandatory anyway.

The second is declaring the amount on form 303, in box 59 (intra-community provision of services for the period), according to the 2026 AEAT instructions. And the third is form 349, the recapitulative statement of intra-community operations, where each service to an EU company is declared with the key S, the client's NIF-IVA and the amount.

Also without Spanish VAT, and for the same reason: the recipient is a business established outside Spain (art. 69.Uno.1.º). However, there is no form 349, because it is not an intra-community operation, nor is there ROI registration for this reason.

On form 303, the amount goes to box 120, for operations not subject due to location rules. It does not go to box 60, for exports and assimilated operations. On the invoice, it is advisable to indicate that the operation is not subject to Spanish VAT due to the application of location rules. Do not write "exempt".

Outside the EU there is no VIES: keep the contract, the company's registration details and tax number, and address the invoice to the company. This is your proof that the service was not subject.

As a general rule, you invoice an individual in another EU country with Spanish VAT (art. 69.Uno.2.º).

The exception is services provided electronically, telecommunications and broadcasting. Electronic services include, among others, web hosting, the supply of software, texts or databases, and distance learning (art. 69.Tres.4.º). Sending work by email does not make it an electronic service: the law itself states this.

These services to individuals in other EU States are taxed in Spain as long as the limit in art. 73 of the law is not exceeded and you do not opt to be taxed at the destination. The limit is €10,000 without VAT, adding these services and distance sales of goods to the entire EU, and the 2 years count: if you exceeded it the previous year, or from the moment you exceed it in the current year, it is taxed in the client's country. Above this, or if you opt for it, the VAT of the client's country applies, which you can declare in the ventanilla única (one-stop shop, form 369, quarterly). On form 303, these operations go to box 123.

For a non-EU individual, only the services listed in art. 69.Dos go without Spanish VAT: among others, the transfer of copyright and intellectual property, advertising, advice, consulting, engineering, legal services, accounting or tax services, data processing, translation and text correction. And with 2 limits: the individual cannot be in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, and the service cannot be used or exploited in Spain (art. 70.Dos). Any other service to a non-EU individual includes Spanish VAT, except for electronic, telecommunications and broadcasting services, which follow special rules (art. 70) that this guide does not cover.

Very likely, yes. If your activity is professional, a Spanish company withholds 15% (7% in the starting year and the following 2). On your invoices to foreign clients, this withholding normally does not appear.

The AEAT rule is this: the professional does not submit form 130 if in the previous calendar year at least 70% of their professional income had withholding applied. In the first year, that 70% is measured over the instalment payment period. If the majority of your invoicing goes to foreign clients without withholding, you do not reach 70% and you have to submit form 130 every quarter.

Form 130 pays 20% of the accumulated net yield since 1 January (income minus deductible expenses), subtracting what was paid in previous quarters and any withholdings that have been applied to you. In the income tax return (form 100), these payments are deducted.

If you are a tax resident in Spain (more than 183 days of the year here, or the core of your activities or interests in Spain), what you earn from foreign clients is declared in your IRPF (personal income tax) like any other income from the activity.

Yes. The Reglamento de Facturación (RD 1619/2012, art. 12) allows amounts to be expressed in any currency and the invoice to be issued in any language. The only condition is that, if the invoice includes Spanish VAT, the tax amount must appear in euros, using the exchange rate referred to in art. 79.Once of the Ley del IVA.

Your tax returns, on the other hand, are always in euros: form 303, form 349, form 130 and the income tax return. Keep the exchange rate you applied and the amount that actually entered your account with each invoice. The bank or platform commission and the exchange difference are reflected in your accounting.

Furthermore, from 1 July 2027, your invoicing software must comply with Verifactu: Real Decreto-ley 15/2025 requires it to be adapted before 1 January 2027 for Corporate Tax payers and before 1 July 2027 for all other obligated parties, including autónomos.

If you reside in Spain, you invoice and file taxes like any autónomo (self-employed worker). But your international teleworking residence authorisation adds a limit: as a professional, you can work for Spanish companies provided they do not exceed 20% of your total activity (art. 74 bis.1 of Ley 14/2013, the Spanish Entrepreneurs Act). Invoicing more to Spanish clients puts your authorisation at risk.

Invoices to that Spanish client, within the 20%, include Spanish VAT and, if your activity is professional, withholding. Keep track by client and by country from the first invoice to be able to prove the 20%.

Since you work on a self-employed basis regularly, personally and directly, you must be registered in the RETA (the special regime for self-employed workers of the Seguridad Social, the Spanish social security system, art. 305.1 of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social), unless you are covered by the social security of a country with an agreement with Spain and have your certificate of coverage. And a warning about the régimen de impatriados (impatriate regime or Ley Beckham): its teleworking route requires an employment relationship, so a nomad invoicing as an autónomo does not qualify through that route. We explain this in our guide to the impatriate regime.

With Managora's Self-employed plan, you do not need to know any of this. For a fixed monthly fee, we handle your forms 303 and 390, your 130 and your income tax return, ROI registration and form 349 if you operate with the EU, and your accounting from a photo of your invoices. You can see the updated price on the plans page.

You issue your invoices with your software and we review them: the one without VAT to a foreign client is not entered at 21%, it goes to its specific box on form 303, and the one for an EU company goes into form 349. We never submit a tax return without your approval.

We submit forms 036, 303, 130, 349, 390 and 100 to the AEAT using the mandate you sign, because the firm's lawyer is a social collaborator of the Tax Agency. We never ask for your digital certificate. We submit your RETA registration through the Sistema RED, without you having to log into any electronic headquarters.

If you only need a single procedure (autónomo registration, form 036, 303, 130, 349, the ventanilla única (one-stop shop) or the income tax return), each one has its own page, where you can see the updated amount.