The Spanish tax return (IRPF, modelo 100)

The Spanish tax return is the annual self assessment of personal income tax (Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas, IRPF). It is filed on modelo 100 and it regularises what you earned during the previous calendar year against what was already withheld from you (payslips, invoices, savings income).

IRPF is a progressive tax: the general base (employment, business activities, rental income) is taxed in bands and the savings base (interest, dividends, gains on the sale of shares or property) has its own scale. The calculation produces either an amount to pay (you pay) or an amount to refund (Hacienda, the Spanish tax authority, pays you).

Managora reviews your tax data, includes the deductions you are entitled to, compares individual and joint taxation, and files modelo 100 for you.

As a general rule, you do not have to file if your only income was employment income from a single payer below €22,000 a year. The threshold drops to €15,876 if you had several payers and the second and later ones together come to more than €1,500 a year.

There are other thresholds: €1,600 of investment income and capital gains subject to withholding, and €1,000 of imputed property income, Treasury bills (Letras del Tesoro) or public housing subsidies. Below all of them there is, in principle, no obligation to file.

Autónomos (self employed workers) registered with the RETA, the self employed scheme of the Seguridad Social (the Spanish social security system), must file in every case, whatever their income. Even if you are not obliged to, it is worth filing if the result is a refund or if you want to claim deductions: if you do not file, you do not get the refund.

The draft return (borrador) and your tax data are in Renta WEB, inside the electronic office of the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT, the Spanish tax agency). You can identify yourself with a digital certificate or DNIe, with Cl@ve, the Spanish government's online identification system (PIN or Móvil), or with a reference number.

The reference number is obtained using box 505 of the previous year's return (or with Cl@ve or a certificate). Once inside, the AEAT loads your tax data (payslips, withholdings, accounts, properties); you review it, complete whatever is missing and confirm.

Your tax data is a starting point, not a closed assessment: it is worth checking regional deductions, your family circumstances and income the AEAT does not know about. Managora carries out that review and confirms the result with you before filing.

At state level the main ones are the maternity deduction (€1,200 a year per child under 3), the deduction for large families or for dependants with a disability, donations, contributions to pension plans (which reduce the base), the deduction for works that improve the energy efficiency of your home and the 15% deduction for buying an electric vehicle or installing a charging point.

In addition, each comunidad autónoma (Spanish autonomous region) approves its own deductions: rent of your main home, birth or adoption, nursery or school material costs, renting for young people, among others. They vary a great deal from one region to another, so it is worth checking the rules of yours.

You may still have the deduction for investment in your main home under the transitional regime, only if you bought before 1 January 2013 and were already claiming it. Managora identifies every deduction that applies to your case so that you do not leave money on the table.

If the result is a refund, you give an account and the AEAT pays you: the agency has until 31 December to make the refund and, if it takes longer, it pays you late payment interest. Not filing when you are due a refund means not being paid.

If the result is an amount to pay, you can pay in one go (direct debit until 25 June) or split it interest free into two instalments: 60% when you file and the remaining 40% by 5 November 2026. The 60/40 split does not apply to supplementary returns (declaraciones complementarias).

You can also apply for a deferral or for payment by instalments through the AEAT's general procedure if you cannot cover the amount. Managora arranges the direct debit, the 60/40 split or the deferral, whichever suits you.

Since the Renta 2024 there is a single system: the corrective self assessment (autoliquidación rectificativa). It is filed on modelo 100 itself, ticking box 103 and entering in box 104 the receipt number of the return being corrected. It works both when the error goes against you and when it is in your favour.

For 2023 and earlier tax years the double system remains: if you paid too little (the error goes against Hacienda) you file a supplementary return (declaración complementaria); if you paid too much (the error is in your favour) you file a request to correct the self assessment and claim back the amounts unduly paid.

The deadline to claim in your favour is 4 years from the end of the filing period. Managora reviews your return, decides whether a supplementary or a corrective return is the right route and files it for you.