AEAT financial information returns: forms 165, 345, 198, 117 and 038

These are returns that companies, financial institutions and holders of public registers file with the AEAT to report third-party data: investors, pension plan participants, securities holders or registered companies. They stem from the general duty to collaborate under article 93 of the Ley General Tributaria (the Spanish General Tax Act) and do not involve paying any tax: only information.

With this data, Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority) builds the tax data of each taxpayer and automatically cross-checks what is declared in personal income tax and corporate tax. If your entity declares a NIF (Spanish tax identification number) or an amount incorrectly, the error appears in the draft tax return of your investor or participant and usually ends in a requirement.

Of the 5 forms in this guide, 4 are pure information returns (165, 345, 198 and 038). Form 117 is the exception: it is a periodic self-assessment with payment, covering withholdings on gains in investment funds, the annual details of which are later reported using form 187.

Form 165: filed by a newly or recently created company that has received investment and has issued certificates to its partners so they can apply the deduction under article 68.1 of the Ley del IRPF (the Spanish Personal Income Tax Act) (50% of the invested amount on a maximum base of €100,000 per year since 2023, under Ley 28/2022, the Spanish Startups Act). Managora previously validates the requirements of the entity (age, equity, real activity) and of each investor.

Form 345: filed by pension fund managers, plan promoters, social welfare mutual societies and insurers of insured provident plans (PPA), individual systematic savings plans (PIAS), corporate social provident plans (PPSE) and dependency insurance. It reports the contributions of the year participant by participant, which are what allow the personal income tax base to be reduced.

Form 198: filed by securities issuing entities, credit institutions, investment services companies and other financial intermediaries, and public notaries who intervene in operations with financial assets and other transferable securities (subscriptions, transfers, redemptions, exchanges...). It does not include funds and SICAVs, which go on form 187.

Form 117: filed by anyone obliged to withhold on capital gains obtained from redemptions or transfers of shares and units in collective investment institutions and from sales of subscription rights: managers, marketers, depositaries and intermediaries. The withholding is 19% on the positive gain.

Form 038: filed by holders of public registers (in practice, mostly commercial registers) to report each month the incorporation, establishment, modification or extinction of registered entities. Unlike the previous ones, it is not annual: it is a monthly return.

The general rule for annual information returns (165, 198 and 345) is the month of January: from 1 to 31 January, the previous financial year is declared. When the last day is a non-working day, the deadline moves to the first following working day. For the 2025 financial year, 31 January 2026 falls on a Saturday, so the official AEAT calendar sets the limit at 2 February 2026.

Form 117 follows the rhythm of withholdings: it is filed and paid from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January for the previous quarter. Large companies file it every month, from the 1 to the 20 of the following month. The AEAT calendar for January 2026 includes both: the fourth quarter of 2025 and December 2025 (large companies), up to 20 January.

Form 038 is filed during each calendar month regarding the registrations made in the previous month: 12 filings a year, with no January campaign.

None of these deadlines allow for an extension. Filing late, even voluntarily, triggers the penalty regime of article 198 of the Ley General Tributaria, although with penalties reduced by half if there has been no prior requirement.

All 5 forms are filed exclusively online at the AEAT electronic headquarters: there is no paper filing. An electronic certificate of the entity or its representative is required; for some forms, obliged individuals can also use Cl@ve (the Spanish electronic identity system).

For a few records, the web form of the model can be used; for large volumes, a file is generated according to the record design of the financial year, which the headquarters validates in real time (online TGVI system) and rejects if it detects incorrect NIFs or poorly completed fields. That is why the prior debugging of the recipient census is the part that saves the most work.

After filing, the headquarters returns a receipt with a secure verification code (CSV). Keep it: it is the proof of filing on time. Managora prepares the file, validates it, files it with an electronic signature and gives you the receipt.

Failing to file an information return on time is penalised according to article 198 of the Ley General Tributaria: €20 for each piece of data or set of data referring to the same person, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €20,000. If you regularise late without a prior requirement from the AEAT, the penalty is reduced by half (€10 per data item, minimum €150 and maximum €10,000).

Filing with false, incomplete or inaccurate data is penalised under article 199 of the same law, which in information returns with monetary amounts can reach a percentage of the incorrectly declared operations. Furthermore, the erroneous data appears in the tax data of the affected third party and generates chain requirements.

If you detect an error after filing, the solution is a complementary or substitute return from the headquarters itself, as soon as possible: correcting spontaneously is always cheaper than waiting for a requirement. Managora checks the balance before filing and, if necessary, prepares the complementary return.

Managora prepares and files form 165 (certificates to startup investors), 345 (pension and social welfare plans), 198 (operations with financial assets), 117 (withholdings on investment funds) and 038 (operations of entities registered in public registers) for you. You provide the data from your panel, we debug the NIFs, generate the file, file it with an electronic signature and give you the receipt with CSV.

The process is completely online: you describe your case in the procedure questionnaire and, as the work depends on the volume and particularities of each return (number of records, several entities, past years, complementary returns), Managora first reviews the scope and confirms the quote in the file itself before starting. Once agreed, you sign the mandate and the team files the return on time. You will find the conditions of each service in the corresponding procedure file on managora.net.