Spanish Corporation Tax: modelo 200 and instalment payments

Corporation Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades, IS) is a direct tax charged on the profit obtained by legal persons and other entities resident in Spain: sociedades limitadas and sociedades anónimas (Spanish private and public limited companies), cooperatives, associations, foundations and similar bodies.

Every entity subject to the tax must file the return, whether or not it has traded and whether the result is positive, zero or negative. A dormant company, or one making losses, files as well.

There is a limited exception for certain partially exempt entities (for example, some non-profit associations under article 9.3 of the Ley del Impuesto sobre Sociedades, the Spanish Corporation Tax Act), provided that their total income does not exceed an annual threshold, their non-exempt income is very small and all of it is subject to withholding. If you run an entity of this kind, Managora checks for you whether you have to file.

The annual Corporation Tax return is filed on modelo 200. It is the self-assessment in which the company starts from its accounting result, applies the tax adjustments and the deductions it is entitled to, applies the tax rate and works out the amount to pay or to be refunded.

Filing is compulsory online, through the Sede Electrónica (online office) of the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT, the Spanish tax authority, commonly called Hacienda), using the Sociedades WEB service. There is no paper filing.

To file you need an electronic certificate belonging to the company or to its authorised representative (Cl@ve, the Spanish government's personal login system, is only available to individuals, not to companies). Managora files modelo 200 for you, acting on behalf of your company. You can see the price of the service on the service page.

The general deadline is the 25 calendar days following the six months after the end of the tax period. The date therefore depends on when your company's financial year ends.

Where the financial year matches the calendar year (closing on 31 December), the period runs from 1 to 25 July of the following year. If the last day of the period falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it moves to the next working day.

If you choose to pay by direct debit from your bank, the deadline for filing ends a few days before the end of the general period. Managora keeps track of the deadline that applies to you and files within it.

Corporation Tax is not paid only once a year. It is paid in advance over the course of the year through instalments on account, which are paid using modelo 202. What you pay in advance on modelo 202 is then deducted in the annual modelo 200 return.

There are three payments a year: in April, October and December. Without direct debit, from 1 to 20 of each of those months; with bank direct debit, from 1 to 15.

There are two ways of calculating it. The general method (article 40.2 of the Act) is calculated on the tax due in the last annual return filed. The second method (article 40.3) is calculated on the taxable base of the period itself, and is compulsory for companies whose turnover has exceeded €6 million in the previous 12 months.

In the company's first financial year there is no instalment payment under the general method, because it takes as its reference an earlier return that does not yet exist. Companies required to use the method based on the taxable base file modelo 202 even if the result is zero or negative. You can see the price of the service on the modelo 202 page.

The general Corporation Tax rate is 25% on the taxable base (the taxable profit for the year).

Newly created entities pay 15% in the first tax period in which they have a positive taxable base and in the following one (two periods). Empresas emergentes (startups certified by ENISA, the Spanish state innovation agency) get a larger benefit: 15% in the first period with a positive base and in the three following ones (up to four periods), and they are also exempt from making instalment payments in the two periods after the first one with a positive base. After that, the rate that normally applies to the company is used.

Microempresas (micro companies, with turnover below €1 million) and empresas de reducida dimensión (small companies, below €10 million) apply reduced rates, as part of a gradual reduction introduced by Ley 7/2024 that lowers the percentages year by year. The exact rate depends on the year being declared, so Managora applies the one that corresponds to your company in each return.

Managora prepares and files for you both the annual return (modelo 200) and the instalment payments (modelo 202), acting on behalf of your company and before the Agencia Tributaria.

We review the accounting result, apply the tax adjustments and the deductions available, calculate the tax due, work out the rate that applies to you and file online within the deadline, so you avoid surcharges and penalties.

You only provide your company's information; we take care of the calculation and the filing. You can check the current price of the service on the page for each procedure.