Form 037: the simplified census registration vs form 036

No. Orden HAC/1526/2024, of 11 December, published in the BOE on 9 January 2025, abolished form 037 with effect from 3 February 2025. Since that date, the electronic headquarters of the AEAT (the Spanish tax agency) only accepts form 036 for registration, modification and deregistration in the Census of entrepreneurs, professionals and withholders.

The reason given by the order itself is that the new census assistance tools of the AEAT (the census informant, the activity search engine and the Censos WEB service) make it possible to offer the simplification provided by form 037 within form 036 itself. You only fill in the sections that affect your specific case.

If you registered with a form 037 in the past, you do not have to do anything. Your registration remains fully valid. The only thing that changes is the form you will use to communicate future modifications or deregistration, which will now always be form 036.

Form 037 was reserved for a very specific profile, defined in article 2 of Orden EHA/1274/2007. It was for a resident natural person in Spain with an assigned NIF, who did not act through a representative, whose tax address matched their administrative management address, who was not a large company, who was not registered in the Registry of Intra-Community Operators or in the monthly refund registry (REDEME), who did not make distance sales or non-subject acquisitions under article 14 of the Ley del IVA (VAT Act), who was not a taxpayer for Special Taxes or the Tax on Insurance Premiums and who did not pay income from movable capital.

Today the question is no longer whether form 037 or 036 applies to you, but whether you are obliged to submit a census declaration. It must be submitted by those who are going to carry out business or professional activities in Spain and those who pay income subject to withholding, in accordance with articles 9 to 11 of the Reglamento general de aplicación de los tributos (General Regulation on the Application of Taxes) (Real Decreto 1065/2007).

The simple profile that previously used form 037 (a resident autónomo, meaning a registered freelancer, without intra-community operations or complex regimes) now submits the same form 036, but only fills in the identification, activity, VAT and IRPF blocks. Managora reviews your case and only fills in what is applicable.

It is the procedure that informs the AEAT that you are starting an economic activity. It identifies the activity with its IAE heading, the start date and, if applicable, the premises where it is carried out.

The same form establishes your VAT obligations (general regime, equivalence surcharge, simplified, agriculture, cash criterion or exempt activity) and your IRPF obligations (normal or simplified direct estimation, or objective estimation, with its fractional payments on forms 130 or 131).

For the vast majority of freelancers, who are exempt from the IAE, the census declaration replaces the declarations for that specific tax. There is no need to submit form 840, it is enough to identify activities and premises on form 036 itself (article 4 of Orden EHA/1274/2007 and article 14 of Real Decreto 1065/2007).

It also serves to communicate the obligation to withhold tax (for payroll, professional invoices or renting premises) and to request registration in specific registries such as the Registry of Intra-Community Operators or the REDEME.

The start date. Registration is submitted BEFORE the effective start of the activity, not after. If you are going to have prior expenses (purchases, works, equipment) before invoicing, there is a prior start communication that allows you to deduct the VAT borne in that preparatory phase. If the wrong box is ticked, that deduction becomes complicated.

The IAE heading. Each activity needs its correct heading, and the same person may need several. The activity search engine on the AEAT website helps to locate it. Managora identifies it for you based on the description of what you do.

The affected premises. It is only declared if a premises or a specific part of your home is truly affected by the activity. Declaring a premises that does not apply is an error with consequences (it affects the IAE and the taxation of the home), just like omitting a real one.

The obligation to withhold. It is only ticked if you are going to pay income subject to withholding (employees, professionals, renting business premises). Ticking it unnecessarily obliges you to submit empty withholding self-assessments. Not ticking it when you should is an infringement.

The equivalence surcharge. It is mandatory for a natural person retail merchant who sells to the public without transforming the product. It is one of the most frequent omissions during registration and determines how your suppliers invoice you.

Before 2025, as soon as the freelancer made the leap to certain operations, they had to abandon form 037 and switch to form 036. This included selling or buying from companies in other EU countries (registering in the Registry of Intra-Community Operators to obtain the VAT-NIF), requesting monthly VAT refunds (REDEME), operating with Special Taxes, making distance sales or paying income from movable capital.

Today these situations no longer force you to change forms, because there is only one. They are resolved by ticking the corresponding section of form 036 itself. For example, to invoice without VAT to a company client in another Member State you need to be registered in the ROI, and that registration is requested in the VAT block of form 036. The AEAT may carry out checks before granting it.

Be careful with imports from outside the EU. In addition to the census registration you will need an EORI number to clear customs, which is requested from the AEAT in a separate procedure and is not part of the census declaration.

Managora reviews your complete profile before submitting. If your activity is going to need ROI, REDEME or special sections, they are ticked from day one and you avoid a modification declaration a few weeks later.

You tell us about your activity in a guided questionnaire and send us your DNI or NIE (the identification number for foreigners in Spain). We identify the IAE heading, guide you on the VAT and IRPF regime that corresponds to your case and prepare the complete form 036.

We submit it on your behalf at the electronic headquarters of the AEAT and provide you with the submission receipt. The census registration has no tasa (official fee). You will only pay our fees, the updated amount of which you can see on the procedure page.

If your situation changes later on, you can also instruct us to do the modification declaration (change of address, heading or regime) or the deregistration, which have a deadline of 1 month. Let us know as soon as the change occurs and we will submit it for you within the deadline.

Five pages and the rest blank. A freelancer who registers fills in page 1 to state that it is a registration, 2A to identify themselves, 4 for their activity, 5 for VAT and 6 for IRPF. The other pages of the form do not affect them.

The box that turns the form into a registration is 111, «Alta en el censo de empresarios, profesionales y retenedores», on page 1. On that same page are 110, to request the NIF if you do not have it yet, 127, which is the one ticked when you later change or add activities and premises, and 150, which is the deregistration from the census.

Page 2A is the identification. NIF, surnames and name, tax address with its cadastral reference, telephone and email, and the address for notifications if it is different from the tax address.

Page 4 is the declaration of economic activities and premises, and one sheet is filled in for each activity. This is where the IAE heading and the type of activity go, distinguishing those that form part of the taxable event of the tax, with codes A01 to A05, from those that do not, with codes B01 to B05, which are agricultural, livestock, forestry, mussel production and fishing.

Page 5 is VAT, and it is where almost everything that will later condition you every quarter is decided. Whether you are established in the territory of application of the tax (box 500), whether you carry out non-subject or exempt operations (box 501), which regime applies to you (general, equivalence surcharge, simplified, agriculture, cash criterion) and whether you request registration in the Registry of Intra-Community Operators or in the Monthly Refund Registry.

Page 6 is for income taxes. The natural person freelancer fills in section A, for IRPF taxpayers, where they tick their estimation method, normal direct, simplified direct or objective, and their fractional payments.

Managora only fills in the sections that apply to your case, submits the form at the electronic headquarters and provides you with the receipt with its secure verification code. The service is on the modelo_036 page.