Leaving the recargo de equivalencia as an ecommerce or Amazon seller

The recargo de equivalencia is a special VAT scheme designed for retail trade. It works like this: your supplier charges you the normal VAT on the invoice and, on top of that, an extra surcharge. In exchange, you do not file the modelo 303, you do not pay over the VAT you charge your customers and you do not keep VAT ledgers. It is a lump sum payment for the value you add to the product.

The problem is the other side of the deal: you do not deduct a single euro of the VAT you bear. Not on the goods, not on the marketplace commissions, not on the advertising, not on the van or the warehouse shelving. Article 154.Dos of Ley 37/1992 (the Spanish VAT Act) says so without qualification and adds that the deductible proportion (prorrata) for that sector of activity is zero.

And you did not choose it. The scheme applies automatically to a retailer who is an individual or an entity under the income attribution regime whose members are all individuals (article 148.Uno of Ley 37/1992 and article 59.1 of Real Decreto 1624/1992). Many online sellers have been carrying it since the day they registered, because the IAE heading they chose (IAE is the Spanish business activity tax classification) was a retail trade one.

Inside the scheme, every purchase of goods at the standard rate costs you 26.2% on the taxable base: 21% VAT plus 5.2% surcharge (article 161 of Ley 37/1992). You never get that 5.2% back. Nor the 21%, as long as you stay in the scheme.

That said, the full calculation is not just what you pay: inside the surcharge scheme you also keep the VAT you charge your customers, because you do not file the modelo 303. With the current rates, the break-even rule is this: the scheme works out in your favour as long as the taxable base of your Spanish sales exceeds roughly 1.25 times the base of your purchases of goods plus the base of your other expenses with VAT. Below that figure it is costing you money every quarter. It is an arithmetic rule that comes from combining articles 154 and 161 of the VAT Act, and it assumes everything is taxed at 21%.

In an ecommerce business that calculation breaks in four places at once. Margins are tighter than in a high-street shop. Marketplace commissions and advertising take a large percentage of turnover and their VAT is not deductible. Investment in warehousing, equipment and vehicles is not deductible either. And as soon as you sell outside Spain you stop keeping the VAT on your sales, which is the most painful case and we look at it below.

There is no opt out. Unlike the simplified regime or the cash basis scheme, the recargo de equivalencia allows no election: there is no box on the modelo 036 to say you do not want it. There is only one way out, and that is to stop meeting the requirements that make it applicable.

Those requirements are in article 149 of Ley 37/1992 and in article 59 of the Regulation. There are five doors: sales to people who are neither businesses nor professionals no higher than 80% of the total for the previous year, subjecting the product to a manufacturing or processing operation, moving the activity into a commercial company, trading only in goods excluded from the scheme, or opting out of módulos (the Spanish flat rate assessment regime) when that is the exception keeping you inside. The table below sets out the rule, the effective date and what you have to be able to evidence in each case.

For an Amazon seller or an own-shop seller, in practice two routes are live: reaching the required percentage of sales to businesses and professionals, or moving the business into a company. The comparison that follows tells you which one suits you depending on what you sell and to whom.

On the day you leave the scheme you have to draw up an inventory of your stock as at the immediately preceding day, sign it and file it at the AEAT office or delegation for your tax address (the AEAT, also known as Hacienda, is the Spanish tax authority). The deadline is 15 days from the day of cessation and it is in article 60.1 of the VAT Regulation.

That document is not red tape: it is what supports the deduction. Article 155.2.º of the VAT Act lets you deduct the amount resulting from applying to the acquisition value of the inventoried stock, excluding VAT and surcharge, the VAT and surcharge rates in force on the day of cessation. Put another way, you recover in one go 26.2% of all the stock you have bought at the standard rate.

The deduction is taken in the return for the settlement period in which the cessation occurs (article 60.2 of the VAT Regulation). Separately, the deregistration from the scheme has to be notified with a modelo 036 census declaration within 1 month of the events occurring (article 10.4 of Real Decreto 1065/2007). If the inventory is not filed, the tax authority has a formal reason to challenge your deduction on the stock.

If you sell to consumers in other European Union countries and the total of those distance sales exceeds €10,000 a year, VAT accrues in the country of destination and is paid there, normally through the ventanilla única (the EU One Stop Shop, OSS) with the modelo 369 (articles 68.Tres and 73 of Ley 37/1992). That VAT does not stay in your pocket: you charge it to your customer and pay it over in full.

The surcharge, meanwhile, keeps running. The Dirección General de Tributos (the Spanish tax authority's binding rulings directorate) confirmed this in binding ruling V0150-25, of 12 February 2025: a retailer under the recargo de equivalencia who declares intra-EU distance sales through the One Stop Shop still cannot deduct the VAT borne in Spain. The result: you pay 26.2% on purchases, you pay destination VAT on sales and nothing is offset.

Add the commissions. Whether the marketplace invoices you with Spanish VAT or invoices you without VAT under the reverse charge, that VAT is not deductible while you are in the surcharge scheme. In the second case it is you who self-assesses it with the modelo 309 and pays it over. And if you buy goods from a supplier in another EU country, on that same modelo 309 you pay 21% VAT plus 5.2% surcharge and deduct nothing (articles 154.Uno and 158.2.º of the VAT Act and article 61.3.1.º of the Regulation).

From the cessation onwards you move to the general regime. You file the modelo 303 within the first 20 calendar days of the month following each quarter, with the exception of the last period of the year, which is filed within the first 30 calendar days of January (article 71.4 of the VAT Regulation). And you start keeping VAT ledgers, which the special scheme exempted you from (article 61.2 of the Regulation).

In exchange, you deduct. The VAT on the goods, on the marketplace commissions, on the logistics, on the advertising, on the software and on the capital goods, all of which had a zero deductible proportion inside the surcharge scheme. If your sales are taxed at destination or are exports, your returns will normally start coming out as refunds.

Your suppliers stop charging you the surcharge as soon as you evidence that you are no longer subject to the scheme. Article 157.1.º of the VAT Act excepts from the surcharge supplies to traders who evidence that they are not subject to it, and article 61.1 of the Regulation requires you to evidence your position to suppliers and to customs. That notice to suppliers is a step in the procedure, not a minor detail: if you do not give it, they will carry on charging you the 5.2%.

We do the diagnosis and the complete filing. We review your census position at the AEAT, we calculate the previous year's split of sales between private individuals and businesses, we choose the exit route that fits you, we build the inventory from your purchase invoices so that all you have to do is sign it, we file it with the AEAT within the 15 days and we file the modelo 036 with the deregistration from the scheme and the effective date.

If the route that suits you is moving the business into a company, incorporation before a notario (a Spanish notary) and registration at the Registro Mercantil (the Spanish Companies Register) are steps in the procedure and we coordinate them, together with the census registration of the activity in the company's name and the transfer of the stock. You do not have to look for anything on your own or go to any counter.

Afterwards we leave you the calendar for your first year under the general regime: when each modelo 303 is due, which VAT ledgers you have to keep and which purchase invoices you have to keep in order to deduct. The cost of the service and the list of documents we will ask you for are on the service page. If there were any tasa (official fee) in your case, we tell you in writing before you pay anything.