How to Become an Autónomo in Spain as a Foreigner 2026

Can a foreigner register as an autónomo in Spain?

Yes, a foreigner can be self-employed in Spain, but two things have to be in place first: a NIE and a legal title that entitles you to work on your own account. A passport alone is not enough, because it does not identify you before the Agencia Tributaria or social security, and without an identification number no formality can be completed. How you obtain each requirement depends on your nationality.

Citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland enjoy freedom of establishment. If you are staying more than three months you must enrol in the Central Register of Foreign Nationals (Registro Central de Extranjeros) and obtain the registration certificate, which carries your NIE. From that point you can register as an autónomo on exactly the same terms as a Spaniard, with no additional work permit.

Non-EU nationals need a temporary residence and self-employment work authorisation, governed by articles 82 to 85 of Royal Decree 1155/2024: it lasts one year, is limited to one autonomous region and one sector, and requires evidence that the planned investment is sufficient. Since 1 January 2021 British nationals fall into that group, except those already resident before 31 December 2020, who keep their rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. Owning a property here does not entitle you to work, and neither does a non-lucrative residence permit.

Which comes first, the tax office or social security?

The census registration with the Agencia Tributaria comes first and RETA registration second, and both must happen before you start working. Modelo 036 has to be filed before the activity begins, under article 9.4 of Royal Decree 1065/2007, and RETA registration must also be requested before you begin, with a maximum of 60 calendar days of notice, under article 32.3.1 of Royal Decree 84/1996.

Starting the activity, for census purposes, does not mean issuing your first invoice: the rule treats it as started as soon as you supply or acquire goods and services, make collections or payments, or take on staff. Buying a computer for the business or paying for your web domain already counts, so anyone who wants to reclaim that VAT must file the 036 beforehand and tick the box for the start of acquisitions.

RETA registration filed on time takes effect from the day the activity begins, under article 35.1.1 of the same regulation. Filed late, registration takes effect from the first day of the calendar month in which the conditions for inclusion are met, under article 46.2.c) of the same regulation: you lose protection rights and the Treasury also claims, with surcharges, the quotas for the period you worked while unregistered. The 60-day window is advance notice, not a grace period afterwards.

Modelo 036 vs modelo 037: which one do I need?

Census registration is made on modelo 036 only: modelo 037 was abolished by Order HAC/1526/2024 and ceased to exist on 3 February 2025. Any content still offering you a choice between the 036 and the 037 is out of date. Filing is done online through the AEAT electronic office with a digital certificate, with Cl@ve or through an authorised representative.

On the 036 you enter your identification details and tax address, the start date of the activity, your IAE activity code or codes, the method for calculating income tax profit, the VAT regime and your periodic obligations: modelo 303 and modelo 130 and, if you are going to apply withholdings, 111 and 115. This is the filing that sets your tax calendar, and a mistake here follows you all year.

If you are going to supply services or sell to businesses in other EU member states, the same form is used to apply for entry in the Register of Intra-Community Operators (ROI). The AEAT can ask for extra documentation and takes weeks to decide, so it is worth applying when you register rather than when the invoice is already due. Later changes must be declared within one month.

IAE codes: how to choose yours and why they matter

Your IAE code identifies your activity to the Agencia Tributaria and shapes your tax position, even though as an individual you will not pay the tax itself: article 82.1.c) of the consolidated Local Tax Act exempts all individuals, resident or not. What is compulsory is declaring the correct code on modelo 036.

The tariffs in Royal Legislative Decree 1175/1990 are split into three sections. Section 1 covers business activities: retail, hospitality, construction, transport. Section 2 covers professional activities: consultancy, translation, law, architecture, training. Section 3 covers artistic activities. The choice is not cosmetic, because it determines whether your business clients must apply income tax withholding on each invoice.

An autónomo in section 2 issues invoices with withholding and, in many cases, is exempt from modelo 130. One in section 1 suffers no withholding and files the 130 from the first quarter. You can declare several codes at once if you carry on several activities, and change them later through an amending census filing, again on modelo 036.

How much does an autónomo pay per month in 2026?

The minimum RETA quota in 2026 is €205.88 a month, and the quota for the minimum base of the top bracket is €607.35; anyone contributing on the maximum base of €5,101.20 pays €1,606.88. Since 2023 there is no flat quota: you contribute according to your forecast annual net earnings, within fifteen brackets set for 2026 by Order PJC/297/2026. The quota is national and is the same in Torrevieja, Alicante or Cartagena as it is in Madrid.

The rates in that order apply to the base you choose: 28.30% for common contingencies, 1.30% for professional contingencies, 0.90% for cessation of activity and 0.10% for vocational training, that is, 30.60%. On top of that comes the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), which rises to 0.90% in 2026 and is borne entirely by the autónomo: the real rate is 31.50%, which is why the figures of €200 and €590 doing the rounds online fall short.

When you register you have to declare a forecast of net earnings, which sets your bracket and your provisional base; to calculate it, social security deducts 7% for general expenses, or 3% for autónomos who are company directors or shareholders. The following year the Treasury reconciles the figures the AEAT reports to it: it refunds any excess automatically before 30 April and, if there is a shortfall, gives you until the last day of the month after notification with no surcharge. The base can be adjusted up to six times a year.

The €80 flat rate, rolled over into 2026: how long it lasts and how to extend it

The flat rate for new autónomos is a reduced quota of €80 a month covering common and professional contingencies for the first 12 full calendar months from the effective date of registration. The amount was set for 2023-2025 by transitional provision five of Royal Decree-Law 13/2022 and stays in place in 2026 in the absence of a State Budget updating it. The MEI contribution is added to those €80. The Valencian Community has no regional zero-quota scheme: its self-employment support comes through annual LABORA calls for applications.

The second 12-month period is not automatic: you must apply for it expressly before it starts, declaring that your forecast net earnings will be below the statutory minimum wage, set for 2026 by Royal Decree 126/2026 at €1,221 a month over fourteen payments, some €17,094 a year. If that period spans two calendar years, the requirement must be met in each of them. Nor can you have been registered with RETA in the previous two years, or three if you have already had the flat rate before.

You must claim it at the very moment of registration: not asking then means losing it. During the first period the reduced quota is not reconciled; during the extension it is. And there is a nuance that is rarely explained: while you are on the reduced quota you do not contribute for cessation of activity or vocational training, under article 38 ter.1 of Law 20/2007, so that period does not build up entitlement to the cessation of activity benefit, the self-employed equivalent of unemployment pay.

Quarterly filing deadlines: modelo 303, 130, 111 and 115

Every quarter an autónomo files modelo 303 for VAT (IVA) and, unless exempt, modelo 130 for the income tax instalment payment. Both are filed from 1 to 20 April, July and October, and from 1 to 30 January for the fourth quarter. If nothing is payable you still file a nil return: the obligation is a formal one and does not depend on there being tax to pay.

Modelo 303 settles the difference between the VAT charged on your invoices and the VAT borne on your deductible expenses, at rates of 21% standard, 10% reduced and 4% super-reduced. Spain has no turnover threshold below which you can stop charging VAT: you invoice with VAT from your very first invoice, unless the activity is exempt under article 20 of the VAT Act.

Modelo 130 pays on account 20% of net profit accumulated from 1 January to the end of the quarter, less amounts already paid and withholdings suffered. If your net earnings in the previous year were low, the rules let you reduce the payment by €100, €75, €50 or €25 depending on the band, up to €12,000 of net earnings.

Modelo 111 and modelo 115 only appear if you are the one withholding: the 111 reports withholdings on employees and on professionals who invoice you, and the 115 those on the rent of the premises where you carry on the activity. They are filed from 1 to 20 April, July, October and January. If you rent business premises in Torrevieja or Alicante, the 115 is compulsory from the first rent receipt.

Modelo 130: what it is and who has to file it

A professional is exempt from filing modelo 130 if at least 70% of their income in the previous calendar year was subject to withholding or payment on account, under article 109.2 of the Income Tax Regulations. In the year the activity starts you look at the percentage of income with withholding in the instalment period itself. It is not an option: if you meet the percentage, there is no obligation to file.

Standard withholding on professionals is 15% of the invoice base. In the tax period in which you start and the two following ones you can apply 7%, provided you carried on no professional activity in the year before the start date. That reduction is not automatic: you have to notify the payer in writing, and they must keep the signed notification.

In practice, a translator or consultant invoicing only Spanish companies normally does not file the 130, because every invoice carries withholding. A section 1 autónomo, by contrast, such as a shop, a building service or a tourism activity, invoices without withholding and files the 130 every quarter. Invoicing foreign clients, who do not apply Spanish withholding, can cost you that exemption.

Annual returns: modelo 390, 190, 180 and modelo 100

Each January you close the year with the annual summaries: modelo 390 for VAT by 30 January, and modelo 190 and modelo 180, the summaries of the withholdings reported on the 111 and the 115, by 31 January. When the last day of the period falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it moves to the next working day. They are information returns, nothing is paid with them, but failing to file or filing late is penalised just the same.

The modelo 390 exemption reaches only those taxed exclusively under the simplified VAT regime or whose activity is exclusively the letting of urban property, with quarterly settlement periods and completing the extra information on the fourth-quarter 303, under Order HAP/2373/2014. An autónomo with an ordinary activity, including a freelancer invoicing abroad, does file the 390 every year.

Modelo 100, the annual income tax return, is compulsory in every case for anyone registered with RETA at any point in the tax period, with no minimum income threshold, under article 96.2 of Law 35/2006. The campaign runs in spring: the 2025 return was filed from 8 April to 30 June 2026. If you also hold assets outside Spain above the legal thresholds, the information return on overseas assets is added to the list.

Accounting records and invoicing rules for freelancers

Every autónomo must keep accounting records, and their content depends on whether you are a business or a professional. Professionals under direct assessment keep four: income, expenses, capital assets, and funds provided and disbursements on behalf of clients. Businesses under the ordinary non-commercial or simplified direct assessment method keep three: sales and income, purchases and expenses, and capital assets, under article 68 of the Income Tax Regulations.

For VAT purposes you add the records in article 62 of the VAT Regulations: invoices issued, invoices received, capital assets and certain intra-Community transactions. In practice both blocks are kept together in the same invoicing software, which will also be the one that has to meet the Verifactu requirements when its date arrives. It is worth choosing it with that in mind from your first invoice.

An invoice must be issued at the time of the transaction or, if the recipient is a business or professional, before the 16th day of the month following the chargeable event. Simplified invoices are allowed up to €400 including VAT, and up to €3,000 in retail sales and other listed cases under article 4 of Royal Decree 1619/2012. Numbering must be sequential and any series must be consistent and justified.

Verifactu 2027 and e-invoicing: what is mandatory, and when

Verifactu is not compulsory for autónomos until 1 July 2027, and for corporate income tax payers until 1 January 2027. Royal Decree-Law 15/2025 pushed both dates back by a year, so any content placing the obligation in 2025 or 2026 is out of date, including a good deal of marketing from software providers.

The obligation stems from Law 11/2021 on the fight against tax fraud, which introduced article 29.2.j) of the General Tax Act: invoicing systems must guarantee the integrity, retention, accessibility, legibility, traceability and unalterability of records. Royal Decree 1007/2023 develops it and leaves out those who keep their records through the Immediate Supply of Information system, which is not the case for an ordinary autónomo. Holding software that fails those requirements is penalised with €50,000 per year, under article 201 bis.

Compulsory e-invoicing between businesses and professionals is a separate obligation and is not enforceable in 2026. Royal Decree 238/2026 came into force on 20 April 2026, but its effective application is deferred by 12 months for those with turnover above €8 million and by 24 months for everyone else, counted from the entry into force of a ministerial order that has still not been published. For an autónomo there is no firm date today.

Do I charge IVA to clients outside Spain? ROI, modelo 349 and VAT

An autónomo established in Spain supplying services to a business in another EU member state invoices without Spanish VAT, because the service is located where the customer is established, under article 69.One.1 of the VAT Act. Both parties must appear in the ROI with a valid VAT number, the invoice must state that the reverse charge applies, and the transaction must be reported on modelo 349.

Modelo 349 is monthly as a general rule, but it is filed quarterly if neither in the quarter concerned nor in the previous four did the cumulative amount of transactions exceed €50,000, excluding VAT. That is the normal position for a freelancer. For intra-Community supplies of goods, not for services, the exemption is additionally conditional on the customer providing a VAT number from another member state and on the transaction being included in the 349.

If the client is a business outside the European Union, such as the United Kingdom, the United States or Russia, the transaction is likewise outside the scope of Spanish VAT, but it is not reported on the 349. With private customers the rule flips: the service is located where the supplier is established, so Spanish VAT is charged, apart from the exceptions in articles 69.Two and 70, among them electronic, telecommunications and broadcasting services, which are located in the consumer's country and are handled through the OSS one-stop shop once these EU transactions pass €10,000 a year; below that threshold, set by article 73 of the VAT Act, you keep charging Spanish VAT, unless you expressly opt otherwise.

Invoicing abroad does not take the income out of Spanish income tax: if you are tax resident in Spain, that income is taxed here, with relief for international double taxation under article 80 of the Income Tax Act where the client's country has withheld at source, whether or not a double taxation treaty exists. Nor does registering as an autónomo automatically make you tax resident: that is decided by the tests in article 9 of the Income Tax Act.

How to deregister as an autónomo: two steps, not one

Ceasing to be an autónomo requires two separate deregistrations, both compulsory: deregistration from RETA with social security and census deregistration with the Agencia Tributaria on modelo 036. Doing only one of them is the most expensive mistake at closing time, because the other keeps generating obligations and, in the case of social security, monthly quotas.

RETA deregistration is processed through Importass within six calendar days of ceasing, under article 32.3.2 of Royal Decree 84/1996 and as the Treasury itself publishes on Importass; it can also be scheduled up to 60 days in advance. Filed late, it takes effect from the filing date rather than the date you stopped, and quotas keep accruing for days with no activity. Census deregistration is filed within one month of ceasing, under article 11.2 of Royal Decree 1065/2007.

After you cease, the returns for the final period are still due: the 303 and, where applicable, the quarter's 130, the 390, the 190 and 180 summaries if there were withholdings, and the annual income tax return. If you contributed for cessation of activity and meet the conditions you can claim the benefit, bearing in mind that no contribution is made for it while you are on the flat rate. In the event of death, the heirs have six months to file the census deregistration.

Common situations for expats on the Costa Blanca and in Murcia

Combining employment with freelance work is legal and common: it is called pluriactividad and requires registration in both schemes at once. When the combined common contingency contributions in both exceed the threshold set each year by the contributions order, the Treasury automatically refunds part of the excess.

Two or more people running a business together, the classic case being holiday letting of a property bought jointly, form a comunidad de bienes or an income attribution entity. The entity gets its own tax number, files its own modelo 036, keeps a single set of accounting records and attributes the profit to the co-owners. Each co-owner who carries on the activity habitually, personally and directly must be registered with RETA.

Holders of the international teleworking authorisation can register as autónomos in order to invoice, subject to limits on the percentage of turnover from Spanish clients that are worth verifying before you structure the business. And in the first year it pays to separate two things: registering as an autónomo is an administrative fact, whereas tax residence depends on your time in the country and your centre of economic interests. The procedure is identical in Torrevieja, Guardamar or Cartagena and in the rest of Spain.