Deductible expenses in Spain: autónomos, VAT and IRPF in 2026

Home offices, cars, meals and equipment follow different rules in Spain. Check expense deductions, depreciation and the 5% allowance with worked examples and official sources.

Knowing what your business actually earns is the starting point for paying the right amount of tax. Professional software, a home office, a computer and a working lunch may each receive different tax treatment, even when you pay for them from the same account. Understanding the distinction helps you claim the deductions available to you and see your real margin.

This guide covers deductible expenses for self-employed people in Spain in 2026, under the common tax regime and direct assessment, known as estimación directa. It is not a guide to the módulos system or the separate Basque and Navarre regimes. The useful question is which costs belong to your business, what supports them and when they can be deducted.

An IRPF expense deduction is not the same as recovering VAT

A deductible expense reduces your business profit for Spanish personal income tax, or IRPF. Deductible input VAT offsets output VAT under a separate set of rules. An invoice may qualify for one treatment, both, or a different calculation for each tax.

Take a professional subscription costing EUR 100 plus EUR 21 VAT, used entirely in a business with full input VAT recovery. The IRPF expense is EUR 100 and the recoverable VAT is EUR 21. You do not claim EUR 121 as an expense and recover the same EUR 21 again through VAT. Non-recoverable VAT may form part of the expense or asset cost where appropriate.

Articles 28–30 of Spain's Personal Income Tax Act establish the business-income framework. An invoice alone does not turn private spending into a business deduction: there must be a genuine business connection and the correct records.

Expenses worth checking in your business

A software subscription and a computer are not necessarily treated alike. One may be a service consumed during the period; the other may be an asset used for several years. Similarly, borrowed money is not sales revenue, and repayment of loan principal is not a deductible expense. These distinctions matter for cash management as well as tax.

Subscriptions, training and overseas suppliers

Keep an invoice with your tax details, a meaningful service description and the covered period. For training, retain the syllabus and explain how it relates to your work. Advertising reports help show what a campaign delivered. Routine purchases do not need elaborate reports, but their purpose should still be understandable months later.

For digital services bought overseas, check the invoicing entity, the place-of-supply rules and whether reverse charge applies. An invoice without VAT does not necessarily mean there is no Spanish VAT reporting. Our guide to VAT on services within the EU explains that process separately from the expense deduction.

Home-office costs: utilities and property expenses use different rules

Where part of your main home is allocated to your business, the standard IRPF calculation for water, gas, electricity, telephone and internet applies 30% to the business-use floor-area proportion, unless a higher or lower percentage is demonstrated. Working from home does not make 30% of every household bill deductible.

Illustrative example: an 80 m² home includes a 12 m² office genuinely used for the business. Monthly utilities taken into account for this IRPF calculation total EUR 200.

200 × 12 / 80 × 30% = 9 EUR. If the same amounts and circumstances apply for twelve months, the annual expense is EUR 108. This is an IRPF calculation, not an automatic VAT-recovery percentage.

Ownership costs such as property tax, owners' association charges and depreciation are assessed by reference to the business-use portion and the relevant ownership share. Rent requires checking the lease, actual use and attributable amount. Owners' association charges are not utility bills to which the 30% rule simply applies. The AEAT distinguishes these categories in its business-asset allocation guidance in the 2025 IRPF manual.

Keep your business registration details current through Modelo 036, alongside the area calculation, invoices and allocation method. Registering a percentage is not a substitute for genuine business use. Repaying mortgage principal does not itself create a business expense.

Cars, fuel and travel: the 50% VAT rule does not carry over to IRPF

For a passenger car used privately and professionally, 50% is a VAT presumption, once business use has been established and the other deduction requirements are met. Claiming a higher percentage needs evidence; a lower percentage can also be established. Certain vehicles have a 100% presumption, including specified passenger-transport and commercial-agent vehicles. The relevant provision is article 95 of Spain's VAT Act.

For IRPF, an ordinary passenger car generally requires exclusive business allocation, subject to the regulatory exceptions. There is no general 50% IRPF deduction for the purchase cost, lease or fuel of a mixed-use car. A journey log provides evidence, but does not change the applicable rule.

An electric powertrain, client visits or payment with a business card does not automatically establish deductibility. For business trains, taxis, hotels and other travel, keep the commercial purpose and supporting documents. If a trip includes a holiday, identify the separable business expenses instead of treating the entire trip as a business cost.

Your own meals and entertaining clients are different expenses

Self-employed subsistence has specific conditions: the expense must arise in carrying on your business, be incurred at a catering or hospitality establishment and be paid electronically, with supporting evidence. Being a working day is not enough on its own.

For the overnight limit, the municipality must differ from both your usual workplace and your residence. These are caps on actual expenditure, not automatic allowances: an eligible EUR 24 meal gives an expense of EUR 24, not EUR 26.67. Accommodation is assessed separately. The AEAT sets out the conditions in the business-owner expenses section of its 2025 IRPF manual.

A meal you provide for clients is not automatically your own subsistence. Client and supplier hospitality has its own classification and a deduction limit of 1% of net turnover. Record who attended and the business purpose. Expense deductibility and any VAT recovery need separate consideration.

Equipment, insurance and contributions: claim the appropriate deduction

Computers and furniture: a purchase is not always an immediate write-off

Equipment intended to last several years normally enters the fixed-asset records and is deducted through depreciation. Relevant factors include tax cost, when it enters use, business allocation and the applicable depreciation table. Simplified direct assessment has its own table; there is no single depreciation period for every computer or vehicle.

Immediate depreciation is available for qualifying new tangible assets costing no more than EUR 300 each, subject to a combined EUR 25,000 limit per tax period. This does not turn every purchase below EUR 300 into an expense, nor is it the only depreciation provision. Article 12 of Spain's Corporate Income Tax Act provides this treatment; article 15 contains the hospitality limit discussed above.

RETA and health insurance

RETA social-security contributions relating to your activity are deductible. Use actual contributions and relevant adjustments, not an estimated monthly amount from an online guide. Alternative professional mutual schemes have their own eligibility conditions and limits: not every contribution is equivalent to RETA.

Qualifying health-insurance premiums may cover you, your spouse and children under 25 living with you. The cap is EUR 500 per year for each qualifying insured person, or EUR 1,500 for each person with a disability. It does not automatically extend to every family member. For professional liability insurance, identify the business-related cover and insured period.

Hard-to-document expenses: 5%, capped at EUR 2,000

Under simplified direct assessment, the general deduction for provisions and hard-to-document expenses is 5% of positive net profit before this deduction, capped at EUR 2,000 annually per taxpayer across all activities. It is not a percentage of revenue and does not apply under normal direct assessment.

Article 30 of the Spanish IRPF Regulations contains the rule and its incompatibility with the specific reduction for certain economically dependent self-employed people or those with a single unrelated client. Check which treatment applies before combining tax advantages.

Illustrative example under simplified direct assessment, without that incompatible reduction and before other personal reductions:

28,000 × 5% = 1,400 EUR. Where the calculation exceeds EUR 2,000, the cap applies. Negative profit before this item does not generate a further deduction. Our comparison of módulos and direct assessment explains how the methods differ.

Invoices, dates and evidence: a useful quarterly review

Request an invoice with the correct tax details when buying. For VAT recovery, ask the supplier to add your tax identification number (NIF), your address and the separately stated VAT amount to a simplified invoice. A generic bank receipt is not equivalent. If the original invoice is lost, request a duplicate from the supplier under the Spanish invoicing regulations.

Review five points each quarter:

• The expense belongs to your business and has not been counted twice.
• The invoice identifies the correct buyer and explains the service.
• Recoverable VAT is not also included as an expense.
• Investments are separated from current expenses.
• The tax period matches the applicable recognition method.

Accrual is the general basis, rather than payment date alone; eligible cash-basis options have conditions. An annual subscription and an equipment purchase may affect different periods. A deduction reduces profit, not tax euro for euro: the final result also depends on the IRPF bands and your personal circumstances.

When reviewing expenses becomes a question of business structure

If you sell internationally, hire a team or reinvest for growth, the decision may go beyond individual deductions. A well-designed US LLC can organise contracts, banking, payments and ownership within a business entity. Its value depends on your activity, owners, residence and objectives, not a universal list of write-offs.

At Exentax, we examine those factors with you and coordinate the formation, documents, banking arrangements and ongoing work your structure needs. Our comparison of an LLC and self-employment in Spain explains how the two perspectives fit together. US expense rules do not automatically replace the rules applicable in your country of tax residence.

Bring your income and expense figures, the countries where you work and what you want to improve. We can help you decide whether to refine your present setup or build an international structure around a clear business purpose.

Design my international tax strategy