Your First Autónomo Invoice: IVA, IRPF Retención and 7% vs 15%

Your first invoice is a tax return in miniature

The first time you invoice as an autónomo in Spain, the hard part is not the design. It is realising that four numbers — the taxable base, the IVA, the IRPF retención, and the total — are each a legal statement to the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT). Get the retención percentage wrong and you either short-change yourself or hand your client a tax headache.

The most common panic is the 7% versus 15% question. Many new freelancers copy an invoice template from a friend, see "15% IRPF", and never learn that they were entitled to keep more of their money for three years. Others add IVA to a German client who was never supposed to pay it.

This guide walks through exactly what belongs on that first Spanish invoice, when each tax applies, and why the difference between 7% and 15% is worth understanding before you hit send. It reflects the rules and filing deadlines in force for 2026. It is general information, not legal or tax advice — for your specific case, confirm with a gestor or directly with the AEAT.

What must a legal autónomo invoice include?

A complete invoice (factura completa) in Spain must carry a fixed set of fields defined by the Reglamento de Facturación (Real Decreto 1619/2012). This is the "rigid document" part: the fields are not optional styling choices.

A simplified invoice (factura simplificada, the old "ticket") is allowed for small amounts, but it does not carry the buyer's full details and does not let a business client deduct IVA cleanly — so for B2B work, issue the complete version.

Keep every invoice you issue and receive: the AEAT can review IRPF and IVA for four years, and commercial law pushes some retention obligations longer. Store them somewhere you will still have them in 2030.

How much IVA do I add — and when is it 21%?

IVA (VAT) is the tax you charge on top of your fee and then pass on to the state. For the vast majority of professional services — consulting, design, development, marketing, translation, coaching — the rate is the general 21%.

A few points that trip people up:

• Reduced rates (10% and 4%) exist but apply to specific goods and sectors, not to most freelance professional services. Do not assume you qualify for a lower rate; check the category first.
• Some activities are IVA-exempt, such as certain regulated teaching, and specific medical services. If your activity is exempt, you issue the invoice without IVA and note the exemption — you also cannot deduct IVA on related expenses.
• The IVA you collect is not income. Every quarter you subtract the IVA you paid on business expenses from the IVA you charged, and pay the difference to the AEAT.

So on a €1,000 consulting fee, you add €210 of IVA. That €210 is money you are holding for Hacienda, not profit.

What is IRPF retención, and why does 7% vs 15% matter?

IRPF retención is an advance payment of your income tax that your business client withholds from your invoice and pays to the AEAT on your behalf. It is subtracted from the taxable base, so it lowers the amount the client transfers to you — but it is money already credited to your name against your annual income tax.

The general rate is 15% of the base imponible for professional autónomos. The reduced 7% rate is a right granted to new professionals.

Do I qualify for the reduced 7% rate?

You can apply the 7% rate if:

1. You are starting a professional activity, and
2. You did not carry out any professional activity in the previous calendar year.

The reduced rate applies during the year you register (alta) plus the two following calendar years. After that window it automatically reverts to 15%.

Concrete example: you register in March 2026. You can apply 7% on invoices from March 2026 through the end of 2028. From January 2029, it becomes 15%.

Two important nuances:

• It is a right, not an obligation. If you expect a high income and would rather pre-pay more (to avoid a big bill in your annual declaración de la renta), you may choose 15% from the start.
• You must communicate the 7% choice to the payer so they withhold the correct amount. The client is the one legally responsible for paying the withheld sum to the AEAT via Modelo 111.

The 7% is not a discount — it simply leaves more cash in your pocket now, which you reconcile later in your annual income tax return. If too much was withheld across the year, the AEAT refunds the difference; if too little, you top up.

When does IRPF retención not apply at all?

This is the field that most first invoices get wrong. Retención is only applied when your client is a Spanish company, another autónomo, or a Spanish public entity acting in a business capacity. Two big exceptions:

• Private individuals (particulares): if you invoice a private person who is not acting as a business, there is no retención line. You simply charge base + IVA.
• Foreign clients: invoices to clients outside Spain carry no Spanish IRPF retención. Income tax on that work is settled through your own annual return, not withheld by a foreign payer.

How do I invoice a client outside Spain?

Cross-border invoices follow different logic for IVA, and — as above — carry no IRPF retención.

EU business clients (B2B). When you sell a service to a VAT-registered business in another EU country, the transaction is generally subject to reverse charge (inversión del sujeto pasivo): you do not charge Spanish IVA, and the client accounts for VAT in their own country. To do this legally you must:

• Register in the ROI (Registro de Operadores Intracomunitarios) via Modelo 036, marking the box for intra-community operators — the simplified Modelo 037 does not cover this, and approval can take up to three months.
• Verify the client's intra-community VAT number in the VIES database. Both parties must appear in VIES.
• Add the legal note to the invoice, e.g. "Inversión del sujeto pasivo — Art. 196, Directiva 2006/112/CE". Without it, an inspector may assume you forgot the 21% and demand it.
• Report these operations in Modelo 349.

EU private consumers and non-EU clients. The place-of-supply rules differ; many services to businesses outside the EU carry no Spanish IVA either. Because the rules depend on the exact service and the client's status, confirm the treatment of your specific case with a gestor before issuing — this is one area where a wrong assumption is expensive.

A worked example: your first invoice, line by line

You are a new autónomo (registered 2026, so eligible for 7%) invoicing a Spanish company €1,000 for consulting:

What happens next: the client sends you €1,140, keeps the €70 and pays it to the AEAT as your income-tax advance, and you set aside the €210 IVA for your quarterly return. Your actual pre-tax earning is the €1,000 base.

Now change one thing. Same €1,000 job, but for a German company in VIES: no Spanish IVA (reverse charge) and no IRPF. The invoice reads €1,000 base, the reverse-charge note, total €1,000 — and you handle your own income tax later.

What do I file after I send the invoice?

Issuing the invoice is step one; the AEAT expects quarterly self-assessments:

• Modelo 303 — IVA. You report the IVA charged minus the IVA paid on business expenses, and pay the difference.
• Modelo 130 — IRPF fractional payment. A quarterly prepayment of income tax. Note: if your invoices had retención on at least 70% of your income, you are generally exempt from filing Modelo 130 — the withholding already does the job.

2026 quarterly deadlines (per the AEAT fiscal calendar):

If you pay by direct debit (domiciliación), the window closes five days earlier — around the 15th (25th for Q4).

One 2026 change to watch: Verifactu. The new anti-fraud invoicing-software rules (chained hash, QR code, tamper-proof records) were postponed by Real Decreto-ley 15/2025. For autónomos the obligation now starts 1 July 2027 (companies subject to corporate tax from 1 January 2027). So in 2026 you are not yet obliged to use Verifactu-compliant software — but it is the year to prepare.

Conclusion

Your first autónomo invoice is really a tax declaration with four moving parts — base, IVA, IRPF retención, and total — and each one must match who your client is and where they are. The single most useful move for a new freelancer is to confirm two things before sending: whether you qualify for the 7% IRPF rate (year of alta plus two years, if you did no professional activity the year before), and whether your client is a Spanish business, a private individual, or a foreign company — because that determines whether retención and IVA appear at all. When in doubt, check the exact treatment with a gestor or on the Agencia Tributaria website before the invoice goes out; correcting it afterwards is far more work.