{"id":1860,"date":"2026-07-16T16:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:15:28","slug":"spain-faces-fine-over-vat-exemption-for-self-employed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/blog\/immigration\/spain-faces-fine-over-vat-exemption-for-self-employed\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain faces a fine of more than 17.5 million euros for refusing to exempt self-employed people from VAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission filed a lawsuit against Spain in the EU Court of Justice for non-compliance with the European regime VAT<\/a> in relation to the self-employed.<\/p>\n

The European Common Taxation Directive obliges these professionals to be exempt from paying tax when carrying out transactions with other EU countries. Spain, like the rest of the EU member states, had to apply this rule no later than December 31, 2024.<\/p>\n

The European Commission demands a daily fine<\/h2>\n

Now the European Commission demands that Spain be fined for non-fulfillment of obligations in the amount of 32,430 euros per day, which from January 1, 2025 already exceeds 17.6 million euros.<\/p>\n

However, this amount will increase until Spain implements this change.<\/p>\n

The Spanish government currently intends to exempt self-employed people from VAT on intra-European transactions, but this change is included in a bill to strengthen controls over the taxation of crypto assets that has been stuck in parliament since last year.<\/p>\n

The bill may drag on until the end of the year<\/h2>\n

The draft law is unlikely to be adopted quickly, since, taking advantage of the fact that it provides for reform of the General Tax Law, various parliamentary factions have submitted more than 70 amendments with a variety of tax changes.<\/p>\n

This means that if the government waits for the bill to pass through parliament, the process could drag on until the end of the year, causing the fine to double.<\/p>\n

VAT exemption will not be automatic for everyone<\/h2>\n

This directive also allows individual countries to exempt self-employed persons whose annual turnover does not exceed \u20ac85,000 from VAT, although a lower threshold may be set.<\/p>\n

This measure is the most popular among Spanish experts to ease the bureaucratic burden, but the government categorically refuses to approve it.<\/p>\n

The exemption of self-employed persons from transferring VAT on invoices and therefore from their quarterly declaration to the tax authorities is an option provided for by the European Directive and not an obligation.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Commission’s statement against Spain emphasizes that although EU member states may decide not to grant small businesses an exemption from VAT charged on their territory, they are obliged to take the necessary measures to allow them to benefit from the exemption when carrying out activities in other countries.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for the self-employed and small businesses?<\/h2>\n

For self-employed people and small businesses that work with clients or companies in other EU countries, the delay means additional administrative procedures and tax uncertainty remain.<\/p>\n

This is especially true for specialists who operate in Spain, work remotely, provide services to foreign clients or plan registration of a legal entity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In this context, the issues of document preparation remain relevant, including obtaining a NIE in Spain<\/a>, choosing a tax regime and understanding how the work in Spain<\/a> for foreigners and self-employed professionals.<\/p>\n

The second claim concerns VAT on second-hand goods and art.<\/h2>\n

On the other hand, the EU also filed a lawsuit against Spain for not reducing VAT on second-hand goods, works of art, collectibles and antiques, as required by the Directive of April 5, 2022.<\/p>\n

This violation carries a fine of a further \u20ac32,430 per day.<\/p>\n

Thus, Spain is simultaneously faced with two VAT claims, which could have consequences both for the self-employed and small businesses, and for certain segments of the trade and art market.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission filed a lawsuit against Spain in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alegria-service.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}