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Spain · Contractor taxation guide · 2026
Hiring in Spain?
Here’s where the money actually goes
Start with the calculator: enter what you pay and compare the two ways a Spanish contractor can be set up. Below it — what each tax actually costs, the filing dates, and what changes when you’re 75% of their income.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Spanish income tax is set half nationally and half by each region, so treat every number here as a starting point and check your own case.
Three taxes. Here’s what each one costs
Spain taxes a contractor’s profit on a progressive scale that varies by region, charges social security on a bracket table that stops rising long before income does, and taxes a company’s profit twice before it reaches anyone. The first two are the autónomo picture; the third only applies if they invoice through a company.
Progressive, and half of it is regional. Thestate scale runs 9.5% to 24.5%; eachcommunity sets its own on top. The 19–47% table you have seen is the statescale plus a default that applies exactly inonly a few places.
Today, 2:15pm
State scale – 9.5–24.5%
Tomorrow, 11am
Top marginal, Madrid – 45%
Tomorrow, 2pm
Top marginal, Valencia – 54%
Fifteen brackets on net earnings at 31.5% of a base that stops climbing wellbefore income does. Above €6,000 amonth of net earnings the bill is flat — €607.35, whatever they invoice.
Today, 2:15pm
First 12 months – $80 headline
Tomorrow, 11am
At $2,500 net – $427/month
Tomorrow, 2pm
Ceiling – $607.35/month
Only if they invoice through a company. Profit is taxed before any of it reaches them, then taxed again on the way out. It is why the company route is the dearer of the two until the numbers get large.
Today, 2:15pm
Standard rate – 21%
Tomorrow, 11am
EU client – you self-account
Tomorrow, 2pm
Non-EU client – not subject
A year in the life of a Spanish contractor’s taxes
Day 1
Register, then forecast
Registration with the tax agency and with RETA. Thebracket comes from a forecast of net earnings, notturnover — so January’s number is a guess, settled later.
Quarterly,
six windows
six windows
Modelo 130, and the bracket can move
20 April, 20 July, 20 October and 30 January — 20%of cumulative profit, with nothing withheld to offset it iftheir clients are all abroad. The bracket can move sixtimes a year.
Month 13
The starter rate ends
A first-time registrant pays $80 a month for twelvemonths, then the ordinary table — about €1,064 foryear one against €5,435 on a €36,000 invoice. Thatgap arrives as a rate request.
The year after
Regularisation
Real earnings go from the tax agency to SocialSecurity and the year is recalculated. Underpaidbrackets are settled in one payment — where acontractor who forecast low gets a bill.
Before you sign
You don’t have to track any of these dates. You do have to decide two things:what share of their income you’ll be, and how much you’ll direct the work — hours, tools, premises, the rate. Both go in the contract.
Check whether you’re doing this legally
Tick what’s true of your arrangement. There’s no pass mark — Spain weighs the whole picture. The first item is a threshold: above 75% they can qualify as a TRADE, which stays legal but needs its own registered contract and gives them employee-like rights. The rest are what an inspection looks at.
You are 75% or more of everything they earn
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You set their working hours
They work from premises you provide or designate
You supply or fund the tools they work with
You direct how the work is done, not just the result
You set their rate and they don’t negotiate it
They sit inside your structure — manager, reviews
They look like your staff from the outside
Over the 75% line. They can now qualify as a TRADE — if they also have no employees, use their own equipment and work differently from your staff. Same tax either way, but a TRADE contract has to be written and registered with the SEPE, and the duty to tell you sits with them.
Three things to check before you agree a rate
Which of the two setups they are on, the fact that you never withhold anything, and which region their contract says they live in. All three change the number that matters to them.
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Which status they register
Ask for a Certificado de Situación Censal and a Social Security clearance certificate. Both are routine to get, and together they show whether you are dealing with a plain autónomo or a one-person company.
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Billing a foreign client
A Spanish client would withhold 15% of the invoice. You don't, unless you have a permanent establishment here — so the whole invoice leaves your account, and their quarterly tax bill is bigger for it.
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Which region they’re in
Half of Spanish income tax is set by the region, so the same gross is a different net depending on the address on the contract — a 45% top rate in Madrid against 54% in Valencia.
The questions
The seven that come up most when companies hire in Spain.
Can we hire a Spanish contractor without a Spanish entity?
Yes. A commercial agreement with a registered autónomo is an ordinary arrangement and needs nothing from you
locally — no registration, no filing, no local presence. What you cannot do is run that arrangement like employment. The contract is the easy part. How you manage the work day to day is where the exposure sits, and that is the part nobody reviews until someone asks.
locally — no registration, no filing, no local presence. What you cannot do is run that arrangement like employment. The contract is the easy part. How you manage the work day to day is where the exposure sits, and that is the part nobody reviews until someone asks.
Who actually pays the tax — us or the contractor?
The contractor. They file and pay their own income tax and social security. Unusually, you do not even withhold — a payer with no permanent establishment in Spain has no withholding obligation here, so the whole invoice leaves your account and their entire tax bill lands quarterly on their side. A permanent establishment would change that. Otherwise, don’t add a withholding line to the invoice; it only creates errors in their return.
Could paying someone in Spain make us taxable there?
Paying someone in Spain does not on its own give you a taxable presence there. What creates exposure is a person habitually concluding business on your behalf, or a fixed place of business you effectively control. It is a corporate tax question, separate from misclassification — you can fix one and still have the other. Worth an hour with a Spanish adviser on your own facts.
What is a TRADE, and should we care?
A TRADE is an autónomo who earns at least 75% of their total income from one client — all their income, not only what they invoice you. The tax is identical to any other autónomo. What changes is that the relationship needs a written contract registered with the SEPE, and they gain rights closer to an employee’s, including 18 working days off a year. Crossing 75% does not do this on its own: they must also have no employees, keep their own equipment, and work differently from your staff. And the duty to tell you sits with them, so you may not learn it from the invoices.
What happens if a contractor is reclassified as an employee?
A serious infringement, counted once per affected person: roughly $4,300 to $13,800 per person, plus four years of unpaid contributions with surcharges and interest. Enforcement is not theoretical — in March 2026 the Labour Inspectorate confirmed about $127 million against a food delivery platform covering more than 60,000 riders, and in June 2025 a court upheld about $7.4 million against an estate agency for 549 consultants, decided by sampling a representative group and applying the finding to everyone. If your model repeats the same arrangement across dozens of people, sampling is the part that should worry you. Regularising before an inspection can reduce it.
Our contractor says a cooperative will invoice us. Is that normal?
Usually not. Billing cooperatives let someone invoice without registering as self-employed, and the authorities treated the largest as a front for exactly that, disqualified it and wound it up. Around 3,000 members were put into self employment retroactively with a 20% surcharge. A few still operate in audiovisual and cultural niches. What protected
members in court was income below the minimum wage, and in July 2025 the Supreme Court held that this alone does not remove the duty to register. Ask who is actually providing the service.
members in court was income below the minimum wage, and in July 2025 the Supreme Court held that this alone does not remove the duty to register. Ask who is actually providing the service.
Can we hire employees in Spain, or use an Employer of Record?
Three routes: your own Spanish entity, your existing company registered there as a foreign employer, or ours — we employ in Spain through our own entity, so you need neither. Budget about 30.65% in employer contributions on
top of gross, plus an accident premium, on a base capped at €5,101.20 a month. Minimum wage is €1,221 a month over fourteen payments. There is no at-will dismissal — 20 days’ salary per year of service, or 33 if it is found unfair. Spain restricts assigning workers to third parties, which is why some providers decline to employ here. Ask any provider how they handle that, us included.
top of gross, plus an accident premium, on a base capped at €5,101.20 a month. Minimum wage is €1,221 a month over fourteen payments. There is no at-will dismissal — 20 days’ salary per year of service, or 33 if it is found unfair. Spain restricts assigning workers to third parties, which is why some providers decline to employ here. Ask any provider how they handle that, us included.
General information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Figures reflect 2026 rules and are indexed annually. Spanish income tax is set half by the State and half by each region, so any single rate here is an approximation — the calculator uses the default supplementary scale, and Navarra and the Basque Country run separate systems. It also assumes no documented business expenses and full distribution of company profit. Thresholds and penalties are set in euros; dollar figures are converted at 1.1535 $/€ (ECB reference rate) and rounded, so check the current rate and work in euros near a bracket boundary. Whether an arrangement is genuinely self-employment, and whether the 75% threshold has been crossed, turn on the facts of each engagement — nothing here is a determination. The legal position on Employer of Record arrangements in Spain is disputed and turns on article 43 of the Workers’ Statute. Confirm your position at agenciatributaria.gob.es and seg-social.es or with a qualified Spanish adviser.