Plan contractor hiring in Spain

A Spain-resident individual can contract as a trabajador autónomo and bill the foreign customer personally. If this client supplies at least 75% of the statutory income total, that is only the entry test for trabajador autónomo económicamente dependiente, or TRADE. Every Article 11.2 condition must also hold. In general, the contractor can have no employees and cannot subcontract any of the activity; one employee is allowed only for narrow pregnancy, birth or family-care cases, with no matching subcontract exception. A person with public-facing commercial premises or a professional practising jointly through a company cannot be TRADE. Clear those gates before using the written contract and registration process; client direction can instead point to employment.

Sources: BOE, Self-Employed Workers' Statute, articles 1, 11 and 12, BOE, Royal Decree 197/2009 on TRADE contracts

If the line is crossed

If Spanish employment law applies and the facts meet its employment definition, the foreign customer receiving the services is the employer; the contractor label no longer decides the relationship. If Spanish social security also applies, the buyer must register with TGSS before work, obtain its principal Código de Cuenta de Cotización and, when it has no Spanish workplace, appoint a legal representative domiciled in Spain. It must request the worker's alta before employment starts, up to 60 calendar days early. Failure to request initial affiliation or alta is a serious offence per worker, with statutory grades from 3,750 to 12,000 euros. Social-security coordination can assign another system, so confirm both laws first.

Sources: BOE, Workers' Statute, articles 1 and 8, BOE, labour and social-security offences law, articles 22 and 40, Spanish Social Security, employer registration and principal CCC, Spanish Social Security, foreign-employer documents and Spain-domiciled representative, Spanish Social Security, worker alta deadlines

Certificado tributario de situación censal

Tax census-status certificate

This is the cleanest onboarding record for the supplier the payer is about to book. It reports the tax address, the residence status held in the Spanish tax census, registered activities and premises, and the periodic tax obligations attached to those registrations. Match the name, NIF, address and activity to the contract and first invoice. A current certificate can expose a dormant registration, a different legal counterparty or an activity that does not match the work before those discrepancies become an invoice query. It records AEAT's census data and does not decide employment status.

Issued by: Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, following an online request by the contractor or an authorised representative.

Timing: Collect at onboarding and request a replacement after any change to the supplier's legal form, tax address or registered activity.

Sources: Spanish Tax Agency, what the census-status certificate proves

Certificado de residencia fiscal en España

Spanish tax-residence certificate

This certificate answers a different question: whether AEAT's records support Spanish tax residence for the contractor. A foreign payer may need it for its own withholding file or to apply a tax treaty in the payer's country. Keep that purpose separate from Spanish supplier registration. The certificate does not instruct the foreign payer how much to withhold, and it does not prove that Spanish IVA belongs on the invoice. It supplies the residence fact that the payer's home-country rule may require before granting treaty relief or paying without a local deduction.

Issued by: Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria when its records establish Spanish fiscal residence.

Timing: Collect before the first payment when the payer's jurisdiction requires residence proof, then renew on the schedule that jurisdiction applies.

Sources: Spanish Tax Agency, tax-residence certificates

For ordinary B2B services, a contractor in Spain's IVA territory bills a foreign business without Spanish IVA because the general place of supply follows the customer's business establishment. The next step depends on where that customer sits. A business in another EU member state usually accounts for VAT there, so the Spanish supplier needs ROI registration, a NIF-IVA and the invoice wording inversión del sujeto pasivo. A customer outside the EU leaves the service outside Spanish IVA under the same destination logic, without that EU wording. Property, event and other specially located services can change the answer. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla also sit outside Spain's harmonised IVA territory and follow their own indirect-tax rules.

Sources: BOE, Value Added Tax Law, articles 3 and 69, Spanish Tax Agency, ROI, VIES and NIF-IVA for EU operations, BOE, Invoicing Regulation, article 6

What an invoice has to show

• The Spanish supplier's NIF and, for an EU reverse-charge service, the customer's VAT identification number

  A full factura identifies the supplier with the Spanish NIF. When the customer is the VAT taxpayer, the customer's VAT identification number also belongs on it. Match both identifiers to the legal names and addresses in the contract and supplier record. The ordinary invoice number, issue date, concise service description and any different service date still need to be present, but the cross-border acceptance check should focus on identity: the correct supplier issued the document and the identified EU recipient is the party accounting for VAT.

  Sources: BOE, Invoicing Regulation, article 6

• The exact phrase inversión del sujeto pasivo when the EU business customer accounts for VAT

  Where the EU business customer is the VAT taxpayer, Spanish invoicing rules require the exact words inversión del sujeto pasivo. The phrase explains why the supplier charges no Spanish IVA and tells the identified recipient to account for VAT in its member state. Use it only for the recipient-liable EU service. It is not a generic no-IVA label. A customer outside the EU does not use this statutory EU wording, so asking every foreign-customer invoice to carry it can turn a correct document into a misleading one.

  Sources: BOE, Invoicing Regulation, article 6.1(m), Spanish Tax Agency, services requiring ROI and NIF-IVA

• The company's unipersonal status when the contractor invoices through an SLU

  A Spanish one-owner company must state its unipersonal condition on invoices for as long as that status continues. The marker should agree with the company name and registration evidence held at onboarding. Its absence matters because the Companies Act uses outward disclosure to keep customers informed about the one-shareholder structure. This requirement disappears when the supplier is a natural-person autónomo or a company that is no longer unipersonal. Route the correction to the company and preserve the original invoice number trail instead of silently changing the supplier record.

  Sources: BOE, Companies Act, article 13

• The RRSIF tax QR for affected invoicing systems, with VERI*FACTU wording only in that mode

  Check how the supplier creates invoices. An in-scope Spanish supplier using an affected invoicing system must adapt a Corporate Income Tax payer's system before 1 January 2027 and another covered taxpayer's system before 1 July 2027. Every invoice from that system needs the tax QR; a structured electronic representation carries the QR's URL as a field instead. Foreign, export and intra-EU service invoices are included. Add Factura verificable en la sede electrónica de la AEAT or VERI*FACTU only when the system operates in VERI*FACTU mode. Manual-only invoicing, SII, foral rules and authorised exclusions can change scope. This system rule is separate from Spain's structured B2B e-invoicing mandate.

  Sources: Spanish Tax Agency, RRSIF FAQ on QR and VERI*FACTU wording, updated 21 July 2026, Spanish Tax Agency, RRSIF FAQ on scope and adaptation dates, updated 21 July 2026, BOE, Royal Decree-law 15/2025, article 3, BOE, Order HAC/1177/2024, articles 20 and 21

The services contract should state a due date instead of leaving finance to invent one after approval. If Spanish commercial-payment law governs, the supplier sends the invoice within 15 calendar days after the service and the statute fills any gap in the agreed term. State governing law expressly. In a court of an EU member state bound by Rome I, the parties may choose it. Without a choice, a services contract generally follows the provider's habitual residence; for a natural person acting in business, Article 19 uses the principal place of business, which points to Spain here. Denmark does not participate, and a non-EU forum may use different conflicts rules.

Sources: BOE, Law 3/2004 on late payment, article 4, EUR-Lex, Rome I Regulation, articles 3, 4 and 19

When invoices are settled

When Spanish law governs and the contract gives no date, payment falls due 30 calendar days after the service is performed. A contractual acceptance or verification step may run for no more than 30 calendar days, followed by a 30-day payment period. The parties can set another term, with 60 calendar days as the statutory outer limit. Once the applicable date passes, default starts automatically without a demand. The contract rate applies first; otherwise the rate is the European Central Bank reference used by the statute plus eight percentage points. The contractor also receives a fixed 40 euros and can claim proven collection costs above it. Internal approval should therefore sit inside the agreed clock rather than restart it.

Sources: BOE, Law 3/2004 on late payment, articles 4 to 8

The currency on the invoice

The invoice can be denominated in any currency the parties choose. Spain's invoicing rule adds one narrow display condition: if the contractor charges Spanish IVA, the tax amount itself must be expressed in euros using the statutory exchange rule. Ordinary services to the fixed foreign-business customer generally carry no Spanish IVA, so that euro tax-display condition often has nothing to operate on. The contract should still identify the pricing currency, the party bearing conversion costs and the rate source and date for any conversion. Leaving those points to payment day changes the amount the contractor receives without changing the invoice's formal validity.

Sources: BOE, Invoicing Regulation, article 12, BOE, Value Added Tax Law, article 69

Treating the 75% income test as a complete TRADE classification

The percentage only admits the contractor to the TRADE test. The contractor must satisfy every independence condition at once, including the general bans on employees and subcontracting; one employee is possible only for the narrow statutory care cases. Public-facing commercial premises and joint professional practice exclude the status. The written contract should declare the 75% result, staffing and subcontracting position, own infrastructure, change-notice duty and both exclusions. The contractor registers within 10 business days after signature and informs the client within five business days after registration. If 15 business days pass from signature without notice, the client has the following 10 business days to register. Ask for lawful income proof and calendar each date.

Sources: BOE, Self-Employed Workers' Statute, articles 11 and 12, BOE, Royal Decree 197/2009, articles 4 to 6

Taking Spanish professional-fee withholding from the invoice because domestic clients take 15%

Spain's professional withholding habit belongs to the payer categories in the Personal Income Tax Law. A foreign business with no Spanish permanent establishment does not acquire the ordinary professional-fee withholding role solely because the contractor lives in Spain. Article 99 brings a nonresident without an establishment into narrow payment categories, including specified employment income and amounts deductible against certain Spanish nonresident income. Check that exception, then apply the payer's home-country withholding law and any treaty. If neither creates a deduction, pay the gross invoice. Copying the domestic 15% line leaves the contractor short and creates no Spanish filing route for this payer.

Sources: BOE, Personal Income Tax Law, article 99

Rejecting the invoice because it carries no Spanish IVA

For ordinary services to a business established abroad, customer location takes the supply outside Spanish IVA. The invoice requirements then depend on whether the foreign customer is inside the EU. An EU business customer gives its valid VAT identification number, and the Spanish contractor uses NIF-IVA plus inversión del sujeto pasivo. A customer outside the EU does not use that EU wording. Confirm the buyer establishment and service type before asking for a correction. Also check where in Spain the contractor is established, since the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla sit outside harmonised Spanish IVA and their invoices follow separate indirect-tax systems.

Sources: BOE, Value Added Tax Law, articles 3 and 69, BOE, Invoicing Regulation, article 6, Spanish Tax Agency, ROI, VIES and NIF-IVA for EU operations