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How to Fill Modelo 303: Quarterly IVA for Autónomos

By CHANGE-ME Your Name · Updated 2026-10-11

The short version before we open the form

Modelo 303 is the periodic IVA self-assessment — quarterly for most autónomos, monthly for some. You add up the VAT you charged (output), subtract the VAT you paid on business purchases (input), and the difference is what you pay AEAT, or carry forward if it's negative.

Everything else is detail — but the detail is where the money and the penalties live, so here is the box-by-box version, built around one realistic quarter.

All box numbers below come from the AEAT instructions for periods February–December / 2T–4T 2026. That matters, because for 2026 AEAT published two different instruction sets — one for January/1T, one for the rest of the year. The reason is Orden HAC/27/2026, de 22 de enero (BOE 26/01/2026), which amended modelos 303, 322, 353 and 390 with first effect from the 2T 2026 / February 2026 self-assessment (and from the FY2026 annual summary for the 390). Before you panic: the substance of that order is the depósito distinto del aduanero regime for petrol, diesel and biofuels. It does not change a single box an ordinary freelancer uses. Several commercial guides imply a general redesign of the form. There wasn't one.

The filing calendar

Two things people get wrong here.

First, the direct-debit cut-off is a published date, not "five days earlier". AEAT's own 2026 table lists 4T 2025 as 1 to 27 January 2026 — not the 25th. Read the table; don't do arithmetic.

Second, if the last day falls on a non-working day, Saturday included, the deadline rolls to the next working day. For 4T 2026 (filed January 2027), 30 January 2027 is a Saturday, so the deadline should roll to Monday 1 February 2027. AEAT has not published the 2027 calendar yet, so treat that as my reading of the rule, not a confirmed date.

20 October 2026 is also the due date for modelo 130 (estimación directa) and 131 (estimación objetiva), plus 309, 349 and 380. Same day, same sitting. Do both.

Filing is electronic only — "la presentación es obligatoria por vía electrónica". And you file even in a dead quarter: the form has a "Sin actividad" tick box for periods where you neither accrued nor incurred any VAT. "No income, no filing" is wrong, and a late nil return carries a fixed penalty.

Output VAT (IVA devengado): everything that lands in box 27

Rates in force: standard 21%, reduced 10%, super-reduced 4%.

One live 2026 quirk, and it hits your input side. Electricity (contracts ≤10 kW and severely vulnerable bono social recipients), natural gas, briquettes, pellets and firewood went to 10% from 22 March to 31 May 2026, back to 21% from 1 June. LPG (including butane), kerosene for non-fuel uses and carburantes went to 10% from 22 March to 30 June 2026, back to 21% from 1 July. So a 2T or 3T 2026 return can easily contain utility and fuel invoices at both rates. Copy the rate from the invoice. Never recompute it.

Input VAT: boxes 28 to 46

Two habits worth building: capital goods go in 30-31, not 28-29 (and 38-39, not 36-37, when bought from the EU); and don't enter bases for zero-rate or exempt purchases anywhere in the 28-39 block.

EU reverse charge — the part most guides get backwards

Selling services to an EU business. Say a German GmbH. The supply isn't subject to Spanish VAT under the place-of-supply rules; your client reverse-charges it. It goes in box 59, whose official wording covers both exempt intra-EU supplies of goods and "las prestaciones de servicios intracomunitarias del periodo de liquidación".

It does not go in box 120. Box 120 is "operaciones no sujetas por reglas de localización", and its own instruction says so explicitly: "excepto las prestaciones de servicios intracomunitarias, incluidas en la casilla 59". Box 120 is for non-EU work — your US or UK clients.

The rest of that block: box 122 for domestic reverse-charge supplies you make (art. 84.Uno.2.º), boxes 123/124 for OSS/IOSS distance sales, box 60 for exports and assimilated exempt operations, including definitive shipments to Canarias, Ceuta and Melilla and traveller-regime refunds.

And to settle a question search results still contradict each other on: there is no box 61. It was split into 120/122/123/124 on 1 July 2021.

Buying services from an EU supplier — Google Ireland, Meta, Adobe, a Portuguese designer. You self-charge: base and quota in 10-11, and the same quota as input VAT in 36-37 (or 38-39 for a capital good). Net cash effect zero if fully deductible, but it must appear on both sides.

Then: modelo 349. Any empresario or profesional making intra-EU supplies or acquisitions of goods or services files it, whatever their VAT regime — but not for periods with no such operations. Default periodicity is monthly; quarterly if neither the quarter in question nor any of the four preceding quarters exceeded €50,000 excluding VAT. Quarterly returns are due in the first 20 days of the following month, 4T in the first 30 days of January. Invoicing EU businesses without VAT normally means being registered in the ROI via modelo 036 — that's standard practice rather than something I could confirm on a live AEAT page, so verify it in Sede electrónica before you rely on it. Either way it's a registration step, not a 303 step. If you haven't done that side yet, see our guide to registering as an autónomo.

Non-deductible IVA: what must stay out

Art. 95 LIVA is the general rule — no deduction for anything not affected "directa y exclusivamente" to the activity. Art. 96.Uno then excludes outright, in no proportion:

• jewellery, precious stones, pearls
• food, drink and tobacco
• entertainment and recreational services
• goods or services for atenciones a clientes, asalariados o terceras personas
• travel, hospitality and restaurant services — unless the expense is deductible for IRPF/IS purposes

Art. 96.Dos carves out industrial, commercial, agrarian, clinical and scientific-use goods, and anything acquired for resale or habitual onward supply.

The filing point almost nobody states: non-deductible input VAT doesn't go in box 29 — and its base must not go in box 28 either. That's the single most common freelance error, and it's where mismatches with your libro registro and your modelo 130 start.

Two grey areas, honestly labelled. Cars: art. 95.Tres regla 2.ª presumes 50% business use for passenger vehicles, but it is a rebuttable presumption under active administrative pressure — AEAT has argued effective use governs and can be lower, and some binding consultations deny deduction entirely where there is private use. Don't treat 50% as a safe harbour. Atenciones a clientes: deductibility of input VAT on goods and services destined for clients, employees and third parties is being litigated at EU level. Developing law; don't build a cash plan on it.

Finally, art. 99.Tres: you can deduct in the period the quota was incurred or in later periods, as long as four years haven't passed since the right arose. A forgotten 1T invoice is perfectly deductible in 3T.

A worked 3T 2026 quarter

Freelance web developer. Estimación directa, régimen general, no prorrata, quarterly filer, in the ROI.

Sales

Purchases

That electricity line is there to make the rate point — it's left out of the totals below so the arithmetic stays readable.

Result: box 27 = 3,780 + 126 = €3,906. Box 45 = 504 + 315 + 126 = €945. Box 46 = €2,961. Then 64 = 2,961, box 65 = 100% (all non-foral taxpayers put 100% here), 66 = 2,961, and 69 = 71 = €2,961 to pay.

The result block, and what happens if it's negative

The official chain: 64 = box 46 plus any simplified-regime result → 65 = share of turnover in territorio común → 66 = 64 × 65 → 69 = 66 + 77 − 78 + 68 + 108 → 71 = 69 − 70 + 109. Box 77 is import VAT included in the customs documents (deferred import VAT); box 68 is the Basque/Navarre annual regularisation, December/4T only.

Prior-period credits: box 110 holds the total pending credit (positive sign), box 78 the part you actually apply this period, and box 87 must equal 110 − 78, i.e. what's left. Box 67 no longer exists — if a guide still sends you there, it's stale. There's also a hard constraint: the return cannot be "A COMPENSAR" if box 78 is filled. Apply old credit or declare new credit, not both in the same return; the untouched remainder sits in 87.

If box 71 is negative, you put the amount in box 72 and carry it forward. That's it for 1T, 2T and 3T — because art. 115.Uno LIVA says the refund is requested in the return for the last liquidation period of the year, for the balance in your favour at 31 December. Only taxpayers in the monthly refund register (REDEME, art. 116) can ask every period. AEAT's own FAQ confirms the harsh version: someone who ceases activity in January still cannot claim in 1T.

Two more refund details: it's all or nothing — "se consignará la totalidad del saldo a su favor", no partial requests. And AEAT must issue a provisional liquidation within six months of the end of the filing deadline; if it pays late, statutory late-payment interest accrues without you having to claim it.

Fixing a filed return, and filing late

From the September 2024 monthly period and 3T 2024 onwards, the general route for correcting modelo 303 is the autoliquidación rectificativa (art. 74 bis RIVA, introduced by RD 117/2024; form approved by Orden HAC/819/2024). It replaces both the old complementaria and the solicitud de rectificación. The solicitud survives only for quotas improperly charged to other taxpayers and for Chapter XI, Title IX special regimes — and, optionally, where the error rests on a conflict with a higher-ranking norm, which is the only route that lets you attach documents. The relevant boxes are 70 (prior positive box 69), 109 (prior negative box 69 where the refund was requested and received), 111 (negative result offsetting the earlier positive one) and 108 (discrepancia de criterio administrativo, meant to be exceptional).

Filing late with no prior AEAT requirement triggers the art. 27 LGT surcharge: 1% plus 1% per full month of delay; over 12 months, 15% plus late-payment interest from the end of that 12-month period to the filing date. There's a 25% reduction of the surcharge if you pay the remaining 75% within the period set in the surcharge notice and settle the debt on filing, within the assessment period, or under a guaranteed deferral — miss either condition and the reduction is lost. Art. 27.3 also waives the surcharge where you extend an AEAT-notified regularisation to other periods of the same tax within six months, pay in full and don't appeal. A late return must cover only its own period — no catching up in the next quarter. For a late nil or negative return there's nothing to surcharge; it's a fixed penalty under art. 198 LGT instead, and I'd check the current amount in the BOE text of Ley 58/2003 rather than trust the figure you'll see repeated online.

4T only

In the fourth-quarter return you may also need box 44 (definitive prorrata), box 68 (Basque/Navarre regularisation) and, if you're exonerated from modelo 390, the dedicated last-period section covering activities, prorrata, differentiated sectors, allocation percentages between administrations and total annual volume of operations (box 88).

Don't assume you're exonerated from 390. All VAT taxpayers filing periodic self-assessments are obliged. The exceptions: filers of modelo 369 under the OSS/IOSS-type regimes, and those exonerated by Ministerial Order — quarterly, territorio-común-only filers whose activities are solely régimen simplificado and/or urban property leasing, and taxpayers keeping their VAT registers through the Sede electrónica (SII). Even they must complete that last-period section, and the exoneration doesn't apply if there's no obligation to file the last period at all.

One adjacent thing

Mandatory B2B e-invoicing (RD 238/2026) now has dates: Orden HAC/1028/2026, de 2 de octubre approved the public e-invoicing solution and entered into force 6 October 2026, which starts the clock — turnover above €8M from 6 October 2027, everyone else, i.e. most autónomos, from 6 October 2028. Separately, a Ministry of Finance communication dated 5 October 2026 signals an expected extension of the adaptation period for invoicing software (SIF/Verifactu). The new dates weren't published at the time of writing, so check the AEAT Verifactu page and our Verifactu deadline tracker rather than any recycled 2026 date.

And since the 303 and the 130 land on the same day, it's worth knowing what else is leaving your account that month — including the cuota de autónomos.

FAQ

Official sources

• AEAT — Modelo 303, instrucciones 2026 (index)
• AEAT — Modelo 303, instrucciones febrero-diciembre / 2T-4T 2026
• AEAT — Modificaciones modelos 303, 322, 353 y 390 (Orden HAC/27/2026)
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Plazos de presentación
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Las autoliquidaciones del IVA
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Formas de presentación
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Modelo 303. Autoliquidación rectificativa
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Cuestiones frecuentes, capítulo 8
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Novedades 2026: Tipos impositivos
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Factura electrónica obligatoria
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Obligados a presentar el modelo 390
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Modelo 349
• Manual práctico IVA 2026 — Modelo 349, plazo de presentación
• AEAT — Calendario del contribuyente 2026, hasta el 20 de octubre
• AEAT — Plazos de presentación con domiciliación bancaria 2026
• AEAT — Solución pública de facturación electrónica (Orden HAC/1028/2026)
• AEAT — Sistemas informáticos de facturación / Verifactu
• BOE — Ley 37/1992 del IVA (texto consolidado)
• BOE — Ley 58/2003 General Tributaria (texto consolidado), art. 27