Intra-EU VAT for Spanish freelancers: ROI, invoices and form 349

Intra-EU VAT depends on the transaction and customer. Between businesses with valid VAT numbers, a service is generally taxed where the customer is established and goods transported to another Member State may be exempt in Spain. Purchases usually require Spanish VAT accounting. Register in the ROI, check VIES and reconcile forms 303 and 349 first.

“Intra-EU” does not mean “foreign customer”. For Spanish VAT it describes certain transactions between mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands and another EU Member State. The treatment changes depending on whether you buy or sell, whether the transaction covers goods or services and whether the other party acts as a business or a consumer. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are outside this VAT territory.

Start with the ROI, a VAT number and a VIES check

If you plan to make intra-EU supplies or acquisitions of goods, receive services from a non-established business for which you become liable for VAT, or provide B2B services located in another Member State, you will normally need a Spanish VAT number. You request it by registering in the intra-EU operators register, the ROI, through form 036: box 582 for the request and box 584 for the expected first transaction date.

Applying does not mean you are already registered. AEAT says that if it has not decided within three months, the request may be treated as refused. Before using intra-EU treatment, check in VIES that the other party’s VAT number is valid and keep the dated result.

When you sell services to an EU business

Under the general B2B rule, what counts is the business establishment receiving the service. If it is in another Member State, Spanish VAT is not charged: the recipient accounts for VAT under the reverse-charge mechanism where applicable. Report the service on form 349 if it is taxable at destination and the recipient is liable; services exempt at destination are excluded.

Do not turn this general rule into a universal invoice template. Services connected with property, admission to events, restaurant services and other cases have special location rules. The rule also changes for a private consumer. AEAT’s service locator helps classify the case before you invoice it.

When you sell goods to a business in another Member State

A supply of goods transported from Spain to another Member State may be exempt from Spanish VAT when the buyer acts as a business, gives you a valid VAT number issued by another Member State and you include the transaction on form 349. You must also retain documents showing dispatch or transport. This is an exemption with deduction: no Spanish VAT is charged on the sale, while related input VAT can remain deductible where the requirements are met.

This is not the same as a distance sale to a consumer. It is not an export either: for VAT purposes, exports involve dispatching goods outside the EU VAT territory, including permanent shipments from mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands to the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla. Correctly identifying the customer and the physical movement of the goods avoids applying an exemption that does not belong to the transaction.

When you buy goods or services from an EU supplier

For an intra-EU acquisition of goods arriving in mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands, the supplier will usually invoice without origin-country VAT and you account for Spanish VAT. An acquisition of services located in Spain works similarly under reverse charge: the customer accounts for the tax. As a general rule, these transactions appear on both form 303 and form 349.

This form 303 explanation concerns the general VAT scheme. Under the equivalence surcharge scheme, taxable intra-EU acquisitions are settled using form 309, with VAT and any applicable surcharge, without deducting VAT attributable to that activity. The simplified scheme has specific rules for goods and services acquisitions. Not every EU purchase of goods without VAT is a taxable intra-EU acquisition: purchases of goods supplied under the small-business exemption in the Member State of dispatch, or taxed there under the second-hand goods margin scheme, follow different rules. These exceptions do not automatically extend to services.

Form 303 shows output VAT and, if you have the right to deduct it and the invoice meets the requirements, deductible input VAT. The effect can therefore be neutral with full deduction, but do not assume it. Record the taxable amount, VAT number and actual type of transaction; foreign VAT charged in error does not automatically become deductible Spanish VAT.

How forms 303 and 349 fit together

Form 303 is the VAT return: it contains output and deductible VAT for the period. Form 349 is a recapitulative information return, broken down by operator and transaction type. Filing one does not replace the other, and the taxable amounts must reconcile with your invoices and VAT ledgers.

Under the general scheme, intra-EU purchases of goods and services use form 303 boxes 10 and 11, and eligible deductions use boxes 36 and 37 (current operations) or 38 and 39 (capital goods). Reportable intra-EU supplies go in box 59. On form 349, keys E and A cover goods supplied and acquired, and S and I cover services supplied and received.

Form 349 is monthly by default. It may be quarterly when reportable supplies of goods and services do not exceed €50,000 in the reference quarter or any of the previous four. The usual deadline is the first twenty calendar days of the following month; July may be filed during August and through 20 September, and December and the fourth quarter run through the first thirty days of January. If cumulative reportable supplies exceed €50,000 by the end of the quarter’s first or second month, you must report the elapsed months within the first twenty calendar days thereafter.

To understand the effect on your VAT return, use the quarterly VAT calculator and read the guide to form 303. They are informational aids: the final treatment must be checked against the transaction and the current official forms.

Common mistakes

• Leaving VAT off because an address is in the EU, without checking B2B status and VIES.
• Confusing a consumer sale with an intra-EU supply between businesses.
• Treating the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla as part of the EU VAT territory.
• Recording a purchase only as an expense and missing its form 303 and 349 treatment.
• Assuming every reverse charge is neutral even when deduction is restricted.
• Filing form 303 and forgetting that form 349 is a separate return.

Frequently asked questions