You buy a 1.500 € laptop for work and, when the quarter comes around, you find out you cannot deduct it all at once. It is not a penalty: in the eyes of the Spanish tax agency you have not "spent" 1.500 €, you have swapped cash for an asset that will last several years. The deduction still arrives, just spread out. And what decides how fast it is spread is a table: the depreciation rate table.
This guide is that table, with both versions that exist —the one for standard direct assessment and the simplified one—, what each number means and how to build a depreciation schedule without getting lost.
What a depreciation rate is (and what the maximum period is)
The maximum straight-line rate is the percentage of the asset's cost you can book as an expense each year. If a computer sits at 25 %, you deduct at most 25 % of its price every tax year until it is written off.
The official table sets two limits at once: that rate (how much at most per year) and the maximum period in years (how long the spread can run at most). There is room between the two, and that is the part most people miss:
- It is not one number, it is a range. The corporate income tax regulations (art. 4.1) accept the maximum rate in the table, the rate that follows from the maximum period, or any rate in between. A computer at 25 % can be depreciated at any pace between 25 % and 12,5 % (the 8 years of the maximum period); a building at 2 %, between 2 % and 1 % (100 years).
- Below the minimum there is no safety net. Going slower than the slow end of the range takes you out of the table: that depreciation is no longer covered by it, and you would have to justify the asset's actual decline in value some other way.
- Above the maximum is possible, but not by choice. Only through one of the routes provided for: declining balance on the outstanding value, sum-of-the-digits, a special plan approved by the tax authority, proving the actual amount of the decline in value, the accelerated depreciation available to small-sized businesses (table rate × 2) or free depreciation. Raising the rate "because it suits this year" is none of them.
- And stay consistent year on year: the criterion you pick sticks, it is not switched to suit a given quarter's result.
The two tables, side by side
There is not one table but two, and using the wrong one is the most common mistake. The first column is the maximum straight-line rate from the corporate income tax schedules, used under standard direct assessment. The second is the simplified table, which applies under simplified direct assessment.
Most self-employed individuals in Spain are on the simplified regime (it is the default unless you opt out or exceed the turnover threshold), so the column that probably applies to you is the second one.
| Asset | Standard: max. rate (max. period) | Simplified: max. rate (max. period) |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings (premises, offices and homes) | 2 % (100 years) | 3 % (68 years) |
| Fixtures and installations | 10 % (20 years) | 10 % (20 years) |
| Machinery | 12 % (18 years) | 12 % (18 years) |
| Furniture | 10 % (20 years) | 10 % (20 years) |
| Computer equipment | 25 % (8 years) | 26 % (10 years) |
| Software and computer applications | 33 % (6 years) | 26 % (10 years) |
| Vehicles (external transport) | 16 % (14 years) | 16 % (14 years) |
| Tools and implements | 25 % (8 years) | 30 % (8 years) |
The labels in the first column are the everyday ones, because each table uses its own wording. The official headings are these. In the corporate income tax table: «Edificios comerciales, administrativos, de servicios y viviendas» (commercial, administrative, service and residential buildings), «Resto de instalaciones» (other installations), «Maquinaria», «Mobiliario», «Equipos para procesos de información» (data processing equipment), «Sistemas y programas informáticos» (computer systems and software), «Elementos de transporte externo» (external transport) and «Útiles y herramientas» (tools and implements). In the simplified table, which works by groups: «Edificios y otras construcciones» (buildings and other constructions), group 2 «Instalaciones, mobiliario, enseres y resto del inmovilizado material» (installations, furniture, fittings and all other tangible fixed assets), «Maquinaria», group 4 «Elementos de transporte» (transport), group 5 «Equipos para tratamiento de la información y sistemas y programas informáticos» (data processing equipment and computer software) and «Útiles y herramientas».
These are the reference rates used by Aurio's calculation engine, and both tables are still in force in 2026, unchanged: the corporate income tax one has applied since 1 January 2015, and the simplified one, approved in 1998, has never been amended. Even so, always check the table in force for the tax year you are filing: the official version lives in the Spanish official gazette (BOE). Note that the two columns do not always match: for software the simplified table is slower (26 % against 33 %), and for tools it is faster (30 % against 25 %).
Some groups are shared in the simplified table
This is what trips people up when moving from one table to the other: the simplified one boils everything down to a handful of groups, so installations and furniture fall into the same one (group 2, at 10 %) and computer equipment and software do too (group 5, at 26 %). Group 2 is also the catch-all —"all other tangible fixed assets"—, so an asset that is not listed by name does not end up without a rate: it goes at 10 % over 20 years.
Buildings: land is not depreciated
That 2 % in the first column is the one for premises, offices and homes. Industrial buildings go at 3 %, and warehouses and depots at 7 %. But before the rate comes something else: land is not depreciated, only the building on it. When you buy premises you have to split how much of the price is land and how much is construction —the ratio of the cadastral values is the usual criterion— and apply the rate to the construction alone. Depreciating the whole price is the costliest mistake made by anyone who buys premises.
Software at 33 %: check how it is booked first
The «Sistemas y programas informáticos» row at 33 % does exist and is the one in the table, but it is not always the one that governs. Article 12.2 of the corporate income tax act states that intangible fixed assets are depreciated over their useful life and that, when that useful life cannot be reliably estimated, the annual limit is one twentieth (5 %). Depending on how the application is booked, the rate that applies to you can be very different, so this is one of the points worth checking with an adviser before building the schedule.
Vehicles: the 16 % is usually the least of it
Under Spanish personal income tax, a passenger car is only deductible if it is exclusively used for the business, with a closed list of exceptions (taxis, driving schools, rental vehicles, commercial agents and sales reps, passenger and goods transport…). So in most cases the question is not which rate to apply, but that the vehicle does not qualify at all. And when it does, mind the heading: lorries («autocamiones») have a row of their own, at 20 %.
The four methods you may run into
- Straight-line. The classic one: the same amount every year, cost × the rate in the first column, until the asset is fully written off.
- Simplified table. Identical straight-line mechanics, but with the rates in the second column. This is the one under simplified direct assessment.
- Free depreciation. Certain assets —notably low-value items— can be deducted in full in the first year, with no spreading at all.
- Accelerated depreciation. For small-sized businesses: the table rate multiplied by 2, so the asset is written off in half the time.
Low-value items: the most frequent question
This is the question that comes up most, and it has a short answer with two conditions almost nobody mentions. A new item of tangible fixed assets whose unit cost does not exceed 300 € can be deducted 100 % in the year it is brought into use, with no schedule and no rates. The limit is per item, not per invoice: five 200 € chairs on the same receipt are five low-value items, not one 1.000 € asset.
The two words almost everyone skips: new — a second-hand 250 € laptop does not qualify — and tangible — a software licence is intangible, so it does not either. It applies the same under normal and simplified direct assessment.
The brake is a cap of 25.000 € per year for what you put under this particular provision, not for every kind of immediate write-off (the others have their own rules), and it is prorated if your tax period is shorter than a year. Below that figure, a keyboard, a monitor or a chair need no schedule: they go straight to the year's expenses. Both figures are for reference: confirm the ones in force for the tax year.
A depreciation schedule, step by step
Back to the 1.500 € laptop, bought in April and depreciated at 25 %. The annual charge is 1.500 € × 25 % = 375 €. But the first year does not count in full: it is prorated by the months the asset has been in use —April to December, 9 out of 12 months—, so the first year is 375 € × 9/12 = 281,25 €. The final year is adjusted to whatever is left:
| Year | Depreciation | Accumulated | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (from April) | 281,25 € | 281,25 € | 1.218,75 € |
| 2 | 375,00 € | 656,25 € | 843,75 € |
| 3 | 375,00 € | 1.031,25 € | 468,75 € |
| 4 | 375,00 € | 1.406,25 € | 93,75 € |
| 5 | 93,75 € | 1.500,00 € | 0,00 € |
That annual amount is what reduces your net profit and therefore feeds the form 130 calculation. If you would rather not build it by hand, our depreciation calculator generates the full schedule from the method and the purchase month you give it.
Common mistakes
- Mixing the two columns. Taking the corporate income tax straight-line rate while on simplified direct assessment (or the other way round). Check which regime applies first, then the table.
- Stepping outside the range by eye. The table rate is not a lone number: it sets a ceiling and, together with the maximum period, a floor as well. You only go above the ceiling through one of the routes provided for (accelerated depreciation for small-sized businesses, free depreciation, a special plan, proof of the actual decline in value); below the floor, you have to be able to justify it. Picking the rate that suits a given year is what falls apart in an audit.
- Forgetting the first-year proration. An asset bought in October does not depreciate for twelve months. Deducting the full charge inflates the first year's expenses.
- Not keeping the capital assets register. Without that ledger —date, cost, rate, depreciation for each year— the deduction is very hard to sustain in an audit.
- Depreciating what is a running cost. A consumable, a monthly subscription or a repair is not depreciated: it is deducted in the year. It is all broken down in our guide to deductible expenses for freelancers.
