Would I need to pay VAT on this income?

Question

Suppose I am self-employed i.e. autónomo in Spain. I work for an Estonian company and I send them bills. They will pay me the bills back. From the amount the pay me, do I need to declare and pay VAT in Spain or only IRPF (personal income tax in Spain)?

Answer 1

Find in page 8 of the Spanish 2018 VAT manual the following:

VAT is a tax of indirect nature because it rests on an indirect manifestation of income, particularly, consumption of goods and services. This tax is imposed on three types of different operations:
- [In-country] Goods deliveries and service provisions made/done by entrepeneurs, business owners and professionals acting as such.
- In-EU acquisitions of goods [...]
- Importing [...]

List of the Spanish VAT manuals.

To the extent of my knowledge, you are not a subject to the IVA 37/92 law (VAT of Spain) WRT that Estonian company, provided that they are not operating through a Spanish subsidiary.

_{NOTE: Read in page 64 of the same document that because regla de inversión del sujeto pasivo, if we were discussing the case of a Spanish company being billed by a Estonian profesional¹ instead, the Spanish company is required to add the operation to their VAT declaration and pay VAT for it. So what? It's relevant because it's possible that some EU countries (IDK about Estonia specifically) might do the same as the Spanish law does here. If that happens, then the revenue service of Spain is allowed to ask (on behalf of the revenue services from other EU countries) the profesional¹ for documents relative to the services. That's provisioned by Chapter VI of Title III of Ley 58/2003 since Real Decreto Ley 20/2011. This is one (but the one which doesn't require to cite further sources) way to warn you against a possibly too early destruction of your documents proving the service transactions.}

Hope that helped.

_{1: Spanish terminology, not a typo.}

_{DISCLAIMER: This is not your tax advisory, it's a vague (yet informed) entry level reference in order to guide you. Here's no responsibility for any damages caused. If on doubt, always choose to go to the tax advisory office or to the revenue service office, depending on the cases.}

Answer 2

(Disclaimer, my primary knowledge here is from Germany. But VAT is harmonized throughout EU, so Spanish rules should not differ too much.)

You need the regulation for selling services B2B inside the EU.

• The VAT is due for the country of the "Place of supply of services". Whether this is Spain or Estonia may depend on what service you actually sell (see title IV chapter 3 of the linked EU directive), but the location in the most usual cases is at the customer's (Estonia).

• If the VAT location turns out to be Estonia, the so-called reverse-charge procedure is used for B2B sales (saves you from getting an Estonian VAT number and doing Estonian VAT declarations):

  • You write a net bill (no VAT), stating that the reverse charge procedure applies (there are prescribed sentences to state this), also state both your and your customer's VAT IDs).
  • Your customer declares Estonian VAT in their VAT declaration (probably a zero-sum declaration saying they owe Estonian VAT and immediately deduct the same amount)
  • You'll have to declare the sale with amount and both VAT IDs in a summarized report (recapitulative statement, title XI chapter 6).
  • Your VAT declaration may again ask for this sale in a particular field.

• Both you and your customer need VAT IDs to do this. Otherwise you'll have to treat the sale as B2C (different rules).