How Spanish VAT works
IVA (Spanish VAT) is an indirect tax charged on the taxable base — the price of the product or service before tax. An invoice always shows three figures: the taxable base, the VAT charged on top of it and the total the customer pays. The seller collects that VAT and pays it over to the tax office; for a freelancer or a company VAT is not income, it is money passing through.
Adding VAT means multiplying the base by the rate and adding it on: 1,000 € at 21% is 210 € of VAT and 1,210 € in total. Removing it means dividing the final price by 1 plus the rate: 1,210 € / 1.21 = 1,000 € base and 210 € VAT. Turn on "Price already includes VAT" when the amount you enter is the one printed on the receipt.
Current VAT rates
| 21 % | Standard rate. Applies by default to anything without an expressly recognised reduced rate: electronics, clothing, furniture, professional services, utilities or vehicles. |
| 10 % | Reduced rate. Hospitality and restaurants, passenger transport, tickets to shows, newly built housing, qualifying renovation work and many foods that are not staples. |
| 5 % | Temporary rate applied during the cost-of-living crisis (electricity and certain foods between 2022 and 2024). It is no longer generally in force: it is kept here so you can check or reissue invoices from those years. |
| 4 % | Super-reduced rate. Staple foods such as plain bread, milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, pulses and cereals; books, newspapers and magazines; medicines for human use; prostheses and vehicles for people with disabilities. |
These are the rates for the territory where Spanish VAT applies: mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands. The Canary Islands charge IGIC instead of VAT, and Ceuta and Melilla apply IPSI, both with their own and considerably lower rates, so this calculator does not fit those invoices.