Deductible expenses for the self-employed (autónomos) in 2026

Updated on 27 September 2026. What you can deduct has not changed in 2026, but we have checked every rule against the legislation in force and the criteria of the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT, the Spanish Tax Agency), corrected errors (cash, meals, cars, mobile phones and how long to keep records) and added VAT on home utilities, depreciation and hard-to-document expenses.

Being self-employed means facing many tax and Social Security obligations: the self-employed contribution (cuota de autónomos), personal income tax (IRPF), VAT (IVA)… and learning to deduct your expenses properly. Making the most of the legal deductions can mean considerable savings, but not everything you pay for is deductible, and a wrongly deducted expense can end in a tax adjustment with late-payment interest and, if the tax authorities find fault, a penalty. The guidelines of the 2026 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan (Plan Anual de Control Tributario y Aduanero) also keep the monitoring of business activities among their priorities.

This guide applies if you calculate your income under direct assessment (estimación directa, standard or simplified). If you pay tax under the flat-rate scheme (módulos), you do not deduct your actual expenses for IRPF purposes.

What does it mean for an expense to be deductible?

For IRPF, a deductible expense is one you subtract from your income to calculate your net business income (rendimiento neto), which is what gets taxed. For VAT, it means subtracting the VAT you have paid from the VAT you charge in your quarterly return (modelo 303). The two taxes have different rules: an expense may be deductible for IRPF while its VAT is not, or the other way round.

For the AEAT to accept an expense for IRPF purposes, it must meet three conditions:

1. It must be linked to your business. It has to be related to earning your income. Personal expenses do not qualify and, according to the AEAT, neither do expenses incurred before you register and start the activity.
2. It must be supported by evidence. The law requires it to be supported "as a priority" by an invoice (art. 106.4 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act). To deduct the VAT you need an invoice in your name (art. 97 of the VAT Act): a full invoice, or a simplified invoice showing your tax number (NIF), your address and the VAT amount separately (art. 7.2 of Royal Decree 1619/2012). If you are given a till receipt, ask for those details to be added.
3. It must be recorded in the right year. It must appear in your record books or accounts, in the tax year in which it accrues. If you only keep record books, you can opt for the cash basis (payments and receipts), which you must keep for at least three years (art. 7.2 of the IRPF Regulations).

Be careful with cash: transactions of €1,000 or more cannot be paid in cash when at least one of the parties is acting as a business or professional, adding together any instalments of the same transaction (art. 7 of Law 7/2012). The consequence is a fine of 25% of the amount paid, for which both the payer and the payee are liable.

The most common expenses and how they apply

Working from premises or an office

If you rent an office or premises used only for your business, you can deduct the rent, utilities (electricity, water, gas, internet, landline), insurance, repairs and, if you pay them, IBI (local property tax) and community of owners' fees. If you own the premises, you also deduct their depreciation (excluding the value of the land). Everything must be documented in your name.

Working from home

The part of your main home that you use for your business must be a specific area that can be used separately from the rest and that you do not use privately, such as a room set up as an office (art. 22 of the IRPF Regulations). A shared space, such as the dining table or a corner of the living room, does not qualify. If you meet that requirement:

• Home expenses (depreciation if you own it, IBI, community fees, insurance or, if you rent, the rent): you deduct the share that the square metres of that part represent in the whole home.
• Utilities (water, gas, electricity, landline and internet): for IRPF, 30% is applied to that proportion, unless a higher or lower percentage is proven, which either you or the AEAT can do (art. 30.2.5.ª.b of the IRPF Act). With a 20 m² office in a 100 m² home, you deduct 20% × 30% = 6% of each bill.
• VAT on those utilities: since the ruling of the Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central (TEAC, the Central Tax Tribunal) of 19 July 2023 (00/06654/2022), which the Dirección General de Tributos (DGT, the Directorate-General for Taxation) adopted in ruling V2657-23, you can deduct it in proportion to actual business use. The Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) applied that criterion in judgment STS 976/2025 of 15 July. The 30% is an IRPF rule: you will have to justify the VAT percentage.

It is advisable for your census declaration (modelo 036) to show that you work from home and which part you use.

Vehicles and travel

• IRPF: the vehicle must be used exclusively for the business (art. 22 of the IRPF Regulations). For cars, motorbikes and 4x4s, not even occasional private use is tolerated, except for dual-purpose vehicles carrying goods, passenger transport, driving schools, sales representatives or agents, and hire. If you meet the rule, you deduct depreciation, fuel, repairs, insurance, tolls and parking.
• VAT: cars are presumed to be 50% used for the business, and you can deduct more if you prove greater use. 100% is only presumed for a closed list similar to the one above (art. 95.Tres of the VAT Act). According to the DGT, VAT on fuel, repairs or tolls is assessed separately from VAT on buying the car: it is deductible to the extent that the specific expense is used for the business, and you will have to prove it (ruling V1450-26 of 9 June 2026). Car insurance and taxes carry no VAT.
• Mileage: there is no fixed per-kilometre deduction for the self-employed. The €0.26/km (art. 9 of the IRPF Regulations, amount set by Order HFP/792/2023) covers what a company pays its employees.
• Trains, flights, taxis and hotels on business trips are deductible if you can show the reason.

Meals: yours and your clients'

Your own meals while working are deductible if they arise in the course of your business, in restaurants or hospitality venues, and are paid by card or another electronic means (art. 30.2.5.ª.c of the IRPF Act), within these daily limits:

The meal does not have to be outside your municipality (ruling V0124-21), but the fact that it is a working day is not enough: it must relate to your business. Its VAT is only deductible if the expense is deductible for IRPF and you have an invoice with your details.

Meals and gifts for clients or suppliers are something else: client entertainment, deductible for IRPF up to 1% of your turnover (art. 15.e of the Corporate Income Tax Act, to which the IRPF Act refers). Their VAT is not deductible (art. 96 of the VAT Act), except on free samples and low-value promotional items. On 12 March 2026 the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed that the VAT Directive does not preclude this exclusion (case C-515/24).

Equipment, supplies and depreciation

• Office supplies, software subscriptions, hosting or your domain are deducted in the year.
• Assets that last more than a year (computer, furniture, machinery) are deducted through depreciation: under simplified direct assessment, up to 26% a year for IT equipment and 10% for furniture. If the asset is new and your business qualifies as a small business (empresa de reducida dimensión: turnover below €10 million in the previous year, which is usually the case for the self-employed), you can apply twice those rates: up to 52% for IT equipment and 20% for furniture (art. 103 of the Corporate Income Tax Act and art. 30 of the IRPF Regulations). New items costing up to €300 can be written off at once, up to a maximum of €25,000 a year (art. 12.3.e of the Corporate Income Tax Act).
• Mixed use: for IRPF, an indivisible asset cannot be "half" used for the business; only incidental private use on non-working days or hours is tolerated, and never for cars. For VAT, among goods, only capital goods (generally, those costing more than €3,005.06) allow a deduction in proportion to use.
• Mobile phone: the DGT only accepts deducting the line and the handset if the line is used exclusively for the business; with a mixed-use line it accepts no expense and no VAT (rulings V2554-23 and V1233-25). Home internet falls under the utilities rule.

Social Security and insurance

• The RETA contribution (the Social Security scheme for the self-employed) is fully deductible, as are any adjustments you pay. If you are a professional covered by an alternative professional mutual society (mutualidad alternativa, which replaces RETA), you deduct the contributions up to that year's maximum RETA contribution for common contingencies.
• Business insurance (professional liability, premises, goods, business vehicle): deductible. It carries no VAT.
• Health insurance: up to €500 a year per person (€1,500 with a disability), for you, your spouse and your children under 25 who live with you.
• Life insurance: in principle, no. The DGT accepts it when the bank requires it as a condition of a loan for the business, but not if it only lowers the interest rate (ruling V0439-26).

Training

Courses, master's degrees, conferences, books and professional subscriptions are deductible if they are directly related to your current business. Training for an activity you do not yet carry out is unlikely to meet that test.

Financial expenses

Interest on loans linked to the business and bank or payment-gateway charges are deductible. Repayment of the loan capital is not.

Marketing and advertising

Web design, online and offline advertising, social media management or professional photos are deductible if they promote your business.

Hard-to-document expenses

Under simplified direct assessment you can also deduct 5% of your net income for provisions and hard-to-document expenses (gastos de difícil justificación), up to a maximum of €2,000 a year (art. 30 of the IRPF Regulations). It cannot be combined with the special reduction in art. 32.2 of the IRPF Act, designed for those who work for a single unrelated client or are economically dependent self-employed workers (TRADE) and meet other requirements.

What cannot be deducted

• Fines, penalties and surcharges for filing late.
• Donations (they may entitle you to a credit against your IRPF liability, but they are not a business expense).
• General-use clothing, even if you wear it for work.
• Personal expenses: everyday meals, the gym, leisure or holidays.
• IRPF itself.
• VAT you already recover in modelo 303. If your business is VAT-exempt or under the equivalence surcharge scheme (recargo de equivalencia), that VAT is an IRPF expense.

Summary: expenses with limits or special rules

How to support and keep your expenses

• Ask for an invoice in your name: a full one, or a simplified one showing your NIF, your address and the VAT separately. A till receipt without your details may do for IRPF, but not for deducting VAT.
• Enter the expense in your books when you receive it and note the reason when it could raise questions (who you had lunch with, which site you visited).
• Pay by traceable means: it is compulsory for your meals and for payments of €1,000 or more.
• Keep the supporting documents for at least four years from the end of the filing deadline (arts. 66 and 67 of the General Tax Act), and longer if the data still have an effect: invoices for assets you are depreciating, until the last year of depreciation becomes time-barred (art. 70.3), and the origin of negative tax bases or pending credits, for up to ten years (art. 66 bis). If you keep accounts under the Código de Comercio (Commercial Code), the commercial-law period is six years (art. 30 of the Commercial Code).
• For transactions of €1,000 or more, keep proof that they were paid by a means other than cash for five years from the date of payment (art. 7 of Law 7/2012).

What changes in 2026?

The rules on deductible expenses remain the same: art. 30 of the IRPF Act has not been amended since 2018. What is moving forward is invoicing:

• Verifactu: if you invoice with software, it must comply with the regulations before 1 July 2027 (1 January 2027 for corporate income taxpayers). We explain it in our article on Verifactu.
• E-invoicing between businesses and professionals: Royal Decree 238/2026 is in force, but it will only become compulsory 12 months (turnover above €8 million) or 24 months (everyone else) after a ministerial order comes into force which, as of 27 September 2026, has not been published.

If you have questions about a specific expense (your car, part of your home, expensive equipment) or you have received a request from the Tax Agency, you can book a consultation and we will review it with your invoices.

Legislation and sources

• Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax (arts. 28 to 30)
• IRPF Regulations, Royal Decree 439/2007 (arts. 7, 9, 22, 30 and 68)
• Law 27/2014 on Corporate Income Tax (arts. 12, 15 and 103)
• Law 37/1992 on Value Added Tax (arts. 95 to 97)
• Royal Decree 1619/2012, Invoicing Regulations (art. 7)
• Law 7/2012, limits on cash payments (art. 7)
• Law 58/2003, General Tax Act (arts. 66 to 70 and 106)
• Commercial Code (art. 30)
• Royal Decree 1007/2023, requirements for invoicing systems (Verifactu)
• Resolution of 11 March 2026 approving the guidelines of the 2026 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan
• Agencia Tributaria, 2025 Income Tax Practical Manual: deductible expenses
• Supreme Court judgment STS 976/2025 of 15 July (appeal 5342/2023; ROJ STS 3487/2025, ECLI:ES:TS:2025:3487), on CENDOJ