Taxable base: the number everything else hangs from
If the base is wrong, so are the VAT, the withholding, the record book and the 303. It is the box with the most consequences and the one that gets checked least.
The total consideration for a transaction before VAT is applied to it: what you really charge for your work or your goods.
Article 78 of the VAT Act defines it as the total consideration for taxable transactions, whether it comes from the customer or from a third party. It sounds abstract until you look at what goes in and what does not.
What is added to the base
- Commissions, carriage and transport, insurance and premiums for services provided in advance that you pass on to the client.
- Containers and packaging, including returnable ones.
- Subsidies directly linked to the price of the transaction.
- Taxes charged on the transaction, other than VAT itself.
What is not added
- Discounts and rebates granted before or at the same time as the transaction.
- Compensation payments that are not consideration for a supply of goods or services.
- Suplidos: what you pay in the client's name and on their behalf.
An example with numbers
A consultancy invoices €1,200, applies a 10% discount and passes on €40 of carriage for some materials:
- 1,200 − 120 + 40 = €1,120 of taxable base
- VAT at 21%: €235.20
- Withholding of 15% on the base: €168
- Total to charge: 1,120 + 235.20 − 168 = €1,187.20
When the base changes after the invoice has been issued — a return, a later discount, a non-payment — it is not corrected by hand: a corrective invoice is issued, on the terms of article 80 of the VAT Act.
The mistake that comes up most
Working out the withholding on the total including VAT. IRPF withholding always applies to the taxable base: on €1,120 of base that is €168, not €203.28. That €35.28 discrepancy turns up again on the client's form 111 and once more on your annual return, and it has to be undone with a corrective invoice.
Where this carries on in Cairos: Working out the base and the VAT on an invoice.
Terms that go with this one
Almost no tax concept makes sense on its own. These three are the ones that most often turn up beside it.
VAT charged (cuota repercutida)
The VAT you add to the taxable base of your invoice and charge the client, to pay over to Hacienda afterwards.
InvoicingSuplido
An amount paid in the client's name and on their behalf, under express instructions, which is passed on to them without VAT and does not form part of your taxable base.
InvoicingCorrective invoice
The invoice that corrects one already issued, in its own series and referring expressly to the invoice being corrected.
This, handled without thinking about it
Cairos keeps the invoices, the record books and Hacienda's forms from the same data, so the theory on this page turns into boxes that are already filled in.
No card and no minimum term.