The invoicing software for psychologists and psychotherapists
Therapy is exempt from VAT, but the exemption does not come from the degree: it comes from having healthcare authorisation and from the service serving to prevent, diagnose or treat. Coaching, expert reports and staff selection meet neither condition, and they go at 21%.
What is particular about invoicing for psychologists and psychotherapists
A psychologist can have half their practice exempt and half at 21% without changing office. Almost every tax question they have comes from there.
The exemption comes from the authorisation, not from the qualification
Article 20.Uno.3º exempts care given to natural persons by medical or healthcare professionals. Anyone holding the Clinical Psychology specialism or the Psicólogo General Sanitario qualification — created by the seventh additional provision of Ley 33/2011, General de Salud Pública — is inside it. Holding a degree in Psychology, on its own, puts nobody there.
Coaching and expert reports carry VAT
A coaching programme, career guidance, an expert report for a court, psychometric selection tests or a workplace-climate workshop are not healthcare: they do not prevent, they do not diagnose and they do not treat. They go at 21%, and they carry withholding if you are registered as a professional and the client is a company.
With both, prorrata
As soon as exempt and taxable income live side by side you stop deducting all your input VAT. During the year you apply the final percentage from the previous year and you adjust it in the last return. If the taxable part is small it is worth looking at the special prorrata, which deducts in full the VAT on whatever you use only in the taxable part.
The item on the invoice says just enough
A patient's name tied to psychological treatment is health data, with the reinforced protection of the European Regulation, and on top of that there is professional confidentiality. On the invoice, «psychotherapy session» and the date are enough: the clinical detail lives in the patient's notes, not in a document that is going to end up in somebody's accounts.
How it is done today, and how it looks with Cairos
In a psychology practice there is little paperwork, but it is badly spread: lots of small sessions, the odd large assignment and no clarity about which one carries VAT.
A real photo of a Spanish psychology consulting room: two armchairs facing each other, a low table with a paper tissue and a lamp, warm natural light. No people, so that nobody is identified.
Without Cairos
- Every session is invoiced the same way, coaching and expert reports included.
- Receipts are done by hand and the numbering breaks every summer.
- The item on the invoice describes the reason for the consultation.
- The pass is paid for in full in March and declared in pieces until June.
- Nobody has worked out the prorrata, and the VAT on the rent is deducted in full.
With Cairos
- Every service is created marked as exempt or taxable, and the invoice comes out on its own.
- Numbering is sequential within each series and it never breaks.
- The item says «psychotherapy session» and the detail stays out.
- The pass is invoiced on the day it is paid for, which is when the VAT becomes chargeable.
- The prorrata comes out of what you invoiced and is adjusted in the December return.
What carries VAT in a psychology practice
Two questions settle almost everything: is it given by someone with healthcare authorisation? and does it serve to prevent, diagnose or treat? If either one is missing, there is VAT.
| Service | VAT | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A psychotherapy session given by a psychologist with healthcare authorisation | Exempt | Healthcare given to a natural person under art. 20.Uno.3º. |
| The same session paid for by the patient's employer or by their health insurer | Exempt | The law says «cualquiera que sea la persona destinataria» — whoever the recipient is: what decides is the purpose, not who signs the payment. |
| Coaching, guidance or personal development | 21 % | There is no prevention, diagnosis or treatment of an illness. |
| An expert report for a court | 21 % | The purpose is evidential, not care. |
| Psychometric tests and staff selection | 21 % | The customer is the company and the purpose is not a healthcare one. |
| A workplace-climate workshop or training in a company | 21 % | A supply to a legal person. |
| Case supervision for another professional | 21 % | It is not care given to a patient. |
| Renting out your consulting room by the hour to another therapist | 21 % | A lease of business premises, outside the exemption in art. 20.Uno.23º. |
| Teaching at a training centre | Exempt or taxable | It goes under the education exemption, which has its own requirements. |
A psychologist who only does coaching charges VAT on 100% of what they invoice and deducts 100% of their input VAT, with no prorrata at all. One who only does therapy charges none and deducts none. The awkward case is the one in the middle, which is the most common: there is prorrata there, and it is worth deciding from the start whether the general or the special one suits you.
The modelos you end up filing
| Form | When | Why in your case |
|---|---|---|
| 303 | Quarterly | For the coaching, the expert reports and the training, with the prorrata applied to the input VAT. |
| 390 | January | The summary of the year, with the prorrata percentage already settled. |
| 130 | Quarterly | If you are an autónomo and less than 70% of your income had withholding applied. With private patients, almost always. |
| 111 | Quarterly | If the practice has staff or pays other therapists with withholding. |
| 115 | Quarterly | The 19% withholding on the office rent. |
What you will actually use
When you register as a psychology practice, Cairos switches on what a practice invoicing sessions and fees needs: no inventory and no warehouses.
Exempt and taxable kept apart
The service is born marked from its own record and the 303 comes out with the share that belongs to it.
Sessions, passes and fees
The pass is invoiced when it is paid for and the monthly fee is issued on its own on its date. How many sessions are left on each pass is not something Cairos keeps.
Prorrata
Worked out from your real income, general or special, and adjusted when the year closes.
Data and professional confidentiality
The patient is a contact with their tax details. No reasons for consultation on the invoice.
Try it with your practice's invoices
Free plan with up to 30 documents a year, no card needed. And if it does not work for you, your data leaves with you.
Questions from psychologists and psychotherapists
Your practice invoices differently. So does the program.
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