Form 130: the autónomo's advance payment of IRPF
It is not a new tax: it is an advance on the annual return you will file in June. And the first thing to know is that a great many people file it without having to, because they do not know about the 70% rule.
What form 130 is
Form 130 is the IRPF instalment payment for anyone taxed under estimación directa. Each quarter you pay Hacienda part of what you will earn in advance, and it is deducted from the result of your annual income tax return.
It is a cumulative payment, not a quarterly one: each return works it out on the profit for the whole year to that point and deducts what was already paid in the earlier quarters. That is why a bad quarter after a good one can come out at zero.
Who has to file it
Autónomos on estimación directa, whether normal or simplificada. But with one exception that is constantly applied wrongly:
The 70% rule
If you are a professional and at least 70% of your income in the previous year had withholding applied, you do not have to file the 130. The logic is simple: your clients are already paying your IRPF in advance for you, on their own form 111.
You look at the previous year, not the current quarter. And if it is your first year, you look at that year itself.
This rule is what separates a designer who only invoices businesses — who does not file — from a physiotherapist who invoices private individuals — who does. In between there are a great many people filing a form that does not apply to them, or the other way round.
Anyone on estimación objetiva (módulos) does not file the 130: they file the 131. And farming, livestock and forestry activities have their own way of working it out.
When the 130 is filed
With the weekend shifts already applied: when the last day falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, the deadline ends on the next working day.
| Period | Deadline | Note |
|---|---|---|
| First quarter | 1 → 20 April | Direct debit, until the 15th |
| Second quarter | 1 → 20 July | Direct debit, until the 15th |
| Third quarter | 1 → 20 October | Direct debit, until the 15th |
| Fourth quarter | 1 → 30 January | This one is not due on the 20th. Direct debit, until the 25th |
The fourth quarter is the classic slip: it is filed in January and runs to the 30th, not to the 20th. Anyone filing it with the other three in mind either files late or files earlier than they needed to. And if you pay it by direct debit, that deadline ends five days before the filing one.
How it is really worked out
The calculation has five steps, and it is the last two that almost nobody gets right.
- Cumulative income from 1 January to the end of the quarter.
- Less the deductible expenses for the same period.
- Less the gastos de difícil justificación, the flat deduction for expenses that are hard to substantiate, if you are on estimación directa simplificada: 5% of preliminary net income, capped at €2,000 a year. That cap is annual, not quarterly, and it has to be spread out.
- On the result, 20%.
- Less the payments for earlier quarters and less any withholding applied to you during the year.
The depreciation almost nobody deducts
The computer, the van or the furniture you bought are depreciated, and that depreciation is a deductible expense in the 130 too. Not only in the annual return in June: in every quarter, for the year's cumulative share.
It is the difference between overpaying four times a year and getting it back twelve months later, or paying what is actually due. With €2,000 of annual depreciation, every quarter changes the result by several hundred euros.
An example with numbers
An autónomo on estimación directa simplificada who at 30 September has €40,000 of income, €10,000 of expenses and €2,000 of cumulative depreciation for the year:
- Preliminary net income: 40,000 − 10,000 − 2,000 = €28,000
- Gastos de difícil justificación: 5% of 28,000 = €1,400, within the €2,000 cap
- Base: 28,000 − 1,400 = €26,600
- 20% = €5,320, less what was paid in the two previous quarters
Without deducting the depreciation or the gastos de difícil justificación, that same quarter would come out at €6,000. That is €680 of difference in a single quarter, lent to Hacienda until the following year's annual return.
The mistakes that come up most on the 130
The 130 does not usually go wrong through bad arithmetic. It goes wrong by forgetting things that could have been deducted.
Filing it when you do not have to
If more than 70% of your income in the previous year had withholding applied, it does not apply to you. Plenty of professionals file it out of habit and hand over money in advance that they did not owe yet.
Not deducting the depreciation
Fixed assets are depreciated for the purposes of the 130 as well, quarter by quarter. Leaving it for the annual return means lending Hacienda money all year.
Forgetting the gastos de difícil justificación
On estimación directa simplificada you can deduct a further 5%, capped at €2,000 a year. You do not have to substantiate it: that is why it is called what it is called.
Thinking Q4 falls due on the 20th
The fourth quarter is filed from 1 to 30 January. It is the only one that does not end on the 20th, and the one filed late most often.
Screenshot of the ERP: the form 130 screen
Where every number on the 130 comes from
Nothing has to be typed in again: the form is worked out from the invoices and the expenses you have already entered during the period.
- It checks the 70% rule against your invoices for the previous year and tells you whether you have to file.
- It works out the cumulative income from 1 January, not the quarter on its own.
- It applies the gastos de difícil justificación at the year's percentage and within its annual cap.
- It deducts the cumulative depreciation on any fixed assets you have registered.
- It deducts the withholdings your clients have applied to you.
- And it shows you which invoices and which expenses each line comes from.
And you can open any box
Every amount on the form can be expanded to see exactly which invoices and which expenses make it up. That is what turns a figure into something you can defend if you are asked.
The 130 comes out of what you have already entered
Free plan forever, no card needed.
Questions about form 130
This page is for information and is reviewed whenever the legislation or the calendar changes. It does not replace your accountant: for your own case, ask someone who knows your numbers.
So the 130 stops taking an afternoon
If the invoices and the expenses are in, the form is already done.
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