The equivalence surcharge for online stores: when it applies

The equivalence surcharge (recargo de equivalencia) is a special Spanish VAT (IVA) scheme for small shops that resell goods to consumers. Many online stores fall into it without realising, and it changes almost everything: who charges you the VAT, which forms you file and what happens when you sell to other EU countries.

Here is when it applies to you, how it works with a worked example, and the cases where you do have to file something with the Tax Agency.

1. When it applies

The scheme is set out in articles 148 to 163 of the Spanish VAT Act and articles 59 to 61 of its regulation. It is not optional: if you meet the conditions, it applies. If you do not, you are in the general scheme. The conditions are:

• You are an individual (self-employed) or a pass-through entity, such as a joint ownership (comunidad de bienes), whose members are all individuals. Companies are excluded (article 148 of the Act and article 59 of the regulation).
• You are a retailer. Article 149 defines it: you habitually sell movable goods without having manufactured, made or processed them, either yourself or through someone working for you.
• More than 80% of what you sold last year went to consumers, meaning people who are not businesses or professionals. If you had no activity last year, or you pay income tax under the module system, you do not need to meet the percentage as long as you are a retailer under the Business Activities Tax (IAE).
• What you sell is not on the excluded list. Article 59 of the regulation leaves out, among others, vehicles and their spare parts, jewellery and fine costume jewellery with gold, platinum, pearls or precious stones, works of art and antiques, used goods, industrial machinery and building materials.

2. How it works: you pay the VAT to your supplier, not to the Tax Agency

In the general scheme, you charge VAT to your customers, subtract the VAT your suppliers charged you and pay the difference on Form 303. Under the equivalence surcharge you do not:

• Your supplier charges you VAT plus the surcharge, shown separately on the invoice (articles 156 and 159 of the Act).
• You do not declare or pay the VAT on your sales (article 154.Dos). The Tax Agency puts it this way: «No hay que presentar declaraciones del IVA por las actividades en este régimen especial» (no VAT returns are filed for activities under this special scheme).
• You cannot deduct the VAT you pay on purchases and expenses for that activity (article 154.Dos).
• You charge your customers VAT only, never the surcharge (article 154.Tres).
• You must tell your suppliers you are in the scheme (article 163), so they apply it.

The surcharge rates are in article 161 of the Act:

VAT on the product	Surcharge
21% (standard)	5.2%
10% (reduced)	1.4%
4% (super-reduced)	0.5%
Tobacco products	1.75%

3. A worked example

These amounts are only an example. An online store under the equivalence surcharge buys from a Spanish supplier:

Line	Base	VAT	Surcharge
Product at 21%	€200.00	€42.00 (21%)	€10.40 (5.2%)
Product at 10%	€50.00	€5.00 (10%)	€0.70 (1.4%)
Total	€250.00	€47.00	€11.10

The supplier's invoice comes to €308.10. That is the cost of the purchase: neither the €47.00 of VAT nor the €11.10 of surcharge is recovered later.

The store then sells one of the 21% products to a consumer for €121.00 including VAT. That is €100.00 of base and €21.00 of VAT. It charges the VAT only, with no surcharge, and does not pay those €21.00 to the Tax Agency: the tax was already paid through the supplier. The Directorate General for Taxation (DGT) describes the scheme as an «objective determination» of the tax due: the surcharge stands in for what you would otherwise have paid.

For your margin, the sale base is still €100.00: the VAT on the sale is not your income. What changes is the cost, which includes the VAT and the surcharge on the purchase. You can try it with the order profit calculator.

4. When you do file something: Form 309

Even though you do not declare the VAT on your sales, there are purchases on which you pay the tax yourself. Article 61.3 of the regulation and the Tax Agency list, among others:

• Goods bought from suppliers in other EU countries (intra-Community acquisitions of goods).
• Transactions where you are the one who owes the VAT under the reverse charge, such as many services invoiced to you without VAT by businesses in other EU countries.

In those cases you file Form 309, the non-periodic VAT return, and pay the VAT and, where applicable, the surcharge. The Tax Agency says «se presentará el modelo 309» (Form 309 shall be filed). According to its instructions, in the usual cases it is filed within the first twenty calendar days of April, July and October, and within the first thirty calendar days of January.

For example, with sample amounts: if you buy 21% goods for €300.00 without VAT from a supplier in another EU country, on Form 309 you pay €63.00 of VAT and €15.60 of surcharge, €78.60 in total. You cannot deduct them later either.

5. If you sell to consumers in other EU countries

The DGT answered exactly this question in binding ruling V2447-21: a retailer under the equivalence surcharge selling through an online platform to EU consumers for more than €10,000.

• Below the €10,000 threshold excluding VAT (adding up all EU countries together, not each one separately), those sales are still treated as sales in Spain.
• Above the threshold, the VAT is that of the customer's country. It can be declared from Spain through the One Stop Shop and Form 369, or by registering in each country.
• The VAT and surcharge paid to suppliers cannot be deducted. The DGT concludes that those in this scheme «no podrán deducir cuota alguna del Impuesto» (may not deduct any tax at all), except for refunds to travellers.

In practice, above the threshold you pay the VAT of the customer's country on those sales and, on top of that, you do not recover the VAT or the surcharge you paid when buying the goods. If you are getting close to €10,000, talk to your accountant. There is more detail in the article on the EU VAT One Stop Shop.

6. Invoices

According to the Tax Agency, under the equivalence surcharge you do not have to issue an invoice for sales to consumers, with exceptions: when the customer is a business or professional, when the goods go to another Member State or are exported, and a few more cases. But it adds that if you pay income tax under the direct assessment method (estimación directa), you must invoice all your sales for income tax purposes.

When you invoice a consumer, it can be a simplified invoice if it is no more than €3,000 including VAT. We cover this in the article on simplified invoices, full invoices and returns.

7. If you have another activity

If, besides retail, you have another activity under the general scheme (for example, you also sell products you make yourself, or you provide services), the law treats the retail business under the surcharge as a separate sector (article 148.Dos). For that other activity you do file Form 303, and your purchases must be on separate invoices for each activity.

If you want to see what you keep from each order with every cost included, try the calculator or the Plentia demo.

Sources

• BOE · Ley 37/1992, Spanish VAT Act (arts. 148, 149, 154, 156, 159, 161 and 163, in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• BOE · VAT Regulation, Real Decreto 1624/1992 (arts. 59 and 61, in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Agencia Tributaria · Equivalence surcharge: who it applies to (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Agencia Tributaria · How the equivalence surcharge works (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Agencia Tributaria · Equivalence surcharge: formal and record-keeping obligations (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Agencia Tributaria · Equivalence surcharge: invoicing obligations (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Agencia Tributaria · Form 309 instructions (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• Dirección General de Tributos · Binding ruling V2447-21 (in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026