Freelancing From Spain for U.S. Clients: VAT, Taxes and U.S. Forms

You can freelance from Spain for U.S. clients on the telework permit or the self-employed authorization, never on the non-lucrative permit. A U.S. company pays no Spanish VAT, a U.S. client withholds no Spanish income tax, and with a Spanish certificate of coverage you pay Spanish self-employed contributions instead of U.S. self-employment tax. Registration and contributions work as for any autónomo, or self-employed worker, in Spain; a U.S. consumer, rather than a company, can change the VAT answer. This article is for informational purposes only and is not tax or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

What goes wrong when you invoice U.S. clients from Spain?

• The wrong permit. The non-lucrative permit allows no work, remote work included, says the UGE, the unit that grants telework permits.
• Skipping the invoice. An invoice is required even for services outside the EU (article 2.3 of Royal Decree 1619/2012), and the Dirección General de Tributos (DGT), the tax ministry’s rulings office, held in V1713-21 that a U.S. client cannot waive it.
• Charging VAT by habit. A U.S. company pays none; a U.S. consumer may, depending on the service and where it is used.
• Ignoring your U.S. costs. On U.S. platform and software fees, you owe the Spanish VAT yourself (article 84 of the VAT law).
• Paying social security twice. Without a Spanish certificate of coverage, the 15.3 percent U.S. self-employment tax can land on top of RETA, the Spanish regime for the self-employed.

Spanish VAT by client, at a glance

Modelo 303 is the quarterly VAT return and Modelo 390 its annual summary. The table covers the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, since VAT does not apply in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla (Agencia Tributaria); the income tax rules below leave out the Basque Country and Navarre.

The permit decides who your clients can be

Telework permit. Better known as the digital nomad visa, this permit lets a self-employed holder work for companies located in Spain up to 20 percent of total professional activity, never as an employee (article 74 bis of Law 14/2013; the UGE’s telework FAQ). You need a commercial relationship of at least 3 months with companies outside Spain that have been active for at least 1 year. The Washington consulate also rules out individuals, international organizations, government agencies, universities, foundations, NGOs and other non-profits as clients; the digital nomad visa guide covers the application.

Self-employed authorization. With U.S. consumers among your clients, the usual route is this authorization, set out in Hoja 14, the Ministry of Inclusion’s information sheet. It lasts 1 year and is limited to one autonomous community and one sector (article 83 of Royal Decree 1155/2024).

Non-lucrative permit. Article 61 of the same decree defines it as residence without work or professional activity (non-lucrative visa guide).

Spanish VAT when the client is in the United States

Business clients: not subject, still invoiced

A service to a business acting as such takes place where the client is established (article 69.Uno.1 of the VAT law), so a U.S. company pays no Spanish VAT. The DGT applied this in V2145-24 to a freelancer paid through PayPal by a U.S. company. To treat a client outside the EU as a business, article 18.3 of EU Regulation 282/2011 accepts a certificate from its tax authority, a business number or any other proof, checked with normal commercial security measures. No Spanish page read names a qualifying U.S. document, so keep the contract and the company’s details.

Consumers: a list, then a use test

A service to a consumer is taxed in Spain when you supply it from Spain (article 69.Uno.2), unless it is on the list of article 69.Dos and the consumer is established outside the EU. The list includes intellectual property licensing, advertising, consulting, legal, engineering and accounting services, data processing and translation (AEAT VAT manual).

Article 70.Dos brings a listed service back into Spanish VAT when the consumer actually uses it in Spain; since May 26, 2023, it applies to listed services only when the client is a consumer (2025 manual). Older rulings such as V2426-21 and V0773-22 apply the previous wording, which also covered businesses, so their use-and-enjoyment passages are out of date.

An American client who has already moved to Spain is a consumer established in Spain, so Spanish VAT applies.

For online courses, mostly pre-recorded, sold to individuals outside the EU, mainly in the United States, the DGT found no Spanish VAT in V2901-23. The answer rests on articles 69.Uno.2, 70.Uno.4 and 70.Uno.8 read together, and the 2026 ruling V1096-26 on telecom agrees. Keep evidence of each buyer’s location (Regulation 282/2011, article 24 septies).

Services connected with property in Spain, such as property management, are taxed in Spain whoever the client is (article 70.Uno.1).

Your own expenses and U.S. software

Charging no VAT does not cost you the VAT you pay: article 94.Uno.2 keeps the deduction for operations outside Spain that would allow it inside. An excess carries forward for 4 years (article 99.Cinco of the VAT law), or you claim the balance at December 31 on the year’s last return (article 115.Uno).

A service bought by a business based in Spain takes place in Spain, wherever the supplier sits. So when a U.S. platform or software supplier is not established in Spain, you are liable for the VAT on it (article 84.Uno.2), a rule the DGT applied to telecom services in V1096-26 of May 2026. The Modelo 303 instructions put the VAT you self-assess in boxes 12 and 13, and the share you can deduct among boxes 28 to 39.

The invoice

With a U.S. client, the invoicing regulation, Royal Decree 1619/2012, sets these rules:

• No simplified invoice when the service takes place outside the EU: since July 2021, article 4.4.d requires a full invoice whatever the amount (V1713-21, which allowed one up to 400 euros, predates the change).
• The client’s tax number is mandatory only in the three cases listed in article 6.1.d, and none of them, read literally, covers a service to a U.S. company.
• No legal reference is required: article 6.1.j asks for one only for exempt operations, and a service outside Spanish VAT is not exempt.
• Business clients get their invoice before the 16th of the month after the VAT became chargeable (article 11).
• Dollars and English are allowed; only VAT charged must be in euros (article 12).
• A platform may invoice in your name only under a prior written agreement (article 5). When the platform is outside the EU, the Agencia Tributaria must be notified, unless its country has a mutual collection assistance instrument; no page read says whether the United States has one.
• The business e-invoice of Royal Decree 238/2026 applies to Spanish recipients only, starting for most freelancers 24 months after a ministerial order not confirmed as published.

Modelo 349, the summary of intra-EU transactions, covers only services taxed in another EU state (VAT manual), so U.S. clients stay off it.

Income tax: quarterly payments without withholding

As a Spanish tax resident, you are taxed on worldwide income, whoever pays (article 2 of the income tax law); the tax residence certificate guide explains when residence starts. A non-resident payer withholds Spanish income tax only through a permanent establishment in Spain or on specific payments (article 76 of the income tax regulation), so a U.S. client with no presence in Spain withholds nothing.

With mostly U.S. clients, you file Modelo 130, the quarterly income tax prepayment. Professionals skip it only when at least 70 percent of the previous year’s activity income carried withholding (article 109 of the income tax regulation), and U.S. income carries none. Each quarter you pay 20 percent of net income since January 1, minus earlier payments (article 110; procedure G601). Simplified direct estimation is open up to 600,000 euros of turnover. Under it, a flat 5 percent of net income (10 percent for activities in Ceuta in 2026), capped at 2,000 euros a year, covers provisions and hard-to-justify expenses (article 30, rule 2.ª, of the income tax regulation; Renta 2025 manual).

Dollars into euros. No ruling covers a freelancer’s invoices. The DGT’s V0528-23 applies the official European Central Bank rate to a resident’s foreign-currency income, without naming the type of income. Business income follows corporate tax rules, whose base starts from the accounting result (article 28 of the income tax law; Law 27/2014, article 10.3). The General Accounting Plan uses the spot rate on each transaction’s date and books exchange differences on payment or, for invoices still unpaid at year end, at the closing rate. For box 120 of Modelo 303 and for Modelo 130, choose one documented method, apply it every quarter and keep the rates.

Invoicing software. The VeriFactu rules for invoicing software apply to individuals from July 1, 2027 in the common tax territory (FAQ).

Getting paid. Cash is banned for payments of 1,000 euros or more when either party acts as a business or professional (10,000 euros when a private payer shows no Spanish tax address), with a 25 percent fine (Law 7/2012, article 7). U.S. accounts go on Modelo 720, the informative return on assets abroad, when their balance on December 31 or their average for the last quarter tops 50,000 euros.

Social Security: RETA, and the certificate for the IRS

A self-employed teleworker must register in RETA, and the UGE rules out keeping home-country coverage under a bilateral agreement.

Article 4 of the 1986 U.S.-Spain agreement, in force since April 1, 1988, puts a self-employed person covered by both systems under the law of the country of residence only. The SSA’s manual, POMS RS 02001.475, concludes that a self-employed U.S. citizen living in Spain is exempt from SECA, the U.S. self-employment tax, Medicare part included, but still files a U.S. return.

The SSA’s undated Spain pamphlet adds a five-year exception for someone who moves an existing business. The agreement has none, and the Seguridad Social’s April 8, 2024 announcement presents self-employed postings of up to 5 years as new in the 2024 agreement, not yet in force per the SSA’s status table. Plan on the residence rule; the U.S. Social Security guide covers the rest.

The proof is form E/USA.1. On the Seguridad Social’s page on the agreement, a central unit of the TGSS, the Social Security Treasury, issues it to self-employed people covered by Spain only because they live there, for their work trips to the United States; the page is silent on freelancers who never work there. The pamphlet points to the TGSS provincial office where you do business, POMS RS 02001.485 to its central office in Madrid, and the 1986 administrative arrangement to the INSS, the National Social Security Institute. No online procedure, time frame or cost was found; plan on the TGSS, which Spain’s own page names.

With the certificate, the Schedule SE instructions give three steps:

1. Do not complete Schedule SE.
2. Attach a copy of the certificate to Form 1040.
3. On Schedule 2, line 4, check box 3 and enter “Exempt, see attached statement” (also on the IRS page on self-employment tax abroad).

Without the certificate, the tax starts at $400 of net earnings.

The U.S. return: W-9, 1099s and Schedule C

Give U.S. clients Form W-9, never the W-8BEN, whose instructions exclude citizens living abroad. From tax year 2026, clients report payments of $2,000 or more on Form 1099-NEC, and marketplaces send a Form 1099-K above $20,000 in more than 200 transactions; you report all income either way.

Your business goes on Schedule C. Earned income is sourced where the work is done (Publication 54), so work done in Spain is foreign income. The foreign earned income exclusion reaches $132,900 for 2026, but never reduces self-employment tax.

The saving clause of the U.S.-Spain convention, article 1(3), unchanged by the 2013 protocol (consolidated text), lets the United States tax its citizens as if the treaty did not exist. Article 1(4) still keeps article 24 for them. Its paragraph 3 treats income taxed only by citizenship as arising in Spain as far as needed, but never leaves U.S. tax below a non-citizen’s. The Form 1116 instructions keep such citizen-only re-sourced income out of the separate treaty category.

Estimated tax goes on Form 1040-ES, generally when you expect to owe at least $1,000, in 2026 installments due April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027. Citizens abroad get an automatic 2-month extension to June 15, with interest from April 15.

U.S. LLCs and TRADE status: the open questions

A U.S. LLC. Spain attributes the income of foreign entities comparable to its own pass-through entities to their members (article 87 of the income tax law; 2020 DGT resolution). On a resident’s single-member U.S. entity, though, the DGT answered only conditionally (V1382-25). No ruling found covers an LLC billing for work done in Spain. No page says whether the telework permit accepts your own company as the client, and its 1-year activity rule would exclude a new one; see forming a Spanish limited company, or SL for the local alternative.

TRADE status. An economically dependent self-employed worker, or TRADE, earns at least 75 percent of income from one client (Law 20/2007). Royal Decree 197/2009 sets no residence condition for that client, and no official page addresses a U.S. client.

Your next step: check the permit, then set up the quarter

First check your clients against your permit: on the telework permit, companies only, with Spanish ones at most 20 percent of your work. Then set up an invoice without VAT for U.S. companies, a record of each consumer’s location, and Modelo 303 and 130 before the next quarterly window, listed in the self-employed guide. Once in RETA, ask the TGSS for form E/USA.1.

With only U.S. company clients, you can invoice and file the Spanish returns alone. Bring in a tax adviser or a gestor (administrative agent) for a mix of U.S. consumers and businesses, a U.S. LLC, or a certificate of coverage that stalls, and a U.S. international tax preparer for the Schedule SE statement and Form 1116.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.