ATA asks the European Commission to punish Spain for not exempting self-employed staff who bill lower than 85,000 euros from VAT | Economy | EUROtoday

The self-employed affiliation ATA asks the European Commission to sanction Spain for not exempting self-employed staff who bill lower than 85,000 euros from VAT. “As confirmed by the Commission itself, Spain is currently the only Member State that does not apply the exemption regime for small companies, flagrantly and prolongedly failing to comply with its obligations,” denounces the affiliation chaired by Lorenzo Amor. This obligation, ATA believes, connects with a European Union directive that Spain has not but transposed and for which there’s already an infringement process underway. “This non-compliance has a huge effect on business activities and makes us less competitive,” says Amor, additionally vice chairman of CEOE, in a press release accompanying the textual content of the grievance.

“On January 1, 2025, the transposition of the European directive should have come into force that would exempt those self-employed workers who invoice less than 85,000 euros per year from passing on VAT,” ATA denounces. Basically, this rule exempts taxpayers who don’t exceed that billing degree from the duty to incorporate VAT of their invoices and in addition from the requirement to submit periodic declarations relating to it. “The inaction of the Spanish legislator means that the majority of the self-employed in Spain cannot benefit from any real VAT simplification regime, being forced to comply with the same formal obligations as large corporations,” he signifies within the grievance filed with the Community Executive.

According to the analysis of this affiliation, this forces the vast majority of self-employed staff and SMEs to cost VAT from the primary euro of billing. The directive that Spain doesn’t adjust to, ATA factors out, “allows Member States to establish an annual turnover threshold of up to 85,000 euros, below which self-employed workers and SMEs would be exempt from charging, settling and declaring VAT.” The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, not too long ago introduced that if he governs he’ll exempt these self-employed staff from paying VAT.

ATA remembers that the Commission famous this non-compliance and initiated an infringement process, which led to a proper requirement in January 2025. This was adopted by an opinion in July, “urging it to adapt its domestic law to the Directive within a period of two months, under the warning of taking the matter before the Court of Justice of the European Union; to this day, the non-compliance persists,” insists ATA.

The affiliation chaired by Amor highlights that Spain “lacks a general VAT exemption regime based on a billing threshold” and that “it maintains special regimes such as the Simplified Regime or the Equivalence Surcharge, which are of very restrictive, sectoral application and are in no way equivalent to the harmonized exemption regime.”

This state of affairs, ATA maintains, generates “unjustified” discrimination. He offers for instance the distinction because of the sort of exercise: “A self-employed person in a traditional taxed activity (e.g. hospitality) can benefit from modules, while a liberal professional or in the digital sector (e.g. lawyer, marketing) is excluded and bears a disproportionate bureaucratic burden, even though he bills much less.

“It is as if two people bought the same car, but one was allowed to use the fast lane and pay a fixed toll, while the other, having registered it in the name of a small family business instead of his name, was forced to drive on a secondary road full of paperwork and pay a toll at each intersection,” provides the group chaired by Amor.

Given this analysis, ATA asks the Commission to declare that Spain has didn’t adjust to its obligations below the unfulfilled directive (2020/285), by not having adopted the mandatory provisions for its transposition in time; to proceed with the infringement process already began; and to induce Spain to undertake, “without further delay, the necessary legislative measures to establish a VAT exemption regime that conforms to the purpose and spirit of European regulations.”