Self-employed in Spain: unclaimed expenses from past years (2022 to 2025)

In short: unclaimed expenses from past years? If you are self-employed (autónomo) in Spain under estimación directa and did not deduct some business expenses in your 2022 to 2025 Renta, you can correct that return. The expenses most often missed are the RETA contribution, the gestoría, 30% of home utilities and the percentage for hard-to-justify expenses: 5%, or 7% in 2023. Each expense needs an invoice in your name and an entry in your record books (libros registro). By our calculation, the 2022 Renta can be corrected until 30.06.2027.

Who it is for. For self-employed people who are tax residents in Spain, work out their business income under estimación directa (simplified or normal) and filed the Renta for that year. Under módulos (estimación objetiva) income comes from indices such as staff or floor space, not from subtracting expenses one by one, so this card does not apply. Self-employed taxes in general: autónomo in Spain as a foreigner: IRPF, VAT, RETA and deductible expenses.

In person or by representative? It is done online, with Renta WEB for the year you are correcting, on the AEAT website. You need a way to identify yourself, for example Cl@ve or an electronic certificate: Cl@ve and electronic certificate. You do not need to go to an office.

Until when you can correct. The right to claim a refund expires after 4 years (arts. 66 and 67 of the General Tax Law), counted from the day after the end of each Renta filing period. By our calculation, the 2022 Renta can be corrected until 30.06.2027, the 2023 one until 01.07.2028, the 2024 one until 30.06.2029 and the 2025 one until 30.06.2030. If you filed that year late, the 4 years run from the day after you filed (AEAT, Renta 2023 manual).

Expenses most often missed

An expense counts if it is linked to your business, you have an invoice for it and you enter it in the record books. If you are under normal estimación directa and your business is commercial (mercantil), instead of the record books you keep accounts under the Commercial Code, the Código de Comercio (art. 68 of the IRPF Regulation). Expenses from before you registered do not count (AEAT, requirements for a deductible expense).

• RETA contribution. What you paid to Social Security as an autónomo is a business expense. Did Social Security adjust your contribution for a year? The difference goes in the Renta of the year in which you pay it or get it back, not in a correction of the earlier year (AEAT, expenses of the business owner).
• Gestoría and other professionals working for your business, for example an adviser or a lawyer (AEAT, independent professional services).
• Home utilities, if you work in your main home: water, electricity, gas, phone and internet. You subtract 30% of the share of floor space you use for work, unless you prove a different percentage (art. 30.2.5ª.b of the IRPF law). AEAT manual example: with 40 m² out of 100 m² you subtract 12%, that is €600 out of €5,000 of utilities (AEAT, utilities).
• Mobile. Only a line you use solely for the business counts. The phone itself is subtracted through depreciation, a part each year (same AEAT link).
• Health insurance for you, your spouse and your children under 25 living with you: up to €500 a year per person, or €1,500 per person with a disability (art. 30.2.5ª.a; AEAT, insurance premiums).
• Training: courses, conferences and congresses related to your business (AEAT, other deductible expenses).
• Depreciation. A computer, software or furniture is not subtracted all at once: each year you subtract a part, which goes in that year's Renta. Under simplified estimación directa, at most 26% a year for IT equipment and software and 10% for furniture. The asset must be in the capital goods record book (art. 68 of the IRPF Regulation; AEAT, depreciation under the simplified method).
• Car. A passenger car only counts if you use it solely for the business. There are exceptions, such as passenger transport, driving schools, sales agents or mixed vehicles for goods (art. 22.4 of the IRPF Regulation).
• Hard-to-justify expenses (gastos de difícil justificación), only under simplified estimación directa: a percentage of positive net income that you subtract without receipts, with a maximum of €2,000 a year. It was 5% in 2022, then 7% in 2023 and 5% in 2024 and 2025 (art. 30.2.4ª of the IRPF law, art. 30 of the Regulation and additional provision 56ª of the law, for 2023 only). It does not apply if you used the reduction in art. 32.2.1º of the IRPF law. AEAT Renta manuals by year: 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

What you cannot subtract

• Personal or mixed-use expenses (except the 30% rule for home utilities), because they are not linked to your business: a passenger car you also use privately, a personal line or your private subscriptions.
• Expenses without an invoice in your name or not entered in the record books. The invoice is the main proof (art. 106.4 of the General Tax Law); a card payment or a receipt without your details is weak proof.
• VAT on your invoices that can be deducted in modelo 303, even if you did not deduct it: it is not an expense in the Renta (AEAT, deductible taxes).
• A second, separate return: you correct the one you filed.

How to correct it

• 2024 and 2025 Renta: in Renta WEB for that year, «Modificación de una declaración ya presentada» service, you add the expenses and tick box 103, «autoliquidación rectificativa». It does not allow attachments: keep the invoices in case the AEAT asks for them (Renta WEB technical help; Renta 2024 manual).
• 2022 and 2023 Renta: in Renta WEB for that year you add the expenses, tick box 127, «Solicitud de rectificación de autoliquidación», and enter the receipt number of the return you are correcting. The AEAT reviews the request and may ask you for the invoices (Renta 2023 manual).

The step-by-step with each screen is in our PDF guide on this page.

VAT is separate. If you also did not deduct the VAT on those invoices, that is corrected in modelo 303, through a different procedure. For periods from September or the 3rd quarter of 2024 you use the autoliquidación rectificativa of the 303 itself. For earlier ones, a solicitud de rectificación, within 4 years from the end of the filing period of that 303 (AEAT, errors in modelo 303). This card does not cover it.

Before you claim: check your situation

The corrected return includes all your income for that year, not only the new expenses. Answer these questions first:

1. Were you a tax resident that year? In general, yes if you spent more than 183 days of the year in Spain (art. 9 of the IRPF law): tax residence and the 183 days. If you arrived in 2022 after early July, you were most likely not a resident that year.
2. Did you have income outside Spain from 2022 to 2025? For example, a FOP in Ukraine, a rental or a salary from a foreign company. That income also goes in the return, and with it the result may turn into tax to pay. If the answer is yes or you are not sure, first ask for an analysis.
3. Did you file that year's Renta? If not, this is not a correction. Since 2023, having been registered in the RETA at any point in the year makes filing compulsory (art. 96.2 of the IRPF law): see Renta not filed.
4. Did you receive a requerimiento, or is there an open check or inspection for that year? Stop and consult a professional. If the AEAT already adjusted an item through an assessment (liquidación), a correction by you does not change that item (Renta 2024 manual).
5. Did you apply a special income reduction? The reduction for people working for a single client is lost if your expenses exceed 30% of your business income (art. 32.2 of the IRPF law). The one for starting a business is 20% of positive income (art. 32.3): if your income goes down, the reduction goes down too.
6. Did you have the tarifa plana or an adjustment of your RETA contribution? Since 2023 Social Security adjusts your contribution with the income the AEAT reports to it. We have not found an official explanation of how a correction affects that adjustment or the tarifa plana: ask before filing.
7. Are invoices missing? Without an invoice in your name the expense is hard to prove. Review your case before correcting.
8. Are you also claiming maternity or large family? Check the advances under Modelos 140 and 143 and the child support supplement: the full 5 questions.

Roughly how much

What you get back is roughly the missing expense multiplied by your marginal rate for that year, that is, the IRPF percentage paid on your last euros. Under simplified estimación directa, first subtract the drop in the 5% for hard-to-justify expenses (7% in 2023), unless you were already at the €2,000 cap. At most you get back the IRPF you paid that year: if your tax was 0, more expenses refund nothing.

Example (our calculation): 2024 Renta under simplified estimación directa. You forgot €600 of gestoría fees and your home utilities. You work in 16 m² of an 80 m² home, which is 20%, so you subtract 6% (30% of that 20%) of €2,000 of utilities, which is €120. In total that is €720 more in expenses. The 5% for hard-to-justify expenses drops by €36 (5% of €720), and your income drops by €684. With an assumed marginal rate of 24%, you would get back about €164.

This is a rough figure: the exact amount is known when you file the correction.

Help to do it

• Free estimate: the calculator of how much the tax office may refund you estimates maternity and family deductions for 2022 to 2025. It does not work out business expenses.
• Step-by-step guide «Autónomo: recovering unclaimed expenses from 2022 to 2025» (now available on this page).
• Help for autónomos. We review the business expenses from 2022 to 2025 that you did not deduct and prepare a step-by-step instruction with screenshots for your case. It is a service separate from the full help. Message @spain_asesor: we send you the price and the terms privately before any payment. You file yourself: we never ask for your Cl@ve, electronic certificate, reference number or passwords. We cannot promise that there will be a refund or how much: it depends on your case and on the AEAT, and the review may show there is nothing to recover or that tax is due.
• Full help for maternity, family deductions, withholding, foreign income and forgotten deductions: what it includes is in How to claim a tax refund from previous years in Spain.

Other money the tax office may owe you (maternity, large family, withholding, foreign pensions): How to claim a tax refund from previous years in Spain: 2022-2025.

Official source: IRPF law, arts. 28 to 32, BOE, IRPF Regulation, arts. 22, 30 and 68, BOE and AEAT, Renta 2025 manual, estimación directa.

Informational only; check the official source and a professional for your specific case. Figures and dates checked on 9 October 2026.