Maternity deduction in Spain: €100 a month, Modelo 140 and past years

In short: the maternity deduction in Spain is €100 a month for each child under 3, up to €1,200 a year, plus up to €1,000 a year for nursery. The AEAT (the Spanish Tax Agency) pays it even if your tax is 0. You can receive it each month in advance with Modelo 140 or in one go through the Renta (the annual income tax return). If you did not receive it, it can be claimed for 2022 to 2025: by our calculation, 2022 until 30.06.2027.

In person or by representative? You do not need to go to an office. The advance with Modelo 140 is requested online on the AEAT website, maternity deduction, with Cl@ve or an electronic certificate: Cl@ve and electronic certificate. It can also be requested by phone with a prior appointment, or on paper: the form is generated on the website and handed in at any AEAT office. The deduction in the Renta is applied with Renta WEB. The AEAT pages we checked do not explain how to do it through a representative.

Who is entitled since 2023

Since 1 January 2023 it goes to the mother of a child under 3 who meets one of these conditions:

• When the child was born, she was receiving unemployment benefit (contributory or assistance).
• When the child was born, she was registered (dada de alta) with Social Security or a mutual scheme.
• She registered after the birth, at any time, and reached 30 days of contributions. Days of contributions before the birth count towards those 30 days, but the registration has to come after the birth. If you contributed more than 30 days before the birth and are not registered afterwards, you are not entitled (ruling of the DGT, the Directorate General of Taxes).

Also, the child has to live with you and give you the right to the minimum for descendants: among other things, the child's income cannot exceed €8,000 a year. You have to be a tax resident in Spain that year. For adoption or foster care, pre-adoptive or permanent, it runs for 3 years from registration in the Civil Registry. If the mother dies or custody belongs only to the father or a guardian, the remaining deduction passes to him, if he meets the requirements.

How the months are counted. The months count from when you meet the requirements until the month before the child turns 3. The month in which you meet the requirements counts in full. If you were registered or receiving unemployment benefit on the day of the birth, it counts from the month of birth. The law does not require you to stay registered in the following months.

€150 extra. If you registered after the birth, in the month you reach 30 days of contributions the deduction is €250: the €100 for the month plus €150. That year the maximum rises to €1,350. If you were registered or receiving unemployment benefit on the day of the birth, there is no €150.

Regularised mothers or mothers starting work. The child may have been born before you worked in Spain: a later registration with 30 days of contributions counts, as long as the child is under 3. If you registered with the provisional work authorisation of the 2026 regularisation, or with an asylum seeker's work permit, the law does not distinguish the reason for the registration. Even so, we have not found an official AEAT position on these cases: review yours before claiming.

Cases not clarified. The AEAT has not explained whether the 30 days have to be consecutive or whether several contracts add up. Nor whether days on unemployment benefit after the birth count, or whether there is €150 when the 30 days were contributed before the birth and the registration is new. If this is your case, ask first.

Child support supplement. Since 2023, the months in which the father or the mother receives the child support supplement (complemento de ayuda para la infancia) of the minimum living income (IMV) for that child do not count. There is an exception: if in 2022 you had the deduction and the supplement for the same child, since 2023 you can keep both.

2022 is different. For 2022 the previous law applies, because the 2023 reform does not apply backwards (DGT ruling). In 2022 only mothers working and registered had it, and only for the months they were registered; one day of registration in the month was enough. Per child, the deduction cannot exceed the total Social Security contributions for 2022 after the birth, without subtracting rebates. There was no €150 and no exclusion for the child support supplement. If in 2022 you were receiving unemployment benefit without being registered, in general you are not entitled for that year. There is an exception if the situation began on or after 01.01.2020. Months on an ERTE with full suspension, as an inactive fija discontinua worker or as a self-employed woman receiving the cessation-of-activity benefit due to suspension count as months with registration (see the 2022 calculation below).

Two ways to receive it

• Each month, in advance (Modelo 140). The AEAT pays you €100 a month for each child, by bank transfer. The advance does not include nursery costs. One application is filed for each child; if you already receive the advance for that same child, you do not need to request it again. Changes affecting the advance are reported within 15 calendar days, online or by phone: for example, if you give it up or the child no longer entitles you to it. If you lose the right and later regain it, a new Modelo 140 has to be filed. According to the DGT, the advance is not income and does not by itself oblige you to file the Renta.
• In the Renta. The deduction goes in box 0611, the advance you received in box 0612 and nursery costs in box 0613. It is subtracted from the result even if it is a refund, so it can increase the refund.

If the advance does not match what you are owed. If you received less in advance than you are owed, or you have nursery costs, file the Renta to get the difference. If you are not required to file the Renta and received too much, the AEAT says it will make the adjustment itself, because it has the data it needs (AEAT page on the advance payment, updated 19.03.2026). What you received in excess has to be paid back, but without late-payment interest if it was not your fault. Report changes on time (15 days).

Claiming past years

The right to claim a refund expires after 4 years (art. 66 of the LGT, the General Tax Law). They are counted from the day after the last day of the filing period of each Renta (art. 67). The filing period for the 2022 Renta ran from 11.04.2023 to 30.06.2023, which is why the limit is 30.06.2027. By our calculation, the 2023 one can be claimed until 01.07.2028, because its filing period ended on 01.07.2024. The 2024 one is open until 30.06.2029 and the 2025 one until 30.06.2030.

• A. You filed that year without the deduction: that return is corrected (rectification) with Renta WEB for that year; you do not file another one.
• B. You did not file: you file that year's Renta late. If you were not required to file and did not request the advance, this is the only way to get it. If it is a refund there is no surcharge. The fixed fine of art. 198 of the LGT (€200, or €100 if you file without a prior request from the AEAT) applies to people who were required to file. For people who were not, we have not found an AEAT position. More detail: Renta not filed: surcharges and how to file late.

Nursery: up to €1,000 more a year

• What counts is what you actually paid the nursery for that child, without the subsidised part: pre-registration, enrolment, attendance (standard and extended hours) and meals. Only for full months. What your employer pays as exempt payment in kind does not count, for example a nursery voucher (cheque guardería).
• It is up to €1,000 a year, in proportion to the months in which you meet the requirements of the deduction. In the year the child turns 3, it counts until the month before the second cycle of early childhood education can start.
• It is only paid through the Renta, not in advance.
• Each January the nursery files Modelo 233 with your payments, and the AEAT puts them in your tax data. Keep the contract, the monthly receipts and the centre's NIF (tax number) in case data are missing.
• A nursery with the authorisation needed to operate as a nursery counts, even without an education authorisation (Supreme Court judgments of 8 January 2024 and STS 731/2025, of 10 June 2025). According to an AEAT note of 24.01.2024, which we can no longer find on the AEAT website, those nurseries could file Modelo 233 from the one for the 2023 tax year. From the 2025 tax year, Modelo 233 states whether the centre has an education authorisation or another one needed to open and operate (Orden HAC/682/2025).
• For 2022 (its Modelo 233 was filed before those rulings) and for correcting past years, the AEAT has not given a criterion. If the nursery did not send data and you enter the expense by hand, the AEAT may check it and the refund may take longer.

Before you claim: check your situation

A return for a year carries all your income for that year, not just the deduction. Answer these 5 questions first:

1. Were you a tax resident that year? Each year counts separately: in general, if you spent more than 183 days of the year in Spain (art. 9 LIRPF). If you arrived in 2022 after early July, you were most likely not a resident that year and have no deduction for it: tax residence and the 183 days.
2. Did you have income outside Spain? For example, a FOP (Ukrainian sole trader) in Ukraine, a rental or remote work. That year's return must include it, and the result may turn into tax to pay. If the answer is yes or you are not sure, first ask for an analysis of your case.
3. Did anyone receive the child support supplement for this child? Since 2023 those months do not count, except for those who had both in 2022.
4. Have you already received the advance? What you received through Modelo 140 is subtracted from that year's deduction (box 0612). If you received it and did not file the Renta, review your case first.
5. Did you file the Renta for that year? Yes: way A. No: way B.

Roughly how much you are owed

• Formula (2023, 2024 and 2025): months with a child under 3 since you met the requirements, times €100. Add €150 in the month you reach 30 days of contributions, if you registered after the birth. Add nursery costs paid without the subsidised part, up to €1,000 a year in proportion to the months. Take out the months with the child support supplement.
• Example (our calculation): your child is born in February 2024 and at that time you neither work nor receive unemployment benefit. You register on 01.09.2024 and on 30.09.2024 you reach 30 days of contributions. For 2024 that is 4 months, September to December, times €100, plus €150: €550. For 2025 it is 12 months times €100: €1,200. The example does not include nursery costs or the child support supplement.
• 2022: only the months with registration, times €100. Per child, at most the 2022 Social Security contributions after the birth; nursery costs have the same cap. Months on an ERTE with full suspension, or with the contract suspended due to gender violence, also count as months with registration (DA 38ª.4 LIRPF; Manual Renta 2022). So do months as an inactive fija discontinua worker, or as a self-employed woman receiving the cessation-of-activity benefit due to suspension. If the situation began on or after 01.01.2020, months of 2020 and 2021 in those situations are claimed in the Renta 2022, in separate boxes (1912 and 1915; childcare, 1913 and 1916).

This is a rough figure: the exact amount is known when you file the return or the rectification.

Other money the tax office may owe you. Large family or disability: €1,200 a year for each case. Also withholding you did not get back and foreign pensions. Details: How to claim a tax refund from previous years in Spain: 2022-2025.

Help to do it

• Free estimate: calculator of how much the tax office may refund you for 2022 to 2025.
• Step-by-step guides (now available on this page): how to fill in Modelo 140 and how to claim maternity for 2022 to 2025.
• Full help. We review your situation from 2022 to 2025: maternity and the other family deductions, withholding and foreign pensions. We work out an approximate amount and prepare a step-by-step instruction with screenshots for your case, with your figures, including the request for the advance with Modelo 140. While you file, we support you by online chat. 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. Message @spain_asesor: we send you the price and the terms privately before any payment.

Official source: IRPF law, art. 81, BOE, IRPF Regulation, art. 60, BOE, Orden HAC/177/2020, Modelo 140, BOE and AEAT, maternity deduction.

Informational only; check the official source and a professional for your specific case. Figures and dates checked on 8 October 2026.