How to claim a tax refund from previous years in Spain: 2022-2025 and deadlines

In short: how to claim a tax refund from previous years in Spain? Check each year from 2022 to 2025 in four groups. First, family deductions that the AEAT (the Spanish Tax Agency) pays even if your tax is 0. Second, withholding you did not get back because you did not file the Renta. Third, deductions that only lower the tax, and fourth, foreign pensions taxed twice. If you had income outside Spain, that year's return includes it too: review this first. You have 4 years from the end of the filing period of each Renta: by our calculation, the 2022 Renta can be claimed until 30.06.2027.

In person or by representative? It is done online on the AEAT website, with Renta WEB for the year in question. 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.

If your worry is the opposite, that you owe the tax office money because you did not file: Renta not filed: surcharges and how to file late.

Until when you can claim. 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. Years before 2022 are, in principle, already time-barred.

1. Family deductions paid out even if you pay no tax. The AEAT pays them in money even if your tax for the year is 0 (arts. 81 and 81 bis of the IRPF law).

• Maternity (art. 81): €100 a month for each child under 3, up to €1,200 a year, plus up to €1,000 a year for childcare. Since 2023 it goes to the mother who, when the child was born, was receiving unemployment benefit, or was registered with Social Security, or registered later and reached 30 days of contributions. In 2022 the rule was different: only mothers working and registered, month by month. AEAT page: maternity deduction.
• Large family (art. 81 bis): €1,200 a year, €2,400 in the special category, and €600 more for each child above the minimum of your category.
• A parent legally separated or unmarried, with 2 children and no right to child maintenance for them: €1,200 a year. A married woman whose husband lives in Ukraine does not fall under this case.
• Disability: €1,200 a year for each child or ascendant with a disability who gives you the right to the family minimum, and for a spouse with a disability with income of €8,000 a year or less.

The art. 81 bis deductions are for people working and registered with Social Security, or receiving unemployment benefit or a Social Security or Clases Pasivas (civil service scheme) pension.

2. Withholding you did not get back because you did not file the Renta. Maybe you were not required to file (for example, with a single payer in Spain and less than €22,000 a year) and you did not file. Then the extra tax withheld stayed with the tax office. To get it back you have to file that Renta. Common cases:

• Unemployment benefit. If IRPF was withheld from the benefit: unemployment benefit and the Renta. Receiving unemployment benefit did not by itself make filing compulsory: the AEAT did not apply that duty for the 2024 Renta.
• A contract shorter than a year. The employer withholds at least 2%, even if you earn less than the no-withholding limit (art. 86 of the IRPF Regulation): what is deducted from your payslip.
• Income below the limit with withholding on your payslip or pension: who must file the Renta.

3. Deductions that only lower the tax. They are not paid out in money if your tax for the year was 0. If tax was withheld from you, they can increase the refund, at most up to what was withheld.

• Regional deductions, for example the Valencian ones for rent, health or sport. They are subtracted from the regional part of the tax: Valencian regional deductions.
• The minimum for parents or grandparents over 65 who live with you for at least half the year and have income of €8,000 a year or less.
• Trade union fees, which do not usually appear in the draft return.
• Donations to NGOs and foundations.

4. Foreign pensions taxed twice. It depends on the double taxation treaty between Spain and the country that pays you.

• United Kingdom. Pensions for services to the British State are taxed only in the UK if you do not have Spanish nationality (art. 18.2 of the 2013 treaty). Examples are those of civil servants, the armed forces, police, fire service, local government or state school teachers. In Spain they are exempt, but they count when working out the rate on the rest of your income (AEAT leaflet on the United Kingdom). If you paid IRPF on them in Spain from 2022 to 2025, you can claim it. The State Pension is taxed only in Spain (art. 17). Royal Mail pensions do not count as public pensions for this purpose, according to the DGT (ruling V5318-26), and NHS pensions, in principle, do not either: check your case before claiming.
• Ukraine. The treaty signed with the USSR in 1985 applies: the AEAT official list includes it for the states of the former USSR, except Russia. Under it, an ordinary pension from the Pension Fund of Ukraine is taxed in Spain (art. 14). Pensions for services to the State, such as military or civil servant pensions, are taxed only in Ukraine if you do not have Spanish nationality (art. 13). We have not found any DGT rulings (Directorate General of Taxes) on Ukrainian pensions: check your case before claiming. More detail: Ukrainian pension tax in Spain.
• United States. A Social Security pension can be taxed in both countries. Spain subtracts the tax paid there through the international double taxation deduction, with conditions (AEAT leaflet on the United States). There is no refund for being taxed only abroad. If you did not apply that deduction, that can be corrected: international double taxation.
• Other countries. Check what the treaty with the country that pays you says: official list of double taxation treaties signed by Spain.

Two ways to claim

• A. You filed that year: you correct that same return (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 it is a refund there is no surcharge. If you were required to file it, there may be a fixed fine of €100. It is €200 if you had already received a requerimiento, a formal request from the AEAT (art. 198 LGT, details in Renta not filed).

Before you claim: check your whole situation

A past-year return carries all your income for that year, not just what you want to claim. Answer these 5 questions first:

1. Since when have you lived in Spain? Each year counts separately: in general you are a tax resident if you spend 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 deductions for it: tax residence and the 183 days.
2. Did you have income outside Spain from 2022 to 2025? For example, a FOP in Ukraine, a rental or remote work for a foreign company. That income also goes in the return. If the answer is yes or you are not sure, first ask for an analysis of your case.
3. Did anyone in the family receive the child supplement of the minimum living income? Since 2023, those months do not count for maternity. There is an exception for those who had both in 2022.
4. Have you already received advance payments? What you received each month through Modelo 140 (maternity) or Modelo 143 (large family and disability) is subtracted from that year's deduction. If you received advances 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.

How to work out roughly how much

• Maternity 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. Also add what you paid to a nursery that has the authorisation it needs to operate as a nursery, without the subsidised part, up to €1,000 a year. Subtract the months with the child support supplement.
• Example (our calculation): a child born in March 2023 and a mother who was receiving unemployment benefit at the birth. March to December is 10 months times €100, that is €1,000 for the 2023 Renta, not counting childcare.
• Maternity 2022: only the months in which you were working and registered, times €100. Months on an ERTE with full suspension, as an inactive fija discontinua worker or on the cessation-of-activity benefit due to suspension also count as registration (DA 38ª.4 LIRPF). Per child, no more than your Social Security contributions in 2022 after the birth; childcare has the same cap. In 2022 there was no €150 and no exclusion for the child support supplement. For 2022 childcare there is no official guidance on how to claim it now if the centre did not report it to the AEAT (Modelo 233), and the review may delay the refund: check your case.
• Large family, parent with 2 children or disability: €1,200 a year for each case, in proportion to the months you meet the requirements. For a special large family it is €2,400, plus €600 for each child above the minimum. If you work, each deduction cannot exceed your Social Security contributions in those months; the special category extra and the €600 are outside that cap. If you receive unemployment benefit or a pension, there is no cap.
• Withholding: add up what was withheld according to that year's withholding certificates and subtract the tax for that year. With low income the tax may come to 0, and then everything withheld is refunded.
• Regional deductions: at most, the regional part of your tax for that year. If it was 0, they give 0.
• UK government pension: the difference between the IRPF you paid that year and the IRPF with the pension exempt, counting only for the rate. If you already applied the deduction for UK tax, the difference is smaller.

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

Help to do it

• Free estimate: calculator of how much the tax office may refund you for 2022 to 2025.
• Step-by-step guides for each situation: maternity, family deductions, unemployment benefit, contracts under a year and «not required to file» for 2022 to 2025, now available on this page.
• Full help. We review your situation from 2022 to 2025 across the four groups, work out an approximate amount and prepare a step-by-step instruction with screenshots for your case, with your figures. 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, arts. 81 and 81 bis, BOE, General Tax Law, arts. 66, 67 and 198, BOE and AEAT, Renta of past years.

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