Cuéntamo Blog

How much a self-employed worker in Spain needs to bill to take home €2,000 a month (and why every website gives you a different number)

September 30, 2026

Note: the example in this article is a hypothetical profile (a service professional working from home, under simplified direct estimation), not a real person. It’s here so you can follow the sums step by step with the official contribution and tax figures in force.

Search “how much do I need to bill to take home 2,000 euros” and you’ll find half a dozen calculators giving you half a dozen different numbers: some talk about just under 3,000 euros a month, others around 3,500, others over 4,000 once VAT is thrown into the mix. For the same target. None of them is lying, but almost none of them says what it’s actually measuring.

The reduced property transfer tax rate in Spain: what they actually ask for in return

September 29, 2026

You sign with the reduced rate because you’re under a certain age, or because it’s your first home, and you breathe out: a few points less on the transfer tax (ITP) is thousands of euros. Then someone tells you to register at your town hall as soon as possible, and elsewhere you read you have up to twelve months to actually live there, and you’re not sure whether registering already locks you in, or whether waiting leaves you without the proof you’ll need. It’s the doubt that comes up most often in mortgage forums, and it’s rarely answered well, because it actually mixes up two different questions.

Cash-basis VAT in Spain (RECC): what it is, who it actually helps, and the fine print nobody mentions

September 28, 2026

You invoice a project in March. Your client pays in 90 days, so the money doesn’t land until June. But you declare the first quarter in April, that invoice included, and you still have to pay the VAT you haven’t collected yet. You’re funding the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) out of your own pocket until your client decides to pay you.

This isn’t a glitch: it’s how VAT works under the general regime. There’s a route designed exactly for this case, Spain’s special cash-basis VAT scheme (régimen especial del criterio de caja, RECC), which delays VAT until you actually collect it. The problem is that almost nobody mentions the part it also delays, or who it makes life harder for. Let’s go through it.

The three-account system that stops you thinking about money

September 23, 2026

You check your account balance before buying something that isn’t essential. The number looks big enough, so you buy it. Ten days later the building maintenance fee hits and throws off your whole month, because that “big enough” number was already spoken for without you knowing it. It’s not that you’re spending badly: it’s that a single number doesn’t tell you which part is actually yours to spend.

The tip: let your money live split up, not together

The idea is simple and doesn’t depend on doing any mental accounting: split your money into three physical accounts, each with one job.

The VAT you paid on business expenses in the EU — Spain can get it back for you, but only until September 30

September 23, 2026

Say you went to a trade fair in Germany last year. You paid for the hotel, the food, the fuel on the way there, and the entry fee — all with invoices you kept. Hidden inside those invoices is German VAT (Mehrwertsteuer, their equivalent of IVA) that you are legally entitled to claim back. But there is a deadline to do it, and it falls on September 30.

The same applies to the conference in Paris, the client visit in Lisbon, the accommodation in Milan, or the Italian motorway tolls. If you are self-employed and you had business expenses in EU countries last year, there is a refund you may be owed — and most people who qualify never ask for it.

You got paid for one or two one-off jobs. Do you have to register as self-employed?

September 22, 2026

A one-off job has come your way: a couple of afternoons of private tutoring, renting out your car for a weekend, designing a logo for someone you know, shooting a friend’s wedding. They pay you, and suddenly a doubt hits you that you didn’t have when you said yes: do I have to register as self-employed for this?

You search for the answer and run into contradictory threads. Some say yes, always, no exceptions. Others say no, “if it’s small enough.” And almost none of them tell you exactly what decides whether it’s “small enough” or not, because it isn’t the amount: it’s whether that money is yours, whether what you did counts as an economic activity, and whether you’re going to repeat it.

Modelo 720: Your Broker Gave You a Spanish IBAN, But Your ETFs Can Still Require Reporting

September 21, 2026

Your broker sends a notice: “we’ve migrated your account to a Spanish IBAN.” And a rumor spreads, especially in investing forums, that this exempts you from Spain’s modelo 720 foreign-asset reporting form. For the cash account, that’s true. For the ETFs or funds sitting in the same broker’s custody account, it almost never is, and they’re two separate obligations governed by two separate rules.

Mixing the two is the mistake that’s spreading fastest right now among people investing through brokers like Trade Republic, DeGiro or similar, many of which have recently moved their clients’ cash accounts from a German or Dutch IBAN to a Spanish one, while the securities (custody) account stays exactly where it was.

"They want to hire me, but only if I go freelance": how to tell a fair deal from a disguised job

September 14, 2026

The offer has landed. You’d be working for that company almost every day, with a fixed desk and a schedule they’ve already told you about. But instead of a contract, they’re asking you to register as self-employed (autónomo) and invoice them every month. And the question on your mind isn’t whether the job itself is interesting, it’s another one: is this even legal? Does it pay off? And above all, how much do you need to ask for so you don’t come out losing?

Buying a home in Spain in 2026: the taxes and costs your mortgage won't cover

September 12, 2026

The sum almost everyone does before buying goes like this: the bank lends 80%, so a €200,000 flat needs €20,000… sorry, €40,000. It’s the wrong sum, and not by a little.

What the mortgage doesn’t cover isn’t just the 20% of the price. It’s also the purchase taxes and fees, paid in cash on signing day, which depending on where you buy can add up to as much as half a deposit again. And there’s one piece that surprises even repeat buyers: the most expensive tax of all is not calculated on what you pay for the property, but on a value set by the Land Registry (Catastro) that you can look up before you sign.

How Long You Can Carry Forward VAT to Offset Before You Lose It

September 11, 2026

You’ve been carrying a VAT balance to offset in box 110 of your modelo 303 for two or three years now. Every quarter you enter it, and every quarter it’s still there, a bit bigger or a bit smaller depending on how the business is going. You’ve never requested the refund, partly because nobody has told you there’s any rush. Is there?

The short answer is yes, although probably not in the way you’re worried about. The money doesn’t just vanish overnight. What has an expiry date is the mechanism you’re using to recover it: offsetting it quarter after quarter. Once that date passes you have to switch to a different route, and if you don’t know that, you can end up with neither.