Depreciation for autónomos: what it is, the official tables and worked examples
You’ve just bought a 2,000-euro laptop for your work as an autónomo (self-employed worker). You have the invoice, the IVA (VAT) is clear, and you assume you’ll deduct the whole thing this year like any other expense. But no: that laptop is a capital asset, and for tax purposes it doesn’t work like that.
What you have to do is depreciate it. Spread its cost over several years, following the tables published by the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria). The concept isn’t complicated, but it has its nuances. Let’s break them down.
This article adapts to your territory. Pick where you pay tax in the “Where do you pay tax?” selector in each section (tables, examples, express depreciation) and the coefficients and calculations adjust to your regime. In the Basque Country, moreover, micro and small companies depreciate much faster (often 100% in the first year).
What a capital asset is
A capital asset is any asset that meets two conditions:
Its purchase price exceeds 300 euros (without IVA, i.e. the taxable base).
Its useful life is longer than one year. It isn’t consumed in a single tax year, but used over several.
Common examples: a computer, a tablet, a desk, a professional printer, machinery, a vehicle assigned to the business, an installation in your premises. Certain perpetual software licences also qualify if they exceed that threshold.
If an asset costs less than 300 euros, it’s deducted in full as an ordinary expense in the year of purchase. It isn’t depreciated. This simplifies things considerably for smaller purchases: a 40-euro mouse, a monthly subscription, office supplies. All of that goes straight into the expenses ledger and is deducted in full.
What depreciating means
Depreciating means distributing the cost of an asset over the years it’s expected to last. Instead of deducting the 2,000 euros of the laptop all at once in the year you buy it, you deduct a portion each year until the total is covered.
The usual method for autónomos under estimación directa simplificada (the simplified direct-assessment regime) is straight-line depreciation: the same percentage every year. That percentage comes from the official tables published by the Agencia Tributaria.
The logic behind it is simple: for the Agencia Tributaria, an asset doesn’t lose all its value the day you buy it, but wears out gradually with use. Depreciation is the way of deducting that wear little by little, at the pace at which you use it.
The official simplified depreciation tables
Each type of asset has a maximum straight-line coefficient (the maximum annual percentage you can deduct) and a maximum period (the maximum number of years over which you can depreciate). You can apply the maximum or a lower percentage (at a minimum, the one from spreading 100% over the maximum period); the higher it is, the sooner you finish deducting. The specific table depends on your territory:
Simplified depreciation table of the Order of 27 March 1998. The most common types for autónomos:
| Type of asset | Max. straight-line coef. | Max. period |
|---|---|---|
| IT equipment (computers, tablets, servers) | 26% | 10 years |
| Tools and implements | 30% | 8 years |
| Furniture (desks, chairs, shelving) | 10% | 20 years |
| Transport elements (vehicles) | 16% | 14 years |
| Machinery | 12% | 18 years |
| Installations (refurbishments, premises fit-outs) | 10% | 20 years |
| Other (perpetual software, licences) | 26% | 10 years |
The maximum coefficient is the most advantageous in most cases (you deduct faster); the examples that follow use these percentages.
In Navarre the coefficients come from its own Corporate Income Tax (Decreto Foral 114/2017, art. 3):
| Type of asset | Max. coefficient | Max. period |
|---|---|---|
| IT equipment | 25% | 6 years |
| Furniture | 15% | 10 years |
| Vehicles | 20% | 8 years |
| Machinery | 15% | 10 years |
| Installations | 15% | 10 years |
Apply the mechanism in the examples with these percentages.
In the Basque Country the coefficients are those of your foral Corporate Income Tax (in Bizkaia, Norma Foral 2/2014), and they’re higher than the state ones: you depreciate faster. The most common:
| Type of asset | Max. coefficient | Max. period |
|---|---|---|
| IT equipment | 33.33% | 15 years |
| Furniture | 15% | 15 years |
| Vehicles | 20% | 15 years |
| Machinery | 20% | 15 years |
Apply the mechanism in the examples with these percentages. Foral table.
In the Basque Country the coefficients are those of your foral Corporate Income Tax, and they’re higher than the state ones: you depreciate faster. The most common:
| Type of asset | Max. coefficient | Max. period |
|---|---|---|
| IT equipment | 33.33% | 15 years |
| Furniture | 15% | 15 years |
| Vehicles | 20% | 15 years |
| Machinery | 20% | 15 years |
Apply the mechanism in the examples with these percentages. Gipuzkoa foral table.
In the Basque Country the coefficients are those of your foral Corporate Income Tax, higher than the state ones (you depreciate faster). The most common (shared across the three foral territories; confirm them with the Álava Provincial Tax Authority):
| Type of asset | Max. coefficient | Max. period |
|---|---|---|
| IT equipment | 33.33% | 15 years |
| Furniture | 15% | 15 years |
| Vehicles | 20% | 15 years |
| Machinery | 20% | 15 years |
Apply the mechanism in the examples with these percentages.
Example 1: a 2,500-euro MacBook Pro
You buy a MacBook Pro for 2,500 euros (taxable base, without IVA) in January 2026 for your business. It’s IT equipment; how much you depreciate a year depends on your territory:
Maximum coefficient of 26%:
- 2,500 × 26% = €650/year → about 4 tax years (650, 650, 650 and 550 the last one).
- If you buy it in July instead of January, the first year is prorated: 6 of 12 months, €325 in 2026, and the rest spread afterwards.
Maximum coefficient of 25%:
- 2,500 × 25% = €625/year → exactly 4 tax years (625 × 4 = 2,500).
- If you don’t buy it in January, the first year is prorated by the months of use.
If you’re a micro or small company (most self-employed workers), you have free depreciation: you deduct the whole €2,500 in 2026, without spreading. If you’re a medium-sized company, the coefficient is 33.33% → about €833/year, 3 tax years.
If you’re a micro or small company (most self-employed workers), you have free depreciation: you deduct the whole €2,500 in 2026, without spreading. If you’re a medium-sized company, 33.33% → about €833/year, 3 tax years.
If you’re a micro or small company (most self-employed workers), you have free depreciation: you deduct the whole €2,500 in 2026, without spreading. If you’re a medium-sized company, 33.33% → about €833/year, 3 tax years.
Example 2: an 800-euro desk
You buy a desk for your office for 800 euros (taxable base). It’s furniture:
Maximum coefficient of 10%: 800 × 10% = €80/year for 10 years.
One nuance: in the table, furniture has a maximum period of 20 years. It’s not a contradiction: the 10% is the maximum coefficient (the fastest, you depreciate it in 10 years); the 20 years is the maximum period (the slowest, a minimum of 5% a year). You can go at any pace between those two.
Maximum coefficient of 15%: 800 × 15% = €120/year, about 7 tax years (the last one for whatever’s left).
As a micro or small company, free depreciation: the whole €800 in the first year. As a medium-sized company, 15% → €120/year.
As a micro or small company, free depreciation: the whole €800 in the first year. As a medium-sized company, 15% → €120/year.
As a micro or small company, free depreciation: the whole €800 in the first year. As a medium-sized company, 15% → €120/year.
Example 3: a low-value asset
You buy a printer for 250 euros (taxable base). It’s below the low-value threshold of any territory (€300 in the common territory, €1,800 in Navarre; and in the Basque Country micro and small companies freely depreciate almost everything), so it’s deducted in full in the year of purchase, with no depreciation table, no capital-assets ledger and no annual calculations.
In practice, an expense like this is handled like any other deductible expense.
Free depreciation: low-value assets
There’s an exception to the rule of depreciating by tables: new low-value assets can be deducted in full in the year they enter into operation, instead of spreading them over years. The threshold (and how far the benefit goes) depends on your territory:
If a new asset doesn’t exceed €300 per unit, you deduct it in full in the year of purchase, with an overall cap of €25,000 a year for the whole set of these assets (the excess is depreciated by tables). It’s exactly the €40 mouse or the €280 chair. Established by article 12.3.e) of the Corporate Income Tax Law.
The threshold is much higher: €1,800 per unit (Navarre tripled the state one). New assets not exceeding that value are deducted in full in the year they enter into operation.
In the Basque Country the benefit goes far beyond cheap assets: micro and small companies (most self-employed workers) have free depreciation of ALL new tangible fixed assets (except buildings and certain vehicles), not just low-value ones. That is, you can deduct 100% in the first year. We develop this just below, in accelerated depreciation.
In the Basque Country the benefit goes far beyond cheap assets: micro and small companies (most self-employed workers) have free depreciation of ALL new tangible fixed assets (except buildings and certain vehicles). That is, you can deduct 100% in the first year. We develop this just below, in accelerated depreciation.
In the Basque Country the benefit goes far beyond cheap assets: micro and small companies (most self-employed workers) have free depreciation of ALL new tangible fixed assets (except buildings and certain vehicles). That is, you can deduct 100% in the first year. We develop this just below, in accelerated depreciation.
A timing condition worth being clear about: to deduct the asset, it must have entered into operation within the year you’re declaring. Having bought it isn’t enough.
- Valid: you buy it at the end of December, it arrives, you install it and start using it before the new year. You deduct 100% that year.
- Not valid: you buy it on 30 December, but it stays packed in its box or the shop delivers it in January. The deduction necessarily moves to the following year.
Free depreciation for R&D
If you’re engaged in researching or developing something new (a product, a program, a technology), the equipment you buy for that work gets special treatment: instead of writing it off little by little with the tables, you can deduct whatever you want each year, up to 100% in the first one. This is free depreciation for R&D, and it’s set out in article 12.3.b) of the Corporate Income Tax Law, which also applies to autónomos.
It covers almost everything you use in that work (the computer, the machine, the software). The only exception is buildings: if you buy or refurbish premises to do R&D, that part isn’t deducted all at once, but little by little, over 10 years.
Careful, though — this isn’t for everyone. What the Agencia Tributaria considers R&D is very strict and doesn’t match the everyday idea of “I’m making something new”. The law distinguishes between research and development (R&D), technological innovation (TI) and routine or commercial development, and only the first gives you this free depreciation. Building from scratch an algorithm or technology that solves a technical problem not solved before may be R&D; setting up a website, an online shop or an app with existing technologies (however much work it takes) is innovation or routine development, and does not qualify.
There are also formal requirements: you can only apply it if you file under direct estimation, and the development costs must be capitalised in your accounts as a fixed asset (not expensed directly). To have legal certainty that your project is R&D —and not have it reclassified in an audit— the usual route is to request a binding reasoned report (Informe Motivado Vinculante) from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and often an external certification validating the breakdown of hours and costs.
In short: keep evidence that the equipment is genuinely used for R&D, but above all make sure first that your activity qualifies as R&D before applying it. It’s one of the things the tax authority scrutinises closely, the burden of proof is on you, and applying it carelessly can be costly. When in doubt, check with your advisor.
In the regional (foral) regimes free depreciation for R&D also exists in their rules. In the Basque Country, moreover, since micro and small companies already freely depreciate almost all new fixed assets (as we saw above), this incentive mostly matters for medium-sized ones.
Depreciate faster: acceleration and free depreciation
Without it having to be R&D, many self-employed workers can depreciate faster than the tables allow. And this is where the foral regime is notably more generous. How much faster depends on the territory:
If your previous-year turnover was below 10 million euros (“small-sized company”), you depreciate new assets at twice the maximum coefficient in the tables (article 103 of the Corporate Income Tax Law). Example: a computer at 26% goes to 52% a year, half the time. It’s not 100% at once (that’s free depreciation), but it speeds things up a lot without the R&D requirements.
Small companies depreciate new assets at twice the maximum table coefficient (Navarre raised the multiplier from 1.5 to 2). Example: machinery at 15% goes to 30% a year.
Here it goes much further: micro and small companies (most self-employed workers) have free depreciation of new tangible fixed assets (except buildings and certain means of transport): you deduct 100% in the first year, without spreading by tables. Medium-sized companies, at coefficient × 1.5. It’s set out in article 21 of Norma Foral 11/2013 on Bizkaia’s Corporate Income Tax.
As in the rest of the Basque Country: micro and small companies have free depreciation of new assets (except buildings and certain vehicles) —100% in the first year— and medium-sized ones, at coefficient × 1.5.
As in the rest of the Basque Country: micro and small companies, free depreciation of new assets (100% in the first year); medium-sized ones, coefficient × 1.5. Confirm it with the Álava Provincial Tax Authority.
You don’t need to ask permission or file any report; you just need to meet the size requirement. In Cuéntamo you can pick the minimum, maximum or accelerated coefficient directly from the depreciation wizard.
What happens if you sell the asset early
Free depreciation has a flip side worth understanding before you take advantage of it. Imagine you apply free depreciation for R&D to a 2,000-euro computer and deduct it in full in the first year. A year later you decide to sell it for 200 euros.
For the Agencia Tributaria, the tax value of that computer is already 0 euros, because you deducted it completely. So the 200 euros you get from the sale are, in their entirety, a capital gain. Two important points:
- That gain isn’t earnings from your activity: the sale of an element assigned to your fixed assets generates a capital gain (or loss), which is taxed in the savings tax base of the IRPF, not in the general base alongside your business income (article 28.2 of the IRPF Law).
- When calculating the gain, the acquisition value is reduced by the depreciation, always counting at least the minimum depreciation, whether you deducted it or not. If you depreciated the asset at 100%, its net value is zero and the gain is practically the whole sale price.
In the example: 200 euros of sale − 0 of tax value = 200 euros of capital gain to include in the savings tax base. It’s not a punishment: the money you deducted all at once is taxed again when you recover value from the asset.
The IVA on the purchase: deducted in full in the quarter
There’s a point here that confuses a lot of people: what happens with the IVA when you buy a capital asset.
The IVA you pay when buying it is deducted in full in the quarter of purchase, on the modelo 303. It isn’t depreciated, it isn’t spread over years: it’s deducted all at once.
What is depreciated is the price without IVA. In the example of the 2,500-euro laptop + 525 euros of IVA (at 21%), you deduct those 525 euros of IVA in the quarterly return for the period of purchase, and you depreciate the 2,500 euros of the price over the years.
Having this clear saves you the most typical confusion: mixing up the IVA deduction (quarterly) with the IRPF one (annual).
Proportionality: if you buy mid-year
The first year’s depreciation is split according to the months you’ve had the asset. If you buy in January, all twelve months count; if you buy in July, six; if you buy in October, three.
This only affects the first and the last year. In the years in between, you deduct the full instalment.
Going back to the example of the MacBook bought in July:
- Year 1 (July to December): 650 x 6/12 = 325 euros
- Years 2, 3 and 4: 650 euros/year
- Year 5: the remaining 225 euros
The total always adds up to 2,500 euros, but spread over more tax years because the first one was incomplete.
Watch out for a point that’s often confused: this month-by-month split is only for depreciation by tables. With free depreciation (low-value assets —up to €300 in the common territory, €1,800 in Navarre— and those assigned to R&D, plus almost all new fixed assets in the Basque Country) nothing is prorated: you deduct 100% in the year the asset enters into operation, whether you buy it in January or on 30 December. The only thing prorated there is the annual cap on low-value assets (the €25,000 of the common regime), and only if your tax year lasts less than twelve months (for example, the year you register).
Where it’s recorded: the capital-assets ledger
Each capital asset must be recorded in the capital-assets ledger, one of the four mandatory record-keeping ledgers for autónomos under estimación directa. For each asset you have to note the description, the acquisition date, the purchase value (taxable base), the depreciation percentage applied, the annual instalment and the accumulated depreciation.
It’s a record that the Agencia Tributaria can request at any time, and that must be consistent with the deductions you declare in your IRPF.
Common mistakes
Deducting a capital asset as an ordinary expense. If you buy a 1,200-euro computer and put it down as an expense for the quarter, you’re artificially inflating your deductible expenses for that period. It’s an irregularity that’s easily detected in a check.
Applying a depreciation percentage higher than allowed. The table sets maximums. Exceeding them without legal cover triggers an adjustment with interest.
Forgetting the proportionality of the first year. If you buy in September and depreciate as if you’d had the asset all year, you’re deducting too much.
Failing to record the asset in the capital-assets ledger. Even if the depreciation is correctly deducted in your IRPF, if the asset doesn’t appear in the record ledger there’s a documentary inconsistency that can cause problems.
Depreciation isn’t complex, but it does require order
The mechanics are simple: a fixed percentage on the price without IVA, adjusted to the months of use, over the corresponding number of years. What turns it into a problem for many people isn’t the formula, but keeping track: remembering which assets you have, which year each one is in, keeping the record ledger up to date and making everything reconcile with your return.
How does Cuéntamo help with this?
That tracking is exactly what Cuéntamo takes off your plate. When you record the purchase of a depreciable asset, a wizard with the official depreciation tables built in proposes the percentage and the term based on the asset’s category, so you don’t have to go looking for the right coefficient each time.
The asset is logged in the capital-assets ledger and the depreciation is spread out automatically, year by year. In other words: you don’t have to keep a separate spreadsheet of which year each asset is in, or remember how much you can deduct this year. When the return comes around, this year’s depreciated portion is already in your numbers and the record ledger reconciles with it.
That removes the two errors the article flags as most common: applying the wrong percentage and failing to record the asset in the capital-assets ledger. To place it within the wider set of expenses you can deduct, you may find deductible expenses for the self-employed useful.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a capital asset for an autónomo?
An asset whose purchase price exceeds 300 euros (taxable base, without IVA) and whose useful life is longer than one year. For example a computer, a professional printer, furniture or a vehicle assigned to the business.
What happens if the asset costs less than 300 euros?
It isn’t depreciated: it’s deducted in full as an ordinary expense in the year of purchase. A 40-euro mouse or office supplies go straight into the expenses ledger and are deducted in full.
Can I deduct the IVA on a capital asset all at once or is it also depreciated?
The input IVA on the purchase is deducted in full in the modelo 303 of the quarter of purchase; it isn’t depreciated. What’s depreciated over the years is only the taxable base, that is, the price without IVA.
What depreciation percentage do I apply to a computer or a desk?
According to the simplified direct-assessment tables, IT equipment has a maximum straight-line coefficient of 26% and furniture 10%. You can apply the maximum or a lower percentage if it fits you better.
What is free depreciation for low-value assets?
In the common territory it lets you deduct in full in the year of purchase new assets with a unit value of up to 300 euros, with a combined limit of 25,000 euros per year (art. 12.3.e of the Corporate Income Tax Law); above that, it’s depreciated by tables. In Navarre the threshold rises to 1,800 euros per unit, and in the Basque Country micro and small companies have free depreciation of almost all new fixed assets (not just low-value ones).
Can I deduct all at once equipment I use for R&D?
Only if your activity genuinely qualifies as research and development under the Agencia Tributaria, which is a very strict test (technological innovation and routine or commercial software development do not count). If it qualifies, tangible and intangible fixed-asset elements assigned to R&D (buildings excluded) can use free depreciation and be deducted in full, without being subject to the tables (art. 12.3.b of the Corporate Income Tax Law). Buildings assigned to R&D are depreciated on a straight-line basis over 10 years. You also need to file under direct estimation and have the costs capitalised as a fixed asset; to make sure the project is R&D, the usual route is to request a binding reasoned report (Informe Motivado Vinculante) from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. When in doubt, don’t apply it and check with an advisor.
If I deducted an asset in full and then sell it, do I have to pay anything?
Yes. If you depreciated it at 100%, its tax value is zero, so everything you get from the sale is a capital gain taxed in the savings tax base of the IRPF. In addition, when calculating the gain, the acquisition value is always reduced by at least the minimum depreciation, whether you deducted it or not.
If I buy a low-value or R&D asset in December, do I deduct 100% or only the part of the year?
100%. The month-by-month split is only for depreciation by tables. With free depreciation (low-value or R&D) you deduct the full amount in the year the asset enters into operation, without prorating by the month of purchase.
Where do I have to record the assets I depreciate?
In the capital-assets ledger, one of the four mandatory record-keeping ledgers under direct assessment. You note the description, the date, the purchase value, the percentage applied, the annual instalment and the accumulated depreciation.
Cuéntamo includes a depreciation wizard with the official tables built in. You enter the invoice, select the type of asset, and the annual calculation is applied automatically in your record ledgers. No auxiliary spreadsheets, no consulting external tables, no forgetting to update the percentage every January.
Available at cuentamo.com.
Figures for 2026. The simplified depreciation table has been in force since 1998. The free depreciation of low-value assets (up to 300 €, limit 25,000 €/year) and that of assets assigned to R&D come from article 12.3 of the Corporate Income Tax Law; the taxation of the sale of an assigned asset, from the IRPF Law (arts. 28 and 37). The foral tables and benefits (free depreciation for micro/small companies, acceleration, low-value assets) come from each territory’s Corporate Income Tax: Bizkaia (Norma Foral 11/2013, art. 21), Gipuzkoa, Álava and Navarre (low-value threshold €1,800 and ×2 acceleration for small companies).
This article is checked against official sources and reviewed periodically. If you spot anything out of date, email us at [email protected].