Corporate Income Tax — Modelo 200 & Modelo 202
Corporate Income Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades — IS) is the main annual tax obligation of Spanish limited liability companies (Sociedades Limitadas — SL). Frihet prepares a draft of Modelo 200 (annual return) and of Modelo 202 (three installment payments: April, October and December), including the 15% reduced rate for newly formed SLs in the first period with a positive taxable base and in the next (Art. 29.1 LIS).
Mandatory filing calendar
| Form | Description | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| M202 (1st) | April installment payment | April 1–20 |
| M202 (2nd) | October installment payment | October 1–20 |
| M202 (3rd) | December installment payment | December 1–20 |
| M200 | Annual Corporate Tax return | July 1–25 (previous fiscal year) |
Modelo 200 — Annual Corporate Income Tax return
Modelo 200 takes the accounting result for the fiscal year, applies the tax adjustments (permanent and temporary differences), and calculates the gross tax (cuota íntegra) on the Net Taxable Base (Base Neta Imponible, BNI).
How the BNI is calculated
Accounting result (P&L)
+ Positive permanent differences (non-deductible expenses)
- Negative permanent differences (exempt income)
+/- Temporary differences (depreciation, provisions)
- Prior-year tax losses (BINs)
= Taxable Base (Base Imponible, BI)
× Tax rate
= Gross tax (Cuota íntegra)
- Deductions and rebates (bonificaciones)
= Net tax (Cuota líquida)
- Withholdings and installment payments (M202)
= Final amount (Cuota diferencial, payable or refundable)
Tax adjustments and, if needed, your own accounting result are entered on the Modelo 200 page itself.
Tax rates 2025-2026
| Entity type | Tax periods starting in 2025 | Tax periods starting in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Standard SL | 25% | 25% |
| Newly formed SL (first period with positive taxable base and the next) | 15% | 15% |
| Micro-SME (prior-period turnover < €1M) | 21% on the first €50,000 of taxable base, 22% on the rest | 19% on the first €50,000 of taxable base, 21% on the rest |
| Small company (ERD, Art. 101 LIS, turnover < €10M) | 24% | 23% |
| Protected cooperatives | 20% | 20% |
Source: Art. 29.1 and Transitional Provision 44 of Ley 27/2014 (LIS), as amended by Ley 7/2024. The micro-SME scale and the small-company (ERD) rate apply "unless they must be taxed at a rate other than the standard rate" (Transitional Provision 44 LIS). The 23% rate for entities with turnover < €1M applied only to tax periods starting in 2023 and 2024.
Asset-holding entities (entidades patrimoniales: more than half of their assets are securities or assets not used in an economic activity, Art. 5.2 LIS) cannot apply the reduced rates of Art. 29.1 LIS, including the 15% rate for newly formed companies (Art. 29.1 LIS, last paragraph).
Review the rate applied in the draft with your advisor before filing it.
Accessing Modelo 200
- Open the Modelo 200 - Corporate Income Tax page. The draft covers the previous fiscal year.
- Review the Accounting result before CIT. If it does not match your profit and loss account, enter your own.
- Enter the fiscal adjustments, the prior-year tax loss compensation and any applicable deductions (R&D+i, double taxation, charitable donations).
- File the return at the AEAT electronic office.
Modelo 202 — Installment payments (Pagos fraccionados)
Modelo 202 requires a payment on account of CIT three times a year. Under the Art. 40.2 LIS method, the law calculates each payment on the last tax period whose filing deadline had passed on the first day of the payment window: each of the three payments (April, October and December) is 18% of that period's gross tax (cuota íntegra) minus deductions, rebates (bonificaciones), withholdings and payments on account of that period. Installments already paid during the year are not subtracted.
The draft amount may not match the result of the Art. 40.2 formula. Review the draft amount with your advisor before filing it.
If your turnover for the 12 months before the start of the period did not exceed €6M, you can opt for the Art. 40.3 LIS method (a percentage of the taxable base of the current period). The option is exercised in the census declaration, during the month of February (Art. 40.3 LIS). To calculate the draft with that method, choose Method B under Calculation method on the Modelo 202 page.
Generating a Modelo 202
- Open the Modelo 202 - CIT Installment Payments page.
- Frihet shows the three installments of the current year with the calculated amount.
- Review and adjust if you have updated data for the year.
Main deductions
The Modelo 200 page has fields for the amount of these deductions, in Tax deductions:
- R&D+i deduction — research and development and technological innovation (Art. 35 LIS)
- Double taxation relief
- Charitable donation deduction — donations to entities eligible under the patronage regime (Ley 49/2002)
You enter the amount of each deduction yourself.
Prior-year tax losses (BINs)
Tax losses from prior fiscal years (Bases Imponibles Negativas) can be carried forward to offset positive taxable income with no time limit, up to 70% of the taxable base prior to the capitalization reserve and to the offset (50% if turnover ≥ €20M; 25% if ≥ €60M), and up to €1M can always be offset (Art. 26.1 and Additional Provision 15 LIS). On the Modelo 200 page, you enter the amount to offset by hand in Prior-year tax loss compensation; check with your advisor that it stays within these limits.
Gotchas
- Modelo 200 is always filed within the 25 calendar days following the 6 months after the end of the fiscal year. For fiscal years ending on 31/12, the window is July 1–25.
- Entities under the income attribution regime (comunidades de bienes, civil partnerships without commercial form) do not file CIT.
- The Modelo 200 of a newly formed entity may be the first with a positive BNI: in that period and the next it can apply the 15% rate (Art. 29.1 LIS).
AI Agent Tools (MCP Server)
With @frihet/mcp-server, your AI agent can query each month's financial summary (income, expenses and taxes) with get_monthly_summary, to help prepare the close under Finance → Accounting → Year-End Closing.