ACCOUNTING OBLIGATIONS DOES A SELF-EMPLOYED PERSON HAVE IN SPAIN
What accounting obligations does a self-employed person have?
It is common to see how some freelancers prepare their taxes from the simple sum of their invoice listings (issued and received) and then simply fill in and calculate the Treasury model with the results obtained. Even some agencies act the same way. But does the autonomous have accounting obligations? How should you prepare your accounting?
The self-employed person has the obligation to prepare a Daily Book every year, clearly, in order of dates and in euros. You will not be required to register this book in any commercial register, or make your accounts public, but the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT) may require it at any time, not only that of the current year, but those of the four years immediately previous.
The deadline for terminating the daily book is not strict, but it is recommended to have it finished within 4 months after the close of the accounting year. In any case, the obligation to submit tax returns makes it necessary for accounting records to be updated quarterly.
The simplified direct estimate taxation model will also require the preparation of the books of invoices issued, invoices received, investment goods and certain intra-community operations, which we already talked about in another blog post. These books allow a clear breakdown of the VAT paid on your purchases and the impact on your sales, invoice by invoice of both suppliers and customers. The investment property registration book will allow the regularization of deductions for this concept. The book of intra-Community operations will also accurately determine deliveries and acquisitions within the EU, invoice by invoice.
All books required of the self-employed by the Treasury must reflect, without exception, invoice number, series, date of issue or receipt, name, surname, business name and NIF of all suppliers and customers. They must also break down the tax base, the VAT charged or supported and specify if it is subject to the special cash criteria regime. In the event that the invoice has different types of VAT, all the taxable bases and the different types of VAT must be clearly broken down and coinciding with the total invoice.
The investment property registration book must contain the assets acquired by the self-employed and which, due to its nature and cost, the Tax Agency considers that they are not an expense, but an investment, that is, they will not be consumed during the fiscal year, and therefore the deduction must be prorated in several exercises.
Nor will any of these accounting books have to be registered in any register.
Yes, we must always ask our agency or advice that at the end of the fiscal year send us all these books, since we must keep them for at least five years in case the Tax Agency requires them at any time.
The self-employed who pay taxes through a simplified or normal direct estimate are not required to account for payments and cash receipts and banks, with the exception that they are subject to the cash criteria. It is not necessary for accounting books to take control of all bank accounts.
Even so, it is highly recommended to have an account only for the business, which is not mixed with the personal account. In the case of a tax inspection or inspection, although the Treasury does not require the breakdown of bank accounts in accounting, it may require the contribution of all or certain movements of all those that are in the name of the self-employed person, especially in the case of the use of a tpv, so they must be, in all cases, clarifying and coinciding with the declared income.
