It’s now been around a month and half since the deadline for Spain’s annual income tax return (June 30th), known as the declaración de la renta.
When you submitted your return, or when your gestor did it for you, you will have either been presented with a tax bill to pay if you owed more or a rebate, showing you how much you will get back, if you overpaid during the year.
READ ALSO: What does a 'gestor' do in Spain and do you actually need one?
You will have had to request this refund through the Payment or Refund Document Modelo 100 that accompanies the tax return forms.
You typically have to pay any money owed straight away, before the deadline. But for those that are owed a rebate, how long will they have to wait?
According to Bankinter and online digital tax advisory platform TaxDown, the Hacienda usually issues income tax refunds within a month of the deadline.
In accordance with Article 103 of the Personal Income Tax Law, however, you could be waiting much longer than this as they actually have an official legal deadline of up to six months.
READ ALSO: The tax deductions if you work from home in Spain
The Tax Agency officially has six months from the end of the period for submitting the declarations (June 30th) to make the refund or to initiate a verification procedure for the requested refund.
It can also be six months from the date of submission if your return was submitted late.
This means that if you were due a tax refund this year for the 2025 income tax campaign that ended in late June 2026, you could be waiting until December 2026 or later to receive your money back.
The Agencia Tributaria state on their website that if the refund has “not been made within six months, for reasons not attributable to the taxpayer, the Tax Office will have to refund the amount derived from the Personal Income Tax return plus the corresponding late payment interest for the delay in the refund”.
On the plus side, this means they will pay you interest if your rebate takes longer than six months.
READ ALSO: What digital nomads need to know about Spain's annual income tax declaration
The delay will not be attributable to Spanish tax authorities when the refund cannot be processed within the indicated period because your declaration was not correctly completed, or did not contain the required documentation, or because the details of the account to which the amount should be transferred are missing or wrong.
This means if it’s your fault and not the Agencia Tributaria's, then it's unlikely they will pay you the interest.
If you need more information on when your rebate will be processed, you can check the status of your refund by accessing your file via the following link Draft/Return Processing Services (Income Tax WEB).
For this you will need:
- Your digital certificate or Cl@ve PIN
- The reference of your previous income tax return, which contains of 6 characters
Once you have identified yourself and logged on, you will be able to see various messages about the status of your return, such as:
Su declaración se está tramitando
Su declaración está siendo comprobada
Su declaración ha sido tramitada por los órganos de Gestión Tributaria, estimándose conforme la devolución solicitada por usted.
These translate as your refund is being ‘being processed’, ‘being verified’ or ‘your declaration has been processed, and the refund has been deemed appropriate’.
When the necessary checks have been carried out and the declaration is correct, a message will appear indicating when your rebate will be issued.
In some cases, it may say that your rebate is still pending due to problems.
If this happens, you should correct your return and request the refund again.
For this you will also need your digital certificate or Cl@ve PIN again. Once logged on, you will be able any discrepancies in your tax return.
Once your refund is processed it will typically be made by bank transfer to your account or the one you put on the Modelo 100 form.
Please note, reporters at The Local Spain are not financial experts. What we've learned, we've learned the hard way — by getting on the phone and listening to all those frustrating automated messages.
The information above is designed to help, but if you are unsure of what steps to take, seek professional advice.
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