How to defer or pay a tax debt to Hacienda in instalments

Can you defer a tax debt with Hacienda? The short answer

Yes. You can defer a debt with Hacienda (the Spanish tax authorities) or split it into monthly instalments if you ask for it on the AEAT's online portal before the payment deadline ends. Up to €50,000 you need no collateral, and a self-employed person can get up to 24 months. You pay 4.0625% interest a year and, if the request is admissible, you avoid the enforcement surcharges.

The AEAT (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, Spain's tax agency) calls it a deferral (aplazamiento) when you pay the whole debt later, and an instalment plan (fraccionamiento) when you split it into several payments. This applies to both in the common tax territory; the Basque Country and Navarre have their own tax authorities.

What the law says: when you can defer

Article 65 of the General Tax Law lets you defer or split tax debts "when your economic and financial situation temporarily prevents you from paying within the set deadlines". The key word is temporarily: you can pay, just not today. The details are in articles 44 to 54 of the General Collection Regulation.

You can ask at two points, under article 46 of the regulation:

1. In the voluntary period, within the normal deadline to pay. For a self-assessed return such as Form 303 or Form 130, that is the same as the filing deadline. If you file the return late, the request only counts as made in the voluntary period if you send it together with the return.
2. In the enforcement period, after the deadline, at any time before you are notified of the agreement to sell (enajenación) the seized assets.

The money difference is large. An admissible request made in the voluntary period stops the enforcement period from starting while it is processed (article 161.2 of the law), so you do not pay the enforcement surcharges, only interest. There are two limits: it does not remove the surcharge for filing the return late, and if another voluntary-period request for that same debt was already refused, a new request made within the new payment deadline does not stop the enforcement period from starting if that deadline passes without payment (the same article 161.2 excludes it). If you ask in the enforcement period, the surcharge is already running and the AEAT can carry on with enforced collection while it decides.

Which debts you cannot defer

Article 65.2 lists the debts that cannot be deferred. These matter for a self-employed person (where it says "can be requested", the AEAT then decides whether to grant it):

If you ask to defer a debt on that blacklist, the AEAT declares it inadmissible. And the voluntary period keeps running, so you can still end up with a surcharge.

The VAT case: you cannot always defer VAT

The law says you cannot defer debts "arising from taxes that must legally be passed on, unless it is duly proven that the amounts passed on have not actually been paid". In plain words: the VAT you charged your customers (output VAT, IVA repercutido) is money they gave you for Hacienda, so you cannot use it to finance yourself.

But if you issued an invoice in September and the customer has not paid yet, you do not have that VAT, so you can ask to defer that part if you prove it. On the automated route (debts up to €50,000), the AEAT asks for no evidence: under section 2.3 of instruction five of its Instruction 2/2023, it presumes the VAT has not been paid on the strength of the request itself. Collected VAT still cannot be deferred. Outside that route (instruction six, section 5) you must provide the list of unpaid invoices with customer, due date and amount, plus your payment reminders; if you do not provide it after being asked, the request is declared inadmissible, and if it does not convince the AEAT, it is refused. If the non-payment drags on, see the guide to the corrective invoice, because in some cases you can recover that VAT. For how the tax is worked out, see the guide to VAT for the self-employed.

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Limits, months and interest in 2026

Up to €50,000 without collateral

Since 15 April 2023, Order HFP/311/2023 exempts you from providing collateral when the debts "taken together do not exceed €50,000". The limit used to be 30,000. Watch the words "taken together": at the time of the request, the AEAT adds up:

• the debt you are asking to defer now,
• any other request of yours already submitted and not yet decided,
• the outstanding instalments of plans already granted without collateral.

With €8,000 still owed on last year's plan and €4,000 you now want to defer, €12,000 counts.

Above €50,000, as a general rule, you will have to provide collateral. Article 82.2 of the law allows the collateral to be waived in full or in part, for example if you do not have enough assets and seizing them would put your business at risk.

How many months you can get

Neither the law nor the regulation sets a general maximum. The AEAT's Instruction 2/2023 does (instruction five, section 3, and instruction seven, section 1.2), as summed up in its press release of 5 April 2023. Under the general rules:

Careful with Form 130: if your request does not go through the automated route and only covers IRPF advance payments, the deferral cannot run past the start of the annual income tax return period in which those payments are included (instruction seven, section 1.2.3). On the automated route that limit does not apply.

If you are in a pre-insolvency procedure or in insolvency proceedings (concurso de acreedores), separate rules apply: instructions nine and ten respectively, after the amendment made by Instruction 3/2025.

According to the same press release, automated requests "are decided within seconds", and you get a notice if you have signed up for the AEAT's alert system. The rest have a six-month decision period, as the procedure page states. If that time passes with no answer, article 52.6 of the regulation lets you treat the request as refused in order to appeal, or you can keep waiting.

Ask only for instalments you can really pay: the longer the plan, the more interest.

The interest you pay: 4.0625%

It is not free. You pay late-payment interest (interés de demora), which in 2026 is 4.0625% a year. It was set by additional provision 42 of Law 31/2022, the 2023 Budget Law, and still applies because that budget has been rolled over; if a new budget were passed, the rate could change. If you cover the whole debt with a bank surety or surety insurance, you pay the legal interest rate, 3.25% (article 65.4 of the law).

Article 53 of the regulation explains the calculation: in an instalment plan, each instalment carries interest from the day after the voluntary period ends until its own due date. Each instalment's interest is paid with it. The formula: instalment amount × 4.0625% × days / 365.

How to ask for a payment plan, step by step

If the debt comes from a self-assessed return you are about to file (Form 303 or Form 130), you ask from the return itself. For an existing debt (an assessment, a fine or a return filed unpaid), use the general form.

From Form 303 or Form 130, when you file it

As the AEAT's technical help for Form 303 describes it:

1. Fill in the return as usual and validate it.
2. For the payment method, choose debt acknowledgement (reconocimiento de deuda). Form 303 offers several debt acknowledgement options; the one you want is debt acknowledgement with a deferral request (or instalment request).
3. Sign and submit. Download the receipt: your return is now filed on time.
4. Click "Tramitar deuda". On the response page there is a link to submit the deferral. You will see the assessment with its settlement code (clave de liquidación) and choose to defer.
5. Complete the request with the details in the next section and click Firmar Enviar.

Do steps 4 and 5 together, by the last day of the voluntary period at the latest (that day counts). If you submit it after the deadline has passed, you are already in the enforcement period (article 161.1.b of the law).

For a debt that already exists

Go to Pay, defer and check (Pagar, aplazar y consultar) and choose "Solicitar aplazamiento o fraccionamiento de deudas". According to the technical help on deferrals:

• You log in with a certificate, electronic ID, Cl@ve or eIDAS. With Cl@ve you can only handle your own debts; an accountant (gestoría) does it as a registered tax intermediary (colaborador social) or with your power of attorney.
• One request can include up to 5 debts, each with its settlement code (the letter A followed by 16 digits). Check any pending notifications first so the debts load automatically.

What details you are asked for

Due dates fall on the 5th or the 20th, as article 52 of the regulation requires; if that is a Saturday or a non-working day, they move to the next working day (article 11.2). Since Order HFP/387/2023, the account can be at a bank that does not collaborate with Hacienda, as long as it is in the SEPA area.

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Worked example: Lucía splits her Q3 Form 303

Lucía is a self-employed designer. Her Q3 2026 Form 303 comes to €3,600 to pay, from two projects invoiced in September that her clients will pay at 60 and 90 days. For this example we assume that the unpaid output VAT fully covers those €3,600 and that Lucía can prove it has not been paid; only then is the whole amount deferrable under article 65.2.f of the law. If part of that VAT had already been collected, that part would have to be paid.

Step 1. File on time. On 16 October she files Form 303 with debt acknowledgement and a deferral request, within the deadline that ends on 20 October 2026 (AEAT 2026 taxpayer calendar). In the same session she clicks Tramitar deuda.

Step 2. Choose the instalments. She has no other outstanding debts, so she is well below €50,000: she asks for the collateral exemption. She picks 6 monthly instalments of €600, the first on 20 November 2026.

Step 3. Work out the interest on each instalment. Each instalment carries 4.0625% a year from 21 October until its due date. Three of the 20ths fall on a weekend (20 December 2026 is a Sunday; 20 February and 20 March 2027 are Saturdays), so they move to the following Monday (article 11.2 of the regulation). We assume the rate stays at 4.0625% in 2027 and that no other public holidays shift the dates:

Days are counted from 21 October, the day after the voluntary period ends, up to the due date, both included: from 21 October to 20 November is 31 days (11 + 20), and to 22 February 2027 it is 125 (11 days in October + 30 + 31 + 31 + 22), hence the €8.35 on instalment 4 (600 × 4.0625% × 125 / 365). Instalment 3, for example: 600 × 4.0625% × 92 / 365 = €6.14. This is an estimate: the exact figure comes from the AEAT in the approval decision, which works out the interest on each instalment under article 53 of the regulation, and if the late-payment rate changed in 2027, the part of each instalment that runs in 2027 would have to be recalculated. Just to show how it works, with a hypothetical 5% rate from 1 January (not an announced rate), the last instalment would pay about €1.70 more for its 110 days in 2027 (600 × 0.9375% × 110 / 365).

Step 4. Compare with doing nothing. If Lucía files Form 303 without paying and without asking for anything, the enforcement period starts on 21 October (article 161.1.b of the law). The surcharges in article 28 are calculated on the whole debt:

• 5%, enforcement surcharge (recargo ejecutivo): €180, if she pays everything before receiving the enforcement order (providencia de apremio).
• 10%, reduced enforcement surcharge (apremio reducido): €360, if she pays the debt and the surcharge within the period the enforcement order gives her.
• 20%, ordinary enforcement surcharge (apremio ordinario): €720, plus late-payment interest, if she does not pay within that period.

Splitting costs her about €43.07. Waiting costs her at least €180, and it can reach €720 plus interest.

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What happens if you miss an instalment

Article 54 of the regulation is tough on missed payments. In an instalment plan without collateral for a debt requested in the voluntary period, like Lucía's:

1. If she misses an instalment, the AEAT starts enforced collection for that instalment: it demands the instalment, its interest and the enforcement surcharge on the total.
2. If she does not pay that either within the period set by the enforcement order, all the outstanding instalments fall due and enforcement extends to the whole debt.
3. From there, the AEAT can seize bank accounts, payments from clients or tax refunds.

The AEAT can also offset refunds it owes you (for example, your income tax refund) against the outstanding instalments. Article 52.2 of the regulation provides for this in deferrals without collateral, even if it brings due dates forward.

If you cannot make an instalment, ask to change the terms before it falls due; the request does not suspend the due date (article 52.3 of the regulation).

When does a tax debt with Hacienda expire?

Hacienda's right to collect a debt expires after four years (article 66.b of the law), counted from the day after the voluntary payment period ends (article 67).

Do not count on it. Under article 68.2, the clock is interrupted, and starts again from zero, with:

• any AEAT action to collect the debt that you are formally notified of (an enforcement order, a seizure, a formal demand),
• appeals and claims,
• any action of yours aimed at paying, such as asking for a deferral or paying an instalment.

Whether a specific debt has expired depends on which interrupting actions are on record and when they were notified, so review it with a professional. You can check your outstanding debts on the portal, in the same Pay, defer and check section.

Common mistakes when deferring a debt with Hacienda

• Asking after the deadline has passed. The request must be submitted by the last day of that debt's voluntary period at the latest (for the Q3 2026 Form 303, 20 October). One day later you are in the enforcement period, with a surcharge.
• Not filing the return. Without Form 303 or Form 130 filed, the request is declared inadmissible. If you file late of your own accord, before Hacienda asks you to, you pay the surcharge in article 27: 1% plus another 1% for each full month of delay, and after 12 months, 15% plus late-payment interest for the time after those 12 months. If you do not file and Hacienda demands the return, there is no longer a surcharge but a possible fine (article 191).
• Trying to defer withholdings. Forms 111 and 115 cannot be deferred. Set that money aside when you pay invoices or rent.
• Deferring collected VAT. If your customers paid you, the law does not let you finance yourself with that VAT.
• Forgetting the next quarter. If you do not pay the next Form 303 while you are paying off the plan, the AEAT can make the agreement conditional on you being up to date (article 52.2 of the regulation). Plan ahead with the 2026 tax calendar.

How Melso helps

Melso is your AI tax agent, with human professionals behind it. It organises your income and expenses from WhatsApp, where you also get reminders, and, depending on your activity and tax profile, it prepares and reviews your quarterly returns; you approve the exact draft in the app and, with your authorisation, a professional files that version with the AEAT; what proves the filing is the filing receipt. With the paperwork complete and the draft ready, you can review the amount due and decide whether to pay or ask for a deferral; a reminder does not mean a service is included, so check with Melso whether the deferral request is part of your service. See the plans, click Get started at melso.ai or Message us on WhatsApp.

This article is for information only and does not replace professional advice for your case. Last reviewed: 12 October 2026.