Módulos vs estimación directa in Spain: which suits you

What the módulos system is and which regime suits you

Estimación objetiva, better known as the módulos system, calculates the income from your activity using fixed parameters (staff, size of your premises, electricity used) instead of income minus expenses. In 2026 only certain business activities that did not exceed €250,000 of income in 2025 can use it. It suits you if you earn well above what the módulos assign you, and do so steadily.

How your income fits into your annual income tax return (the Renta) is covered in the guide to IRPF for autónomos. Here we focus on the choice.

Estimación directa and estimación objetiva: two ways to calculate your income

For IRPF, Spain's personal income tax, every autónomo (self-employed person) calculates the net income from their activity, which is what is then taxed in your annual return. The law offers two methods:

• Estimación directa. Real income minus documented deductible expenses. It comes in two versions: simplificada (simplified), when the turnover of all your activities did not exceed €600,000 the year before, you have not opted out of it, you are not excluded and none of your other activities is on the normal version (article 28 of the IRPF Regulation), and normal, for everyone else or anyone who opts out of the simplified one.
• Estimación objetiva (módulos). Your income is the result of multiplying fixed amounts by the units of each module in your activity: people working, square metres of premises, kilowatts used, tables in a bar or a lorry's load capacity. A ministerial order sets those amounts every year; for 2026 it is Orden HAC/1425/2025, of 9 December.

The practical consequence is big: in a non-farming activity on módulos, your turnover does not feed directly into the calculation. If you bill 30% more this year and keep the same staff, premises, consumption, indices and reductions, your income does not change. If you bill 30% less, it does not change either. For farming, livestock and forestry activities and for mussel farming on rafts, by contrast, income comes from applying an index to revenue (AEAT: estimación objetiva).

The 5% allowance for hard-to-document expenses, capped at €2,000, is the general rule in article 30 of the IRPF Regulation; for 2026, for activities in Ceuta entitled to the deduction in article 68.4 of the IRPF Law, the rate rises to 10% (Real Decreto-ley 22/2026, article 2). For advance payments, that improvement only applies to the fourth-quarter 2026 payment (AEAT: what's new in 2026).

The rates for both advance payments are in article 110 of the IRPF Regulation. In Ceuta and Melilla, for activities entitled to the article 68.4 deduction, they are lower: Form 130 drops to 8% (0.8% for farming and fishing) and on Form 131 the rates are multiplied by 0.4; in 2026 they also apply, exceptionally, on the island of La Palma in the third and fourth quarters (AEAT: Form 130 instructions; AEAT: Form 131 instructions). On Form 130 you subtract what you already paid in earlier quarters and your withholdings, as we explain in the guide to Form 130.

The 70% exemption only applies to professionals and to farming, livestock or forestry activities, for the latter excluding grants and compensation (article 109 of the Regulation). If you are just starting, it is checked against the income of the quarter the payment covers. If you qualify, you do not file that advance payment (AEAT: advance payments). The books for each regime are covered in bookkeeping for autónomos.

Who can use the módulos system in 2026

To use estimación objetiva in 2026 you must meet all of these requirements (summarised by the AEAT on its estimación objetiva page):

1. Your activity is in the Módulos Order. The Order lists specific IAE headings (the IAE, Impuesto sobre Actividades Económicas, is the business activities tax that gives each activity a code): retail, bars and restaurants, transport, skilled trades, hairdressers, some farming and livestock activities. Professional activities are left out, except some that are ancillary to the main business activity, such as car insurance work in the garages under heading 691.2 (Orden HAC/1425/2025, annex II).
2. You did not exceed the previous year's limits (see the table below; farming, livestock and forestry activities have their own) or the thresholds specific to your activity, such as a maximum number of employees or vehicles.
3. You have not opted out of módulos or of the special scheme for farming, livestock and fishing, and you have not opted out of or been excluded from the simplified VAT scheme (or IGIC in the Canary Islands).
4. None of your other activities is on estimación directa. Under article 35 of the IRPF Regulation, if one activity is on directa, they all are. Only in the year you start a new activity that is not covered by módulos, or for which you opt out of them, does it not drag along the ones you already had.
5. You do not work outside Spain, wholly or partly, except in some transport activities (passengers, taxis, road haulage and removals).

Módulos limits for 2026

Grants and compensation do not count towards income. VAT (and any surcharge on the transaction) is only left out if your activity is on the simplified VAT scheme; if you are on the equivalence surcharge, the VAT on your sales does count towards the income compared with the limit (article 3 of Orden HAC/1425/2025). The transactions of your spouse, children and parents, and those of income-attribution entities (such as comunidades de bienes) in which they hold an interest, do count if they carry out identical or similar activities (same IAE group) under common management sharing staff or resources. If you started the activity in 2025, that year's income and purchases are scaled up to a full year (article 31 of the IRPF Law).

Transitional provision thirty-two of the IRPF Law only sets out the extension up to 2024. Without an extension, the amounts in article 31 would apply: €150,000 and €75,000.

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How módulos income is calculated

The instructions in Orden HAC/1425/2025 set out the calculation in stages:

1. Preliminary net income. Multiply each module in your activity by its units and add them up. As a general rule, the owner counts as one non-salaried person (the Order allows adjustments for proven reduced hours and for disability); an employee counts according to their hours: one person equals the annual working hours set in their collective agreement or, if the agreement sets none, 1,800 hours a year.
2. Reduced net income. Subtract the employment incentive reduction, which depends on your employees (one part for headcount growth and another by bands), and the investment incentive reduction, which is the depreciation of your assets (chairs, machinery, vehicle…) according to the Order's table.
3. Módulos net income. Apply any corrective indices that apply to you. The most common is the small business index: an individual owner, a single premises, at most one vehicle with up to 1,000 kg of load capacity and no employees. It is 0.70 in municipalities of up to 2,000 inhabitants, 0.75 between 2,001 and 5,000 and 0.80 above 5,000. If instead of having no employees you have up to 2 workers, the index is 0.90. This index does not apply to taxis, urban public transport and road passenger transport, or road haulage and removals, which have their own special indices (Orden HAC/1425/2025, annex II, instruction 2.3).
4. General 5% reduction. The first additional provision of the Order lets you reduce your 2026 módulos net income by 5%. It applies after the corrective indices, in stage 4 of the calculation (AEAT: calculating net income), and it also counts for advance payments. For activities in Ceuta entitled to the deduction in article 68.4 of the IRPF Law, the 2026 reduction is 10% (Real Decreto-ley 22/2026, article 2); for advance payments that 10% only applies to the fourth-quarter 2026 payment, and the first three keep 5% (AEAT: what's new in 2026).

If you have extraordinary costs from fires, floods or other exceptional circumstances, you can ask for them to be taken into account by notifying the AEAT within 30 days of the event.

Worked example: a hairdresser on módulos

Lucía (a made-up case) runs a hair salon (women's and men's hairdressing, IAE heading 972.1) in a town of 30,000 inhabitants. She works alone, in a single 40 m² premises, with no vehicle, and uses 5,500 kWh of electricity in the year. The modules for her activity in 2026, according to the Order, are:

The amounts are those for heading 972.1 in annex II of Orden HAC/1425/2025. Electricity is measured in units of 100 kWh, so 5,500 kWh is 55 units.

From there:

1. Depreciation. Assume her chairs, basins and dryers give her, using the Order's table, €432.07 of depreciation for the year (a figure chosen so the example comes out round). Reduced income: 17,932.07 − 432.07 = €17,500.00.
2. Small business index. With no employees and in a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants, she applies 0.80: 17,500.00 × 0.80 = €14,000.00. That is a reduction of €3,500.00.
3. 5% reduction. It comes after the index, on módulos net income: 14,000.00 × 5% = €700.00. Net income from the activity: €13,300.00.

That €13,300.00 is what Lucía declares for her salon, whether she billed €30,000 or €45,000, as long as her staff, premises and consumption stay the same. Each quarter she files Form 131: with no employees, she pays 2% of her módulos income. That base is calculated as above, but with the modules she had on 1 January (owner, 40 m² and the previous year's electricity use) and with depreciation at each asset's maximum straight-line rate (Orden HAC/1425/2025, annex II). Suppose her 2025 electricity was also 5,500 kWh and that depreciation also comes to €432.07: the Form 131 base comes to the same €13,300.00, and the calculated payment is 13,300.00 × 2% = €266.00 per quarter, €1,064.00 a year paid on account of her IRPF. That is the amount before withholdings and other reductions, such as the one for your main home (Form 131 instructions); we assume none applies to her.

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Módulos or estimación directa: same business, two results

Now let's work out Lucía's business under estimación directa simplificada, with her real figures.

A normal year. She bills €38,000 excluding VAT and has €17,000 of deductible expenses (rent, products, utilities, her autónomo social security contribution, depreciation). Income: €21,000. Subtract the 5% for hard-to-document expenses (€1,050) and she is left with €19,950. On módulos she declared €13,300.00: a €6,650 difference in her favour on módulos.

A bad year. She bills €26,000 with the same €17,000 of expenses. Income: €9,000, minus 5% (€450), €8,550. On módulos she would still declare €13,300.00, because she has the same premises, the same staff and the same electricity use. Here estimación directa would have her declare €4,750 less.

These are taxable bases, not tax: the IRPF rates are the same under both regimes and what you pay depends on your other income and your region. Even so, the comparison already shows the trend.

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When módulos usually make sense

• Your margin is high and steady, and your real profit comfortably exceeds what the módulos assign you.
• Your activity has few expenses to deduct beyond the premises and electricity.
• You want less paperwork: on módulos you do not keep income and expense books for IRPF, with some exceptions.

When estimación directa usually makes sense

• You are just starting and do not know how much you will bill, or your activity has very uneven years.
• You are about to make a big investment or have high costs (expensive rent, lots of materials, vehicles).
• You bill a lot to businesses and are getting close to €125,000, or you want to grow without worrying about exclusion.
• You work for a single client and want the reduction in article 32.2.1 of the IRPF Law, which requires estimación directa and other conditions. The low-income reduction in article 32.2.3, on the other hand, also works on módulos.

What happens with VAT if you are on módulos

IRPF módulos usually go hand in hand with a special VAT scheme:

• Simplified VAT scheme (régimen simplificado). In activities like Lucía's salon, VAT is calculated with modules and a minimum amount, and you declare it each quarter on Form 303. The 2026 Order keeps the previous year's modules and instructions. Farming, livestock and forestry activities have their own rules and no minimum amount: they pay the difference between output VAT and input VAT (AEAT: VAT Manual 2026).
• Equivalence surcharge (recargo de equivalencia). If you are a retailer subject to the equivalence surcharge, your supplier charges you the surcharge and you do not settle VAT on the sales covered by that scheme. You can be on IRPF módulos at the same time. We explain it in the guide to the equivalence surcharge.

The two schemes are linked: under article 36 of the IRPF Regulation, opting out of the simplified VAT scheme (or the farming, livestock and fishing scheme) means opting out of IRPF módulos in all your activities, and being excluded from the simplified scheme also excludes you from módulos.

How to opt out of módulos or return to them

Article 33 of the IRPF Regulation sets out two ways to opt out:

1. Express opt-out. You file Form 036 during December of the year before you want it to take effect. If you are starting an activity, you opt out in the registration itself.
2. Implied opt-out. You file your first-quarter advance payment on time in the estimación directa format, that is, Form 130 instead of Form 131.

As a general rule, opting out lasts at least three years. The exception was the extraordinary 2024 opt-out in municipalities hit by the DANA floods, which lets you return to módulos in 2025 or 2026 if you meet the requirements and revoke the opt-out on time (Real Decreto-ley 7/2024, article 12). After the three years, the opt-out renews automatically each year unless you revoke it with Form 036 in December. If you go over the limits in the year before it takes effect, the opt-out is treated as never filed.

Exclusion works in a similar way, but you do not choose it: if you go over a limit, you are out from 1 January of the following year and move to estimación directa for the next three years, under article 34 of the IRPF Regulation; in the simplified version if you meet its requirements.

For 2026, the deadline to opt out or revoke with Form 036, which ended on 31 December 2025, was extended to 16 February 2026 (AEAT: opting out).

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Common mistakes when choosing between módulos and estimación directa

• Comparing turnover with income. Compare your real income (income minus expenses) with your módulos income, not what you bill.
• Starting a second activity without checking the regime. If the new one is on estimación directa, the following year it drags along the one you had on módulos.
• Filing Form 130 in the first quarter by mistake. If you are on módulos and file Form 130 on time for the first quarter, you opt out of módulos, as a general rule, for at least three years.
• Assuming the limits will stay. The €250,000 and €125,000 figures depend on a yearly extension. Check each December what is published for the following year.
• Thinking módulos is a cheap SL. An SL (limited company) cannot be taxed on módulos. We compare the two in autónomo or SL.

How Melso helps

Melso is your AI tax agent, with human professionals behind it. If you are taxed under estimación directa, it organises your income and expenses from WhatsApp, asks you for any missing receipts, and its professionals prepare and review the quarterly returns that apply to your activity and tax profile, such as Form 130 and, if it applies to you, Form 303: you approve the draft in the app and a professional, with the required authority, files the approved version. If you are on módulos or torn between the two regimes, Melso reviews your case and confirms what it covers before you sign up. You can see the plans and pricing, 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: 13 October 2026.