Corporate Tax Calculator

What Corporate Income Tax is and who pays it

Limited companies, public limited companies, cooperatives, civil partnerships with a commercial purpose and other entities resident in Spain are all subject to this tax, whatever their size. The tax accrues on the last day of the tax period, which usually matches the calendar year, and is declared once the annual accounts have been closed.

The state legislation is Law 27/2014 on Corporate Income Tax. The Basque Country and Navarre have their own foral rules with different rates and credits, and the Canary Islands offer specific incentives such as the Investment Reserve and the Canary Islands Special Zone.

How it is calculated: from accounting profit to tax due

The calculator starts from the already adjusted taxable base and follows the last steps of the return: it applies the relevant rate or bands, deducts the tax credits and allowances you enter and subtracts instalment payments and withholdings to show the amount payable or refundable. It does not compute the earlier adjustments that lead from accounting profit to taxable base, and they are worth knowing because the real base rarely matches the accounting profit exactly:

• Accounting profit before tax, as shown in the profit and loss account.
• Tax adjustments: non-deductible expenses such as fines and penalties, donations, the corporate tax expense itself or gifts are added back, and timing differences arising from depreciation, provisions or impairments are added or deducted.
• Reductions such as the capitalisation reserve, linked to the increase in equity retained in the company, or the levelling reserve for small companies.
• Offsetting of tax losses from previous years, subject to the percentage limits set by law according to turnover.
• Taxable base multiplied by the tax rate gives the gross tax liability.
• Tax credits and allowances, for example for R&D and innovation or for hiring people with disabilities, are then deducted, followed by withholdings and instalment payments already made, to arrive at the balance payable or refundable.

Tax rates in force in 2026

Law 7/2024 introduced a gradual rate cut for smaller companies that is being phased in until 2029. For tax periods starting in 2026, the main rates in the common territory are as follows:

• Standard rate of 25%, applicable to most companies.
• Small companies, with prior-year turnover below 10 million euros: 23% in 2026, with further reductions planned in later years.
• Micro-companies, with prior-year turnover below 1 million euros: in 2026 they pay 19% on the first 50,000 euros of taxable base and 21% on the rest, and the transitional timetable lowers this to 17% and 20% from 2027. If the company belongs to a group, the 1 and 10 million thresholds are measured on group turnover.
• Newly created companies: 15% in the first period with a positive taxable base and the following one, unless a lower rate applies, provided they are not part of a group and are not continuing an activity previously carried on by others. Start-ups certified under the Start-up Act can apply it for four periods. Asset-holding companies cannot use this rate or the size-based reduced rates and pay 25%.
• Specially protected cooperatives: 20% on cooperative profits, with a higher rate for non-cooperative profits.
• Special rates: 30% for credit institutions and hydrocarbon companies, 1% for SICAVs and investment funds meeting the requirements, and 0% for pension funds. Non-profit entities under Law 49/2002 pay 10% on non-exempt income.

Worked example

A limited company with turnover of 2.5 million euros makes an accounting profit of 80,000 euros. Its expenses include 1,500 euros of traffic fines and 2,500 euros of client entertainment above the deductible limit, and it has 10,000 euros of tax losses brought forward from earlier years.

The taxable base would be 80,000 + 1,500 + 2,500 - 10,000 = 74,000 euros. As a small company it is taxed at 23%, so the gross tax liability comes to 17,020 euros. If it paid 9,000 euros in instalments during the year and suffered 1,000 euros of withholdings, the balance payable in July would be 7,020 euros. On the same base, a company taxed at the standard rate would face a gross liability of 18,500 euros, and a micro-company with turnover below 1 million would pay 50,000 × 19% + 24,000 × 21% = 14,540 euros.

If you enter a taxable base of 74,000 euros, turnover of 2,500,000 euros and 10,000 euros of payments on account in the calculator, you will get these same figures. The example also shows why it should be used with the taxable base already adjusted: entering the 80,000 euro accounting profit directly would skew the result.

Filing deadlines and common mistakes

The annual return is filed on Form 200 within the 25 calendar days following the six months after the end of the tax year; for companies with a 31 December year end, the window runs from 1 to 25 July. During the year, instalment payments on account are also made on Form 202 in the first twenty days of April, October and December. Companies with turnover above 6 million euros must calculate them on the basis of the current period's profit.

The most common mistakes are deducting expenses without supporting documents or unrelated to the business, forgetting to offset available tax losses, failing to apply the capitalisation reserve when entitled to it, applying the new company rate without meeting the conditions, and not checking whether the company still meets the small company thresholds. Filing the return before the annual accounts have been prepared and approved on time is another frequent issue.