New Tax Measures for 2026
As is already known, once again, in Spain the corresponding Budget Law has not been approved before the start of the calendar year 2026, nor of course, the usual Law accompanying the first, both regulations that usually contained the major regulatory modifications that affected different areas, including taxation.
However, through other regulatory formats (the most recent being Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 of December 23, which, however, must still be debated and voted on by the Congress of Deputies within thirty days of its promulgation, which will result in the validation or repeal of its content), various modifications of varying significance have been introduced. These must be analyzed because, whether extending existing regulations or introducing new ones, their entry into force impacts tax obligations in 2026. Furthermore, several administrative and judicial resolutions have introduced significant changes in practice.
1. PERSONAL INCOME TAX
1.1 Measures extended and which will maintain their effects in the 2026 financial year
1.1.1 Personal Income Tax Deductions for Works to Improve Energy Efficiency in Homes
Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 extends several measures to promote the energy transition, including those related to Personal Income Tax (IRPF). Among these measures is the extension of the tax deduction for energy efficiency improvements in homes to 2025 and 2026. This deduction, initially introduced by Royal Decree-Law 19/2021, was extended several times by Royal Decree-Law 18/2022, Royal Decree-Law 8/2023, and Royal Decree-Law 9/2024. Since Royal Decree-Law 9/2024 was repealed, Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 is effective from January 1, 2025, thus maintaining the deduction for 2025 and extending it to 2026.
Remember that this deduction has three levels depending on the work carried out. A 20% deduction (with a maximum deduction base of €5,000) is available for work that reduces the heating and cooling demand of the home. If the work improves the consumption of non-renewable primary energy, the deduction is 40% (with a maximum deduction base of €7,500). Finally, in the case of buildings undergoing energy-efficient renovations, the deduction is 60% (with a maximum annual deduction base of €5,000 and a maximum cumulative deduction base—across different years—of €15,000).
The regulation details the deductible items and, with the new extension approved by Royal Decree-Law 16/2025, allows investment until December 31, 2026 for the first two categories and until December 31, 2027 for the third. This one-year extension also applies to other deadlines established by the regulation.
1.1.2. Deduction for the acquisition of “plug-in” and fuel cell vehicles and charging points.
Through Royal Decree-Law 16/2025, an incentive in the Personal Income Tax (IRPF), approved by Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 to promote the acquisition of plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles and the installation of charging infrastructure, is also extended to the 2026 financial year.
Since this rule was extended by Royal Decree-Law 3/2025, the entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 is effective from January 1, 2026.
Specifically, it will continue to be applied in 2026:
A 15% tax deduction is available on the purchase of a single new electric vehicle, not used for business purposes, that meets certain requirements (as set out in section 2 of the fifty-eighth additional provision of Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax). The maximum deduction is €20,000.
A 15% deduction is available for amounts paid for the installation of electric vehicle battery charging systems in a property not used for business purposes. The maximum annual deduction is €4,000, and the deduction must be claimed in the tax year in which the installation is completed—now specified as no later than 2026.
1.1.3. Imputation of real estate income during the periods 2023, 2024 and 2025
As is well known, the ownership of urban properties (or rural properties with buildings not essential for agricultural, livestock, or forestry operations) not used for income-generating economic activities (excluding the primary residence) results in imputed income for personal income tax purposes. This imputation is calculated by applying a coefficient to the cadastral value. Since cadastral revisions do not occur simultaneously, the law establishes two coefficients. A coefficient of 1.1% is applied to the cadastral value if there has been a cadastral revision in the tax year or in the ten preceding tax years. Otherwise, a coefficient of 2% is applied.
Given this situation, Law 31/2022 of the General State Budget for 2023 established, with effect in the 2023 period, that the imputation of real estate income, whose cadastral values had been reviewed, modified or determined through a collective valuation procedure with effect from 1 January 2012, could also benefit from the reduced rate of 1.1%, instead of having to apply the 2%.
Royal Decree-Law 9/2024 extended to 2024 this measure regarding the imputation of real estate income under Article 85 of Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax. It is worth recalling that the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) issued a statement outlining the Directorate General of Taxes' (DGT) position regarding the repeal of Royal Decree-Law 9/2024, which held that, in this matter:
“For the purposes of the 2024 Personal Income Tax, the regulations in force on the date of accrual of the Tax must be taken into account, so the imputation percentage of 1.1 percent will be applicable in the case of properties located in municipalities in which the cadastral values have been reviewed, modified or determined by means of a general collective valuation procedure, in accordance with the cadastral regulations, provided that they have come into force from 1 January 2012 onwards.”
Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 extends this measure on the imputation of real estate income from Article 85 of Law 35/2006 on Personal Income Tax until 2025.
1.2. Compensation for dismissal or termination of employment
The Personal Income Tax Law (IRPF) stipulates that severance payments agreed upon voluntarily—whether through collective bargaining agreements, individual contracts, or other employment contracts—are not tax-exempt. In other words, when the amount of the severance payment is not strictly derived from the provisions of the Workers' Statute or a court ruling that determines its amount, these sums must be taxed as employment income in the income tax return.
This rule seeks to distinguish between mandatory compensation established by labor regulations and that which is freely agreed between the company and the worker, reserving the tax exemption only for the former.
The new provision stipulates that severance payments agreed upon before the administrative mediation or conciliation service, as a preliminary step to initiating proceedings before the labor courts, are not considered agreed upon and, therefore, are not excluded from the exemption. In these cases, even if an agreement exists between the parties, it is not interpreted as a voluntary pact that eliminates the exemption, but rather as a step within the conciliation process, which is part of the standard legal procedure for dismissals.
With this clarification, the law confirms that compensations set in administrative conciliation prior to trial are considered to be covered by the protection of the exemption when they meet the rest of the legal requirements.
1.3 Alimony payments received from parents
The tax regulations stipulate that alimony payments received by children from their parents are exempt from taxation provided they originate from a court decision.
The new element introduced is to expressly extend this scope of exemption beyond judicial resolutions.
Thus, the tax law incorporates that alimony payments established in regulatory agreements formalized before a lawyer of the Administration of Justice or in a public deed before a notary are also exempt, provided that said agreements comply with the provisions of article 90 of the Civil Code.
1.4. Compensation as a result of civil liability for personal injury, in the amount legally or judicially recognized.
Compensation received as a result of civil liability for personal injury is exempt when its amount is fixed by law or recognized by judicial resolution.
In other words, when compensation arises from an accident, negligence, or any other situation that causes physical or moral damage, and its amount has been determined by the courts or by the applicable legal regulations, the taxpayer should not pay taxes on those amounts in their income tax return.
The purpose of this exemption is to prevent those who have suffered harm from having their compensation reduced through taxation.
The amendment now introduced broadens the scope of this exemption to adapt it to new forms of dispute resolution recognized by law. Specifically, it extends the exemption to compensation payments agreed upon through mediation or any other legally established dispute resolution method. Thus, it is no longer necessary for the compensation to have been determined exclusively by a court judgment or legal provision; it can also be exempt when it arises from an agreement reached between the parties in a formal mediation process.
For this extension to be applicable, several relevant requirements must be met:
First, the compensation must be paid by an insurance company, which is usual in cases of civil liability arising from accidents or personal injuries.
Secondly, it is essential that a neutral third party has intervened in the mediation process, ensuring that the agreement has been reached under balanced conditions and with the guarantees inherent to these procedures.
Finally, the mediation agreement must be formalized in a public deed, a requirement that gives the agreement full formal validity and allows its execution in the same terms as a judicial resolution.
2. CORPORATION TAX
2.1. Measures extended and which will maintain their effects in the 2026 financial year
2.1.1. Freedom of amortization for investments that use energy from renewable sources.
Firstly, the freedom of amortization for investments that use energy from renewable sources is extended to the 2025 and 2026 financial years.
This measure was extended to 2025, in the first instance, by Royal Decree-Law 9/2024, but given its repeal it has been decided to approve it again with effects for the tax periods that begin from January 1, 2025 (that is, with the same effects as provided for in Royal Decree-Law 9/2024), also adding effects, as we indicated, for the year 2026.
This freedom of amortization was created by Royal Decree-Law 18/2022 and its validity was already extended (to 2024) with Royal Decree-Law 8/2023, and now it is extended again for two more years, 2025 and 2026.
The investments eligible for this amortization freedom are:
investments aimed at self-consumption of electricity and
investments in facilities for self-consumption thermal use, which use (both) renewable energy sources and replace facilities that use energy from non-renewable fossil sources.
The main peculiarity of this rule is that accelerated depreciation must be applied in the same tax year in which the investment becomes operational. Specifically, if the investment becomes operational in 2025 or 2026, accelerated depreciation can only be applied in the tax period that begins or ends in 2025 or 2026 (as is the case with investments that became operational in 2023 or 2024).
Furthermore, maintaining the workforce is still required to consolidate the tax incentive, as well as the maximum investment amount of €500,000, which can benefit from the freedom of depreciation.
2.1.2. Freedom of amortization in certain vehicles and in new charging infrastructure.
Royal Decree-Law 4/2024, of June 26, which extends certain measures to address the economic and social consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and adopts urgent measures in fiscal, energy and social matters (“RDL 4/2024”), replaced, with effect for tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, and which had not ended at the time of its entry into force, the accelerated depreciation of certain vehicles and new charging infrastructure with a freedom of depreciation for these investments related to economic activities.
Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 maintains the incentive for tax periods beginning in 2026. Although the rule comes into force for tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, provided they have not ended by the date of entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 16/2025, this tax incentive already existed for such tax periods beginning in 2025, precisely under Royal Decree-Law 4/2024.
The investments that can benefit from accelerated amortization are:
New vehicles FCV, FCHV, BEV, REEV or PHEV, as defined in Annex II of the General Vehicle Regulations, approved by Royal Decree 2822/1998, of December 23.
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure, of normal or high power, as defined in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of infrastructure for alternative fuels and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU.
To qualify for this incentive, investments must be related to economic activities and become operational in the tax periods beginning in 2024, 2025, and 2026, in addition to meeting certain formal requirements established by the regulations.
2.2. Recent doctrinal and jurisprudential criteria: the Supreme Court clarifies the deductibility of remuneration to directors
Of particular importance is the Supreme Court's ruling of May 9, 2025, which has put an end to one of the most persistent debates in tax matters: the deductibility of remuneration paid to directors when it is not provided for in the company's articles of association.
For years, this situation generated conflicts with the tax administration, which tended to classify these payments as gifts – and therefore non-deductible expenses – or as actions contrary to the legal system for not strictly adhering to commercial formalities.
The ruling rejects this widespread interpretation and clarifies that not every non-statutory payment should automatically be considered a gift. The Court establishes that directors' remuneration can be tax-deductible, even when not stipulated in the articles of association, provided three essential conditions are met:
that there is a real and effective provision of services by the administrator;
that these functions are directly linked to business activity;
and that the expenditure is properly accounted for and justified, meeting the criteria of correlation with income.
With this ruling, the high court adopts a position more in line with business reality. The message it sends is clear: the lack of statutory provisions does not, in itself, render remuneration a non-deductible expense; what matters is that the service exists, is necessary for the company, and is properly documented.
3. VALUE ADDED TAX
3.1. The LIFE Directive
The European Union has approved a regulatory package known as VAT in the Digital Age (VIDA) that modifies the core regulations of Value Added Tax (VAT) to adapt them to the realities of the digital economy. The measures will be phased in gradually and implemented over several years, with a target date of 2035 for the full implementation of all planned changes.
One of the first effects of this directive is that, from its entry into force, Member States may establish the obligation of electronic invoicing under certain conditions.
A particularly noteworthy milestone in the reform will be reached on July 1, 2028, with the introduction of new rules for digital platforms that facilitate short-term accommodation rentals and passenger road transport services. From that date, these platforms may become liable for VAT under certain circumstances, meaning that the platform itself—and not just the individual provider—will be responsible for settling the tax on behalf of the service provider to the end consumer. This measure aims to correct the distortions of competition that exist between traditional operators and new digital models, such as Booking, Airbnb, and transport apps, which until now have been taxed under different rules or with less fiscal oversight. Member States may choose to postpone the application of this obligation until January 1, 2030, if they consider that their market conditions justify it.
Overall, the VAT Directive aims to modernize the VAT system in the European Union, adapting it to an increasingly digital economy. This involves incentivizing electronic invoicing, strengthening control and cooperation mechanisms between tax authorities, and establishing new rules for VAT management in the platform economy.
4. OTHER TAXES
4.1. Tax on the Increase in Value of Urban Land
From January 1, 2025, new maximum coefficients applicable to the Tax on the Increase in Value of Urban Land, the municipal tax that levies the increase in value of urban land shown in a transfer, will come into force.
The 2025 update introduces variations in almost all time periods, increasing or reducing the coefficients depending on the period of generation of the increase in value.
For increases generated over very short periods, the maximum coefficients remain stable or register moderate increases, depending on the period during which the value increase is generated.
Although municipalities should adapt their tax ordinances to this new table of maximum coefficients, it is common to find cases where the tax ordinance provides for the automatic application of the coefficients established by state regulations, thus avoiding the problem of having to hastily adapt the tax ordinance. In this regard, if the municipality has not provided for this "indexation" to state regulations, the coefficients in the tax ordinance that exceed those established by Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 would not be applicable.
4.2. New obligations regarding crypto assets
From 1 January 2026, a new framework of obligations related to crypto assets is expected to come into force, derived from the transposition in Spain of Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC 8) and its regulatory development.
These rules represent a structural change in the way the tax administration obtains information on crypto assets and significantly strengthen the duties of both crypto asset service providers and users, with a clear focus on transparency and the automatic exchange of information between Member States.
Firstly, from 2026 onwards, a new reporting obligation will be consolidated on all types of crypto assets located abroad, similar in its philosophy to the traditional declaration of assets abroad.
Taxpayers, who were already reporting on their virtual currencies, will also have to report on other crypto assets they hold in custody outside of Spain when the custody is provided by entities or establishments not authorized or registered with the Spanish authority, provided that the combined balances exceed 50,000 euros.
For these purposes, the term “virtual currency” is definitively abandoned and the broader concept of “crypto asset” is adopted, in line with European regulations.
In parallel, new information and due diligence obligations are being introduced for crypto asset service providers (platforms, exchanges, custodians, intermediaries, etc.).
4.3. VERIFACTU i SII: extension for the first and new deadline to request the cancellation of the second
The implementation of the Verifactu system—one of the most significant digital reforms in tax control—has been postponed. The Congress of Deputies recently ratified Royal Decree-Law 15/2025, which extends by one year the deadline for the entry into force of the Regulation on Electronic Billing Systems.
Consequently, the system will not become mandatory until 2027:
For corporate income tax payers, the obligation will begin on January 1, 2027.
For business owners and professionals who pay income tax, the obligation is postponed to July 1, 2027.
However, the measure approved by Royal Decree-Law 15/2025 did not provide a solution to the situation of those taxpayers who had previously opted—during the month of November or the first days of December 2025—to keep their Value Added Tax (VAT) ledgers through the electronic headquarters of the AEAT (the well-known SII-IVA) or for the monthly VAT refund system (known as REDEME), with effect from January 1, 2026, to be exempt from the obligation to adapt the SIF to the aforementioned VERI*FACTU regulations.
With the deadline for adapting SIFs to the VERI*FACTU regulations postponed by a year, it made perfect sense to allow these taxpayers to now revoke an option that entailed greater formal burdens without being offset by an exemption from adapting their SIFs. However, the standard period for opting out of SII-IVA or deregistering from REDEME, as established by the VAT Regulations, covers only the month of November; a period that had already passed when Royal Decree-Law 15/2025 was approved.
Well, Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 approves, among other measures, this extension of the deadline for resigning from the SII-IVA system and for requesting to be removed from the REDEME system, by including a new fourth transitional provision in the VAT Regulations , its justification being in line with what has been stated
“ to return taxpayers to the regulatory framework they were in before the approval of the recent Royal Decree-Law 15/2025” .
This extraordinary period for resignation or cancellation request extends until Saturday, January 31, 2026 and constitutes an exception to the ordinary periods provided for in Article 68 bis and Article 30.8 of the VAT Regulations.
Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 does not explicitly state this, but by referring to the aforementioned articles of the VAT Regulations, it should be understood that the procedure for requesting the waiver and extraordinary deregistration is by submitting a census declaration, checking the corresponding box. We recommend making use of the option granted by Royal Decree-Law 16/2025 as soon as the option to submit this Form 036 electronically becomes available.
4.4. Garbage fee
The garbage collection fee has become one of the most controversial taxes in recent times. Although its existence is not new, and the Local Finance Law has historically allowed for its application by municipalities, the controversy has resurfaced strongly due to the obligation imposed by European regulations to pass on the real cost of waste management services to citizens. This has led numerous local councils to reinstate, increase, or modify this fee, after years in which it was practically frozen or integrated into other municipal bills.
The root of the conflict lies in the fact that waste collection and treatment services are becoming increasingly expensive. The European Union requires municipalities to implement more sustainable management systems, with higher levels of separation, recycling, and landfill control. All of this significantly increases the cost of the process, and EU regulations stipulate that the waste producer—that is, the citizen—must cover the cost. Many local councils had been subsidizing the service, partially financing it with general taxes such as the Property Tax (IBI); but, having been forced to pass on the actual cost, they have had to implement substantial increases in the rate. This jump has caught many taxpayers by surprise.
Another point of contention is the calculation method. In most municipalities, the rate is not based on the actual volume of waste generated by each household, but rather on indirect criteria such as the size of the property, its use, or its location. This fuels a sense of injustice among taxpayers, especially for people who live alone, families with very strict recycling habits, or homes with intermittent occupancy, who end up paying the same as large households or businesses with higher waste production.
The differentiated application of the tax to commercial premises, the hospitality sector, and industrial activities has also generated debate, as the amounts can be much higher than those applied to residential properties. These sectors criticize the fact that the amount does not always correspond to the actual waste production and that, in some cases, the cost has multiplied in just one year.
Ultimately, the garbage tax has become a symbol of a broader debate: how to finance municipal services at a time when European regulations are raising the bar and local councils have very tight budget margins.
