Spain

Over the past year, the following significant amendments have been made to Spanish law on the taxation of companies:

Royal Decree-Law 16/2025

On 24 December 2025, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published Royal Decree-Law 16/2025, of 23 December 2025, which extends certain measures to address situations of social vulnerability and adopts urgent measures in tax and social security matters. The most relevant amendments affecting corporate taxation are as follows:

• Investments in electricity self-consumption installations using renewable energy, as well as renewable energy thermal self-consumption installations that replace non-renewable fossil-fuel systems, which are made available to the corporate income tax (CIT) payer on or after 20 October 2022 and are placed into service in 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026, may be fully expensed in tax periods starting or ending in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, provided the assets are placed into service within the same calendar year.

This CIT incentive is subject to maintaining the average headcount for 24 months. If the headcount maintenance requirement is not met, the taxpayer must include, in the self-assessment for the period in which the breach occurs, the tax corresponding to the excess amount expensed, together with late-payment interest.

Qualifying investments are subject to a cap of 500,000 euros (EUR) and must meet the specified eligibility requirements.

• Certain regional aid granted by the Valencian Community in connection with the DANA event of October 2024 is exempt for CIT purposes with effect from 29 October 2024.
• The maximum coefficients under the Tax on the Increase in Urban Land Value (IIVTNU) to be applied to the land value at the time the tax becomes due, depending on the period over which the increase in value accrues, are updated for 2026.
• An extraordinary window is introduced to opt out of keeping value-added tax (VAT) ledgers via the Spanish Tax Agency’s Immediate Supply of Information (SII) and to request extraordinary deregistration from the monthly VAT refund register (REDEME) for the 2026 tax year, with a deadline of 31 January 2026. This allows entities that opted into SII to withdraw from that regime to avoid Verifactu, which has now been deferred to 2027.

Royal Decree-Law 15/2025

On 3 December 2025, the BOE published Royal Decree-Law 15/2025, of 2 December 2025, which adopts urgent measures to promote investment activity by local entities and autonomous communities and amends Royal Decree 1007/2023, of 5 December 2023, approving the Regulation setting the requirements to be adopted by IT and electronic systems supporting invoicing processes for business owners and professionals and standardising the formats of invoicing records.

The principal amendment is the postponement of the entry into force of the Verifactu system, a new standard for secure and traceable invoicing in Spain with an optional real-time transmission channel to the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT).

As a result, the deadline for CIT payers to implement and adapt their IT systems is deferred from 1 January 2026 to 1 January 2027. In turn, the deadline for the implementation of the Verifactu system is deferred from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2027 for all other obligated taxpayers.

Law 9/2025, of 3 December 2025, on Sustainable Mobility

On 3 December 2025, the Sustainable Mobility Act was published in the Official State Gazette. The main tax measures affecting corporate taxation include:

• The amendment of Decree 137/1960 to state that the fee for expenses and remuneration related to the management and inspection of works will not apply where such works fall within the scope of the State Road Network.
• The inclusion in the Local Tax Authorities Act (Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales) of the possibility of establishing a fee for circulation within Low-Emission Zones (Zonas de Bajas Emisiones or ZBEs) applicable to vehicles that exceed the maximum thresholds or categories for free circulation set by each ZBE.
• An amendment to the Local Tax Authorities Act setting criteria for determining fees for the private or special use of the local public domain. In the case of circulation within a ZBE that exceeds free-circulation thresholds, it permits using, as a market reference value, the cost that would have been payable if, instead of circulating within the ZBE, the vehicle had been parked in a public car park.

Royal Decree-Law 8/2025

Royal Decree-Law 8/2025, which designates numerous cultural, sports, and other initiatives as events of exceptional public interest and grants them the maximum tax incentives under Article 27.3 of Law 49/2002, was approved on 8 July 2025 and published in the Official State Gazette on 9 July 2025. It also sets each programme’s duration and the certification rules for eligible expenses.

European Union (EU) High Court judgments on Spanish tax regime for financial goodwill

On 26 June 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued five rulings confirming the annulment of a European Commission decision that had classified the Spanish tax regime for the amortisation of financial goodwill, specifically in indirect acquisitions of foreign shareholdings, as unlawful and unnotified State aid.

The Court held that the Commission could not retroactively reclassify the regime as new State aid, given that it had already been the subject of earlier decisions and had created legitimate expectations among taxpayers. As a result, Spain is not required to recover the tax deductions applied under this regime.

Royal Decree 252/2025

Royal Decree 252/2025, approving the Regulations of the Top-up Tax to ensure a global minimum level of taxation for multinational groups and large domestic groups, was approved on 1 April 2025 and published in the Official State Gazette on 2 April 2025.

The Regulations primarily incorporate into Spanish law certain Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Pillar Two guidance not covered by Law 7/2024 (e.g. the equity investment inclusion election and the administrative procedure for excess negative tax expense) and develop the content of the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Information Return along with certain additional compliance considerations.