AEAT — tax for sports clubs

Legal form first

A club's tax regime depends directly on its legal form:

• Non-profit sports association registered in the regional Registro de Entidades Deportivas (register of sports organisations) and, where applicable, declared to be of public benefit. This is the most common form.
• Basic sports club (club deportivo elemental), a simplified form for small clubs regulated by the Ley del Deporte (Spanish Sports Act).
• Sports public limited company (Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, SAD), mandatory for clubs competing in professional categories (Liga de Fútbol Profesional, ACB, etc.).
• Civil partnership with legal personality (sociedad civil) or private limited company (sociedad limitada) for profit-making clubs.

The tax obligations and the benefits available vary with each legal form. Non-profit associations have access to most exemptions and tax relief; commercial companies are taxed on terms similar to any other business.

Census registration: form 036

The first step with the AEAT is form 036 (modelo 036), the census declaration for registration, changes and deregistration. It is filed online through the Agencia Tributaria's electronic office. On registration the club declares:

• Identification, tax address and legal form.
• Headings of the Impuesto de Actividades Económicas (IAE, the Spanish business activity tax), usually group 967 “services related to sport”.
• The applicable VAT regime.
• The obligations it is registering for (VAT, withholdings, etc.).

VAT: the Article 20.13 exemption

Article 20.13 of Ley 37/1992 del IVA (Spanish VAT Act) exempts from VAT sports services provided by:

• Public-law entities.
• Sports federations.
• The Spanish Olympic Committee and the Spanish Paralympic Committee.
• Private sports organisations or establishments of a social nature.

The term “social nature” requires the organisation to meet the requirements of Article 20.3 LIVA: no profit motive, the positions of chair, trustee or legal representative must be unpaid and, for certain exemptions, members or their relatives must not be the main recipients or receive special conditions. This last requirement does not apply to sports services. The AEAT can formally recognise “social nature” status on express request, although the exemption applies automatically by law when the requirements are met.

Receipts and the obligation to invoice

The VAT exemption and the obligation to invoice are related but separate questions. For sports services exempt under Article 20.Uno.13.º, the general rule is that the club does not have to issue an invoice and can document the payment with a receipt or proof of payment. The AEAT sets out this exception as well as the cases in which an invoice must be issued because of the recipient or the tax use of the document. The name given to the document does not replace analysis of the specific transaction.

Common quarterly and annual returns

Keeping documents

Invoices issued and received, receipts, accounting books and proofs of payment must be kept for 6 years (Código de Comercio, the Spanish Commercial Code, art. 30). For non-profit organisations under Ley 49/2002 (Spanish law on the tax regime for non-profit organisations), the period is 4 years for tax returns.

How Clybo’ handles it

Clybo’ lets you set the club's tax profile and keeps exempt receipts separate from invoices. Exempt receipts are included in Basic and carry no hash, QR code or submission to the AEAT. When the club has the Tax add-on contracted and active, Clybo’ applies the RRSIF requirements to the invoices processed through the tax flow. Live submission is enabled after technical and legal validation is complete and the responsible declaration (declaración responsable) for the corresponding version has been published.