Basic tax guide: Flat-rate modules or direct assessment

Are you on flat-rate modules and don't know whether direct assessment would suit you better? Are you about to start and have to choose? This basic guide explains in plain language, with one example from start to finish, what the modules are, when each scheme pays off and how to switch, so you can decide before December.

What it includes

• 📄 6-page PDF guide (A4), with the same business (a hair salon) worked out both ways: the year's income tax and VAT.
• 📊 ‘Modules or direct assessment’ comparison spreadsheet (3 tabs): your figures → your net income and prepayments under each scheme, the year's VAT, which one works out better, the income at which they break even, and warnings about the limits. It comes with the modules for hairdressers, beauty salons, bars and cafés (those in the Order for 2026; if they change, you copy in the new ones), and room for those of your activity.
• 🇪🇸 Also in Spanish. The PDF and the spreadsheet, in English and in Spanish, in the same download.

What you will find

• What the modules are (objective assessment) and which activities can use them.
• The limits that take you out: income, what you invoice to businesses, purchases and headcount; what the law says and the extension approved every year.
• The simplified VAT scheme that goes with the modules.
• Simplified and normal direct assessment, with the 5% allowance for hard-to-justify expenses.
• How to opt out and from when: in December or with the first payment in April, and the 3-year commitment.
• What changes in your first year under direct assessment (the books, modelo 130, the quarterly income tax prepayment, and the annual VAT summary), what to do about Verifactu and the most common mistakes.

Who it is for

Freelancers with a business that can be on modules: bars and cafés, hairdressing and beauty, workshops, taxis, haulage and small shops. And anyone starting out who has to choose.

How you receive it

When you pay, you get the PDF and the spreadsheet straight away, on the confirmation page and in your e-mail. The spreadsheet also opens in Google Sheets or Numbers. It is digital content: once you receive it, you lose the right of withdrawal.

Version

October 2026 version, with the rules in force on that date.

Who wrote it

DPL Asesores, a tax and accounting advisory firm in Alicante that handles the bookkeeping and taxes of freelancers and small businesses. Guide written with the help of artificial intelligence tools.

⚠️ This is general information as of the version date, written to be understood without prior knowledge. It does not replace advice on your specific case.

€5 VAT included.

🎁 And if you then book a consultation with DPL Asesores within the following 3 months, we take the €5 for the guide off: the code is on its last page.

Terms of sale: dplasesores.com/en/ecommerce/condiciones-de-contratacion