Renta 2022: last year to claim a Spanish tax refund, until 30 June 2027
Residents of Sagunto and the Camp de Morvedre on low wages, on unemployment benefit or with small children may have money owed from the 2022 Renta. The deadline to claim it is 30 June 2027.
If you live in Sagunto, Puerto de Sagunto or any town of the Camp de Morvedre and in 2022, already living in Spain, you earned little, were on unemployment benefit or had a baby, the Spanish tax office (Hacienda) may owe you money. The deadline to claim a refund for the 2022 Renta, the annual income tax return, is 30 June 2027. After that date, in principle, the money can no longer be claimed.
This is not a new law or a newly approved benefit. It is the usual time limit, which is now in its last year for 2022. The General Tax Law (articles 66 and 67) gives four years to ask for a refund, counted from the day after the end of each Renta campaign. The 2022 campaign ended on 30 June 2023, so the limit is 30 June 2027.
Four tax years are open today, 2022 to 2025, and 2022 is the first to close. By the calculation of guiaextranjeros.es, the 2023 Renta can be claimed until 1 July 2028, the 2024 one until 30 June 2029 and the 2025 one until 30 June 2030.
The most common case is people on low incomes. With a low income the tax can come out at zero, and then everything withheld from the payslip, or from unemployment benefit, comes back when you file the return. In general, with a single payer in Spain and less than €22,000 a year, you did not have to file. If you did not file, the extra tax withheld stayed with the tax office, and it only comes back if you file that year's return.
The same happens with short contracts. On a contract shorter than a year, for example a seasonal job, the employer withholds at least 2% even on a low wage. The same goes for unemployment benefit: if income tax (IRPF) was withheld from your benefit and you did not file that year's return, the extra stayed with the tax office.
Families with small children have another route. The maternity deduction is €100 a month for each child under 3, plus up to €1,000 a year for nursery, and it is paid even if your tax is zero. In 2022 only mothers working and registered with Social Security had it, month by month; since 2023 it also goes to a mother who was on unemployment benefit when the child was born, or who registered afterwards and reached 30 days of contributions.
Large families, a parent separated or unmarried with two children, and people who support someone with a disability can receive up to €1,200 a year for each case, and up to €2,400 for a special category large family. These are also paid with zero tax, as long as the person works registered or receives unemployment benefit or a public pension.
The claim is made online, on the website of the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT), with the Renta WEB program for that year and Cl@ve or an electronic certificate. You do not need to go to an office. If you filed that year, you correct the same return: for 2022 and 2023 it is a solicitud de rectificación (request for rectification), and for 2024 and 2025 an autoliquidación rectificativa (corrective return). If you did not file, you file late.
Filing late a return that ends in a refund carries no surcharge. If you were not required to file, in principle there is no fine either, although we have not found an official position from the Tax Agency. If you were required to, there may be a fixed fine of €100, or €200 if you had already received a formal request (requerimiento) from the tax office (article 198 of the same law).
Check the whole year before filing. A past-year return must include all your income for that year, including income from outside Spain, and with it the result may turn into tax to pay instead of a refund. Each year also counts separately: in general you are tax resident if you spend more than 183 days of the year in Spain. Monthly advances already received (Modelo 140 or 143) are subtracted from the deduction.
To get an idea before you start, guiaextranjeros.es, a practical guide from the same editorial team as Sagunt al dia, offers a free calculator of how much the tax office may refund you. In a few minutes it estimates the maternity deduction and the €1,200 family deductions from 2022 to 2025, year by year, and tells you whether to correct or file and until when. It does not count withholding from wages or unemployment benefit, or pensions, and the figure is only approximate: the exact amount is known when you file. Links to the calculator and to the full explanation in English are at the end of this article, together with the law in the BOE (Spain's official gazette) and the Tax Agency page.
Informational only, not tax advice. For your specific case, check with the Tax Agency or a professional.