2027 modules regime: Order HAC/1161/2026 maintains the objective estimation signs and indices and the 5% reduction

Self-employed workers covered by the objective estimation method already have their framework for the coming year. The BOE of 5 November 2026 publishes Order HAC/1161/2026, of 4 November, which develops for 2027 the objective estimation method of the Personal Income Tax and the special simplified regime of the Value Added Tax. The order enters into force on 6 November, the day after its publication, with effects for 2027.

The rule fulfils the mandates of article 32 of the Personal Income Tax Regulation (Royal Decree 439/2007) and article 37 of the VAT Regulation (Royal Decree 1624/1992), which reserve to the Minister of Finance the annual determination of the activities that may be taxed under this simplified system, known as "modules". Its reading is of interest to the hundreds of thousands of small entrepreneurs and professionals who determine their income by signs, indices or modules, and to the firms that handle their taxation.

Almost total continuity for 2027

The dominant note is stability. The order maintains the structure of Order HAC/1425/2025, of 9 December, which governed the 2026 tax year, and keeps for 2027 the amount of the signs, indices or modules, as well as the application instructions. Also maintained, as in previous years, is the 5 percent reduction on the net modules income applicable to all taxpayers who determine the net income of their economic activity by objective estimation.

The same applies to Value Added Tax: the modules and application instructions of the special simplified regime in force in the immediately preceding year are kept. For tax advisers, the absence of far-reaching changes simplifies planning for the last quarter of 2026 and the quota forecasts for next year, although it does not exempt them from reviewing the excluding magnitudes and the waiver rules, which remain the usual source of errors and inspections.

The specific relief for farming, referring to 2026

The most relevant novelty does not affect 2027, but the 2026 tax period. For agricultural and livestock activities, in order to compensate for the increased cost of certain inputs, the order establishes that the prior net income may be reduced by 35 percent of the purchase price of agricultural diesel and by 15 percent of the purchase price of the fertilisers necessary for the development of the activity. In addition, the general reduction of the net modules income applicable to these taxpayers is raised to 10 percent, double the ordinary 5 percent reduction.

It is a correction on the current year that firms with clients in the primary sector must incorporate immediately into the year's estimates, especially with a view to the instalment payments and the closing of the 2026 period.

Excluding magnitudes: the limits that expel from the system

Article 3 maintains the system of excluding magnitudes, the point where the order connects with the Personal Income Tax Law and the VAT Law. For all economic activities, except agricultural, livestock and forestry, the excluding magnitude by volume of income is that provided for the 2027 tax period in article 31 of Law 35/2006 and in article 122 of Law 37/1992, counting all transactions, whether or not there is an obligation to issue an invoice under the Invoicing Regulation (Royal Decree 1619/2012).

Within that general limit there is a sub-limit worth watching: the method may not be applied when the volume of gross income from transactions invoiced to entrepreneurs or professionals acting as such exceeds the ceiling provided for these purposes for 2027 in the Personal Income Tax Law. And the magnitudes are not measured only in the individual sphere of the taxpayer: the operations of the spouse, descendants and ascendants, and of entities under the income attribution regime, are also counted, when the activities are identical or similar - classified in the same group of the Economic Activities Tax - and there is common management with shared personal or material means. In the case of the income attribution entities themselves, the count extends to partners, heirs, co-owners or participants and their relatives under the same conditions. If the activity began in the previous year, the volume of income is raised to the year.

For agricultural, forestry and livestock activities, a specific magnitude of 250,000 euros per year of income volume is set for activities such as independent livestock farming, breeding, guarding and fattening services and accessory works and services of farmers, stockbreeders or forestry holders excluded or not included in the special VAT regime for agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

Concept of accessory activity

The order also specifies what is meant by accessory activity, a question with direct effects on the applicable heading and modules. For the activities of annex II, an accessory activity will be one whose volume of income does not exceed 40 percent of the volume corresponding to the main activity; for those of annex I, the concept of article 3 of the order itself will apply. The annexes contain the complete list of Economic Activities Tax headings enabled for 2027, from retail trade outside a permanent establishment to courier and errand transport carried out exclusively with own means.

Waiver and revocation: window open until 31 December

The order also sets the calendar of the system's most delicate option. Personal income tax taxpayers carrying out activities under objective estimation who wish to waive the method, or to revoke a previous waiver, for 2027 may do so from the day following the publication of the order in the BOE - that is, from 6 November 2026 - until 31 December 2026. The waiver or revocation must comply with the provisions of chapter I of title II of the General Regulation of tax management and inspection (Royal Decree 1065/2007).

There is a tacit route worth keeping in mind: the waiver will also be deemed made when the instalment payment for the first quarter of the year in which it is to take effect is filed on time in the form proper to the direct estimation method. The same rule applies in the case of starting an activity, with the instalment payment of the first quarter of exercise. A simple slip in the first quarter form can therefore take the taxpayer out of the modules regime without any express declaration, with the consequences that the multi-year drag of the waiver implies. The simplified VAT regime has its own parallel deadline rule in article 6 of the order.

What firms should review

Although the order is one of continuity, its publication marks the end-of-year work calendar. It is worth reviewing with each client in the modules regime whether they remain within the excluding magnitudes, whether it is in their interest to keep the method or waive it - the waiver has multi-year effects - and whether the 2026 agricultural reductions apply to them. It is also the time to verify that accessory activities do not exceed the 40 percent that separates them from the main activity.

In our analysis of the second self-employed income tax deadline in November we review other obligations of the quarter, and in the piece on the duplication of Tax Agency letters with Verifactu we address another administrative front affecting the same group. For those advising on local taxation, the judicial X-ray of the legal profession in the courts offers context on the daily work of the small firm.

Sources

• Order HAC/1161/2026, of 4 November (BOE-A-2026-23174)