Spain — Work Calendar, Salary and VAT Reference

Spain operates a forty-hour standard workweek by law, but the practical day is shaped by the famous extended midday break in many traditional sectors. In modern offices, particularly in Madrid and Barcelona, the schedule is increasingly normalised to a continuous nine-to-six day with a forty-five-minute lunch break, while in smaller cities and traditional industries the eight-to-two and four-to-seven split (jornada partida) is still common. The split day extends total office presence well into the evening despite the standard hours.

Statutory paid leave is twenty-two working days (counted on a six-day week) plus fourteen public holidays, putting Spain among the more generous European jurisdictions for time off. Many collective agreements add seniority leave that gradually increases the entitlement after several years with the same employer, and the cultural expectation in many sectors is a substantial summer block of two to three consecutive weeks rather than spread leave across the year.

The Spanish working culture has been shifting away from long workdays towards a more results-oriented model since the early 2020s, supported by national reforms on time recording and right-to-disconnect provisions. A 2025 pilot of a four-day workweek in selected SMEs received significant public attention, and remote and hybrid arrangements are now the norm in most knowledge work environments outside of traditional banking and insurance.

Spain observes fourteen public holidays per year, divided into national, regional and local layers. National holidays such as New Year's Day, Epiphany, Good Friday, Labour Day, Assumption, National Day on 12 October, All Saints' Day, Constitution Day on 6 December, Immaculate Conception and Christmas Day apply throughout the country. Each autonomous community then adds two or three regional holidays (such as Saint George's Day in Catalonia or the Day of the Madrid Community on 2 May), and each municipality adds two local holidays.

The combination of national, regional and local layers means the actual public holiday calendar of a Madrid office worker differs from that of a Barcelona or Seville office worker, although the total count remains close to fourteen. For multi-region planning, always work from the published autonomous community calendar plus the relevant municipal additions rather than assume a single national list.

Long weekends, known locally as puentes, are an established planning feature. Whenever a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, many employers grant the bridging Monday or Friday as a discretionary day off, and the cultural expectation around Christmas (24 December and 31 December) is that companies close at midday or for the full day even though these are not statutory holidays. The first two weeks of August are also a widely observed summer slowdown.

Spanish gross salary is most often quoted on an annual basis paid in fourteen instalments: twelve regular monthly payments plus two extra payments (pagas extraordinarias) traditionally paid in July and December. Some employers prorate the extra payments across the twelve regular months (paga prorrateada), which simplifies cash flow but reduces the visible peak monthly payment. Always clarify whether a quoted monthly gross includes or excludes the proration.

Employee social security contributions in Spain (cotización al régimen general de la Seguridad Social) total roughly six to seven percent of gross, much lower than in Germany or France. The progressive income tax (IRPF) is split between national and autonomous community brackets, producing a combined marginal rate that varies between approximately twenty-four and forty-seven percent depending on the region and income level. Madrid and the Basque Country use distinct fiscal regimes that differ noticeably from the national pattern.

Employer-side costs in Spain add roughly thirty to thirty-three percent on top of the gross salary, primarily through employer social security contributions covering pension, unemployment, training and the FOGASA wage guarantee fund. The autónomo regime for self-employed workers operates on a separate fixed-fee social contribution model that has been progressively reformed since 2023 to align contributions with declared earnings.

Spain applies a standard VAT (IVA) rate of twenty-one percent, a reduced rate of ten percent for hospitality services, public transport, residential property sales and certain food categories, and a super-reduced rate of four percent for basic food staples, books, newspapers, medication and certain disability aids. Temporary reductions on basic food and energy were applied during the inflation crisis of 2022-2024 and have largely been phased out by 2026, although the policy has been revised several times.

Spanish invoicing rules follow the EU directive with the addition of the Verifactu electronic invoicing initiative, which from 2026 onward requires invoicing software to meet specific security and audit-trail standards and report invoice data to the tax authority in near real time. The reform applies to all VAT-registered businesses except those already covered by the Suministro Inmediato de Información (SII) regime introduced in 2017 for large companies.

The Spanish small business simplified regime (régimen simplificado del IVA) is restricted to specific activity codes and has limited applicability for service businesses. Most freelancers and SMEs operate under the general VAT regime with quarterly returns. The recargo de equivalencia is a special simplified scheme for retail businesses that buy from wholesalers, and it materially changes the invoicing pattern of any wholesaler selling into Spanish retail.

When agreeing a Spanish salary, confirm both the annual gross and whether the extra payments are paid separately or prorated. A monthly gross figure can mean two very different annual incomes depending on this convention, and the misunderstanding is one of the most common sources of disappointment among incoming employees.

For multi-region Spanish operations, maintain three holiday calendars: national, autonomous community and municipal. The municipal calendar in particular is updated annually by each city council and missing it produces silent unavailability of staff in specific local offices.

If your Spanish business invoices customers in Spain, prepare for the Verifactu rollout. Invoicing software vendors are publishing readiness updates, and a switch to certified software now is significantly less disruptive than waiting for the deadline.