VAT on language lessons in Spain: when they're exempt and when they're not

VAT on language lessons, case by case

Find your case in the table: who teaches, how and for whom. Each row gives the VAT, the article of the law, a binding ruling from Hacienda's tax directorate (DGT) and what to write on the invoice.

A binding ruling answers one person's question, but by law (article 89 of the Ley General Tributaria) Hacienda must apply the same criteria to anyone whose facts are identical. You'll find each ruling in full in the sources at the end.

When are your private lessons VAT-exempt?

When you meet three conditions at once. The exemption is in article 20.Uno.10º of the VAT law, and Hacienda checks all three.

• You teach as an individual (persona física), not through a company.
• The subject is in the study plans of some level of the Spanish education system.
• You don't need a business (empresarial) or artistic IAE registration: a professional heading, such as 826 for teachers, meets this condition.

Languages qualify. In a 2014 binding ruling on private English lessons, Hacienda says language lessons, English included, are in the Spanish education system's study plans, so they're exempt when the other two conditions are met.

Here's the thing: the key word is "particular". If your lessons rest on a business organisation rather than on you (like an academy with staff), Hacienda treats it as a business activity and this exemption stops applying (the academy one may apply instead). Not sure where you fit? Read our IAE guide for teachers.

Does a language academy charge VAT?

Usually not on its lessons. Article 20.Uno.9º exempts language teaching by "authorised private entities", and Hacienda doesn't read "authorised" as a formal licence.

Article 20.Uno.9º names "la enseñanza de idiomas" by "entidades privadas autorizadas". In a 2026 binding ruling, Hacienda counts a centre as authorised when its activity is only or mainly teaching subjects in a study plan, with people and means organised to teach on an ongoing basis. It doesn't need specific premises.

One exception: selling books and materials isn't exempt, even to your own students. Books pay 4% VAT and other materials 21% (article 91). Materials you only lend during the lesson follow the lesson's VAT.

Online lessons: live or recorded?

Live lessons keep the exemption; recorded courses lose it. What counts is whether a teacher is teaching in real time or the student is mostly accessing content.

Hacienda's ruling on online Spanish lessons draws the line: teaching by a teacher over the internet, used just to talk to the student, is education, even if you share digital materials along the way. It follows the same exemption as an in-person lesson.

Downloads, recorded or automated courses and access to a learning platform are an electronically supplied service (article 69.Tres.4º), even if the student can book the odd tutoring session. No exemption covers those services, so they pay the general 21% rate.

Selling a recorded course to private buyers in other EU countries? Once those sales go over 10,000 € in a year across the EU, VAT is due in each buyer's country (article 73), and the EU one-stop shop (OSS) lets you declare it from Spain, as Hacienda explains in a 2026 ruling.

Students abroad and company clients

Private students abroad change nothing: a live lesson you teach from Spain follows Spanish rules and keeps the exemption. Companies are different.

In a ruling on online Spanish lessons for students in the EU and beyond, Hacienda places those lessons in Spain (article 70) and applies the private lesson exemption when its conditions are met.

When your client is a company or professional established outside Spain, the general rule (article 69.Uno.1º) places the service where the client is, so it carries no Spanish VAT. What that invoice must say depends on the client's country: check it with your gestor before you send it.

Teaching a Spanish company's staff yourself? Hacienda says the exemption applies whatever the method and whoever receives the lessons, as long as you meet the three conditions above.

What to write on the invoice

An exempt invoice has no VAT line. Instead, it must cite the article of the law or say the lesson is exempt.

That's what article 6.1.j of the invoicing regulation (Real Decreto 1619/2012) asks for. These are the two usual lines; copy the one that fits.

Do you need an invoice at all? For lessons exempt under article 20, the regulation doesn't require one, except when the client is a business, a professional or another legal entity, or asks for one to exercise a tax right.

When you do send one, our free invoice generator adds the exempt line for you, and our Verifactu guide explains the new invoicing software rules and their deadlines.