Updated 2026-07-31 · 3 min read
Who this is for. This is Spanish tax law and it applies to salons in Spain, including the many run by owners who don't read Spanish. If your salon is elsewhere, this does not apply to you: your VAT rate and your receipt rules are your own country's.
A quick question that produces slow answers in any professional group in the trade: *«is VAT 21% or 10%? Because I read they were bringing it down…»*. Let's settle it with the 2026 picture, the story of why the confusion exists, and the practical part: how to break it down properly on your receipts — which with VeriFactu around the corner is going to matter more than ever.
The figure, no beating about the bush
One single rate for everything that goes through your till. That, at least, simplifies the sums.
Where the 10% muddle comes from
A story in three acts. Act 1 (up to 2012): hairdressing was taxed at the reduced rate of 8%, recognised as a labour-intensive service. Act 2 (September 2012): the financial crisis took the reduced rate away and the trade jumped straight to 21% — a blow the sector's trade body reckons cost thousands of salons and jobs. Act 3 (2012-today): a permanent campaign to go back to the reduced rate (which would now be 10%), with petitions, non-binding parliamentary motions and recurring promises from various governments… none of them delivered. Every time the subject enters a Budget the headlines fly — and stay indexed on Google, confusing everybody years later. If the cut ever arrives, we'll update this article the same day (check the «updated» date above).
How to break VAT out when your price «includes VAT»
The trade works with final prices: a cut «costs €35», not «€28.93 plus VAT». That's right for the client — but your receipt and your bookkeeping need the breakdown, and the sum runs backwards:
- Taxable base = final price ÷ 1.21 → 35 / 1.21 = €28.93
- VAT amount = final price − base → 35 − 28.93 = €6.07
A few more quick examples: €20 → base 16.53 + VAT 3.47. €50 → base 41.32 + VAT 8.68. €85 (balayage) → base 70.25 + VAT 14.75. The classic mistake is multiplying the price by 0.21 (35 × 0.21 = 7.35 ❌): that would calculate VAT *on top of* 35, when 35 already *includes* it.
On the receipt, the simplified-invoice rules require you to identify the rate applied: either you break out base and amount, or you include the wording «VAT included — 21%». Here's everything your receipt needs to be legal — and remember that with VeriFactu from 2027 the receipt will come out of adapted software that does this breakdown on its own, with no calculator and no mistakes.
Three situations where people get tangled
I sell products, does anything change? Not the rate (21% too), but if you're on the equivalence surcharge regime as a retailer, your *purchase* from the supplier carries an additional surcharge — a matter for your accountant, not for the receipt. I'm on the modules regime: your regime changes how you settle up with the tax office, not the VAT on the service. I'm in the Canary Islands: there's no VAT there but IGIC, with its own rates — this article applies to mainland territory.
And the usual final word on tax matters: this article points you in the right direction, your accountant confirms it. What neither of them should let you do is keep reading 2019 articles promising VAT rates that never arrived.