The VAT on food in Spain in 2026 is split into three rates: 4% for a closed list of basic products — common bread, bread-making flour, milk, cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, legumes, tubers, natural cereals and olive oil —, 10% for the rest of food and water, and 21% for alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, juices and fizzy drinks with added sugars or sweeteners. In 2026 there is no temporary reduction for food: the ordinary rates of Article 91 of Law 37/1992 apply.
The general rate table is in our guide to VAT in Spain in 2026. Here we go into the detail that does not fit there: which rate applies to each food, what changes in a bar or restaurant, the products that raise the most doubts, and what it means to sell food online to customers in other European Union countries.
What VAT applies to each food in 2026
| Food or service | VAT | Legal basis (Law 37/1992) |
|---|---|---|
| Common bread, and frozen common bread dough or frozen common bread used only to make common bread | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º a) |
| Bread-making flour | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º b) |
| Milk from any animal species: fresh, certified, pasteurized, concentrated, skimmed, sterilized, UHT, evaporated, powdered and fermented | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º c) |
| Cheese | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º d) |
| Eggs | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º e) |
| Fruit, vegetables, legumes, tubers and cereals that are natural products under the Food Code | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º f) |
| Olive oils (since 1 January 2025) | 4% | art. 91.Dos.1.1.º g) |
| Meat, fish, seafood and cured meats | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Pasta, pastries, biscuits, sugar, honey, chocolate, preserves and ready meals | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Butter, cream and dairy products that are neither milk nor cheese | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Seed oils, such as sunflower oil, and other edible fats | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Coffee, tea, herbal teas and spices | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Juices, soft drinks and fizzy drinks without added sugars or sweeteners | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Drinking water, including in ice form | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.4.º |
| Animal feed, including for dogs and cats | 10% | art. 91.Uno.1.1.º |
| Soft drinks, juices and fizzy drinks with added sugars or sweeteners | 21% | excluded by art. 91.Uno.1.1.º b) |
| Alcoholic beverages: wine, beer, cider, liqueurs | 21% | excluded by art. 91.Uno.1.1.º a) |
| Food and drinks served for immediate consumption (bars, restaurants, catering), alcohol included | 10% | art. 91.Uno.2.2.º |
Rates verified on 17 September 2026 against Article 91 of Law 37/1992 in its consolidated text (boe.es) and the document “VAT rates in 2026” from the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT), dated 2 June 2026 (sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es).
A warning if you compare with European sources: the European Commission’s TEDB database, which many calculators use, does not list any food for Spain at 4% and places entire chapters, such as fats and oils or bakery products, at 10%. Spanish law prevails: common bread, milk and olive oil remain at 4%.
Three questions to classify any food:
- Is it on the closed 4% list? If not, it starts at 10%.
- Is it an alcoholic drink, or a soft drink, juice or fizzy drink with added sugar or sweetener? Then it goes to 21%.
- Is it served for immediate consumption? Then it is hospitality and goes to 10%, whatever it is.
Bars, restaurants and takeaway food
Hospitality has its own rule. The law sets 10% for hospitality and restaurant services and, in general, the supply of food and drinks for immediate consumption, even if prepared to the customer’s order. It is a service, not the sale of a product, and that is why it does not distinguish what is served: the draft beer, the glass of wine and the sugary soft drink all go at 10%, just like the dish. The Tax Agency document includes mixed hospitality and entertainment services, nightclubs, party halls and barbecues in that 10%.
The difference appears when there is no immediate consumption. If the customer takes away the bottle of wine or the pack of beers, what you have is the sale of a product, and the product keeps its rate:
- Menu of the day in the premises, with wine: 10% for everything.
- The same bottle of wine sold to take away: 21%.
- A loaf of bread bought at the bakery: 4%. The bread that accompanies the menu is part of the service: 10%.
That is the direct reading of Article 91. If your business combines both — terrace service and takeaway sales, or home delivery with drinks — check with your adviser how to separate the lines on the receipt, because a POS that applies a single rate per receipt is reporting incorrectly from day one.
The cases that raise the most doubts
Yogurt, kefir and fermented milk
Since 22 December 2024 the 4% list includes fermented milk: it was added by Law 7/2024. The VAT Law does not define it. The quality standard for yogurt (Royal Decree 271/2014) describes yogurt as a product of milk coagulated by lactic fermentation, so plain yogurt fits easily. A dairy dessert with sugar, fruit, cereals or other ingredients moves away from that idea. Before moving your dairy products to 4%, review the technical sheet for each item and, if in doubt, ask your adviser or the Directorate-General for Taxes.
Common, wholemeal, gluten-free or sliced bread
The 4% rate applies to common bread. The VAT Law does not define it; the definition is in the bread quality standard (Royal Decree 308/2019). Under that standard, common bread is bread for normal consumption within the 24 hours following baking, made with flour or wholemeal cereal flour, even if it contains bran: wholemeal bread and bread made from other cereals are included. Special bread is bread that includes added ingredients or is made using a special process, such as grated bread or loaf-baked bread, and special bread is not on the 4% list.
Since 1 March 2026 there is a new development: Royal Decree 142/2026 added to that standard that gluten-free bread which meets the definition is also common bread. Since the VAT Law does not expressly refer to the quality standard, if you sell gluten-free bread, check with your adviser before applying 4%.
Oils: olive oil yes, sunflower oil no
Olive oils are at 4% since 1 January 2025 under Royal Decree-Law 4/2024. Seed oils, such as sunflower oil, are not on the list and go at 10%, like the rest of food.
Drinks: water, juices, soft drinks and “alcohol-free” beer
- Water: 10%, including in ice form.
- Juices, soft drinks and fizzy drinks: 10% if they do not contain added sugars or sweeteners, and 21% if they do. The label matters, not the name: a juice with added sugar goes at 21%, and a “zero” soft drink sweetened with sweeteners does too.
- “Alcohol-free” beer: the law considers any drinkable liquid containing ethyl alcohol to be an alcoholic beverage. Not all “alcohol-free” beers are 0.0; if yours still contains some alcohol, confirm the rate with your adviser before leaving it at 10%.
- Plant-based drinks (soy, oat, almond): they cannot go at 4%, because the law limits that rate to milk produced by an animal species.
Fruit and vegetables: natural or processed
The 4% rate covers fruit, vegetables, legumes, tubers and cereals that qualify as natural products under the Food Code. A lettuce, some apples or dry lentils are straightforward. The more processed the product is — cooked, preserved with other ingredients or turned into jam — the further it moves away from “natural product” and the more likely it is to go at 10%. If you sell preserved vegetables or frozen products, check the classification item by item.
Gift baskets, assortments and packs
A basket with olive oil, cured meat and wine mixes three rates: 4%, 10% and 21%. In WooCommerce each product can only have one tax class, so publishing the bundle as a single product with a single rate is the easiest mistake to make. Agree with your adviser how to split the base between rates before putting it on sale.
If you resell food: equivalence surcharge
If you are a retail trader under the equivalence surcharge scheme, you do not settle VAT on those sales: your supplier charges you, in addition to VAT, a surcharge that depends on the product rate (Article 161 of Law 37/1992):
- 0.5% on food at 4%.
- 1.4% on food and water at 10%.
- 5.2% on alcoholic beverages and sugary soft drinks at 21%.
If you are the one selling from WooCommerce to shops under that scheme, you need to add it to the invoice. We explain it in equivalence surcharge in WooCommerce.
Selling food online to customers in other EU countries
An online Spanish store that ships food to private customers in other European Union countries applies Spanish VAT while its distance sales to consumers in other Member States — added together, not country by country — do not exceed €10,000 per year. Once that threshold is exceeded, it applies the VAT of the destination country and reports it through the one-stop shop (OSS), as explained by the European Commission. The sale that pushes you over the threshold already carries the destination rate; we explain it in the €10,000 threshold for distance sales.
With food there is a problem that other products do not have: each country classifies food in its own way. The destination rate is not “the reduced rate there”, but the rate that country gives to that specific food. Italy illustrates this well:
| Product | VAT in Spain | VAT in Italy |
|---|---|---|
| Unfilled pasta | 10% | 4% |
| Butter | 10% | 4% |
| Eggs | 4% | 10% |
| Roasted coffee | 10% | 22% |
| Mineral water | 10% | 22% |
| Dog and cat food, packaged for retail sale | 10% | 22% |
| Wine | 21% | 22% |
Italian rates verified on 17 September 2026 against Table A of DPR 633/1972 and Decree-Law 261/1990 in Normattiva, and against the European Commission’s TEDB. Details in VAT in Italy in 2026.
That has two practical consequences. First: once you pass the threshold, your setup cannot stay at “general, reduced and super-reduced rate by country”, because pasta, reduced in Spain, is super-reduced in Italy, and eggs are the other way around. Second: wine and beer count as distance sales for VAT purposes, but the destination country’s excise duties on alcohol go through their own channel; the one-stop shop only covers VAT.
If you sell to businesses — a restaurant or a shop in another country with a valid VAT ID — and the goods leave Spain, the intra-Community supply is exempt and the customer self-assesses the VAT in their country. Validate the number first with the VIES VAT ID checker and keep the proof. And remember that the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are outside VAT: a shipment there does not carry Spanish VAT (we explain it in VAT in the Canary Islands).
How to set it up in WooCommerce
- One tax class for each Spanish rate you use, assigned product by product: super-reduced for common bread or olive oil, reduced for meat or pasta, standard for wine.
- For foods that move between groups depending on the country, such as pasta, butter or eggs between Spain and Italy, a dedicated class with the rate for each destination, instead of putting them in “reduced”.
- Control of the €10,000 threshold and VIES validation of business customers’ VAT IDs.
For a quick check, the EU VAT calculator tells you which rate and which amount to apply depending on where you sell from, where the customer is, whether it is a business or a private customer, and what type of product you sell. For a specific food, cross-check the result with the table in this article.
Do you sell food to other EU countries from your WooCommerce store?
When destination VAT applies, EHERO Woo VAT applies each country’s rate according to the product tax class (standard, reduced or super-reduced) and respects the custom classes you create for foods that change rate between countries. It also monitors the €10,000 threshold, validates the VAT ID in VIES during checkout and calculates the equivalence surcharge.
Frequently asked questions
Which foods have 4% VAT in 2026?
Common bread, bread-making flour, milk — fresh, UHT, evaporated, powdered or fermented, among others —, cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, legumes, tubers and natural cereals, and olive oils. Everything else that is food goes at 10%, except alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, juices and fizzy drinks with added sugar or sweetener, which go at 21%.
Is food VAT still 0%?
No. The temporary reduction is no longer in force, and the Tax Agency’s 2026 rate document only lists 4%, 10% and 21% for food. The 0% rate is maintained only for food donated to non-profit entities that use it for their general-interest purposes.
What VAT does yogurt have?
Since 22 December 2024 fermented milk has been at 4%, and the quality standard defines yogurt as milk coagulated by lactic fermentation, so plain yogurt fits. For dairy desserts with sugar, fruit or other ingredients, confirm the classification before changing the rate.
What VAT applies to a meal in a restaurant?
10%, alcoholic drinks included, because it is a hospitality service for immediate consumption. If the customer takes away a bottle of wine, that sale goes at 21%.
What VAT does bottled water have?
10%, just like tap water or ice. In Italy, by contrast, mineral water goes at the ordinary 22% rate.
And food sold in the Canary Islands?
No VAT: the Canary Islands are outside the tax territory and IGIC applies there, with its own rates. The same happens in Ceuta and Melilla with IPSI.
Continue here
- VAT in Spain in 2026: the three rates and the case of the Canary Islands
- VAT in Italy in 2026: four rates and the municipalities outside VAT
- VAT rates by EU country in 2026: the full table
