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Practical Handbook VAT 2022

General content of ordinary invoices

All invoices and copies thereof must contain, as a minimum, the following information or requirements:

  1. Number and, where applicable, series. Numbering shall be sequential within each series.Different series may be established where there are justifiable reasons for doing so, and in particular if there are several establishments or transactions of a different nature.

    However, the issuing of invoices using a specific series shall be compulsory for the following invoices:

    • Those issued by the addressees or by third parties, for each of which there must be a separate series.

    • When invoices and simplified invoices are issued to document transactions carried out in the same calendar year.

    • Rectification invoices.

    • Those issued by the successful tenderer as a result of administrative and judicial enforcement proceedings.

    • Those issued to document the delivery of mobile phones, video game consoles, laptops and digital tablets;as well as silver, platinum and palladium, unwrought, powdered or semi-manufactured, where they give rise to the reversal of the taxable person.

    • Invoices issued by travel agencies acting as mediators in the name and on behalf of others in the transactions referred to in the fourth additional provision of the Regulation on Invoicing.

    • Those issued to document intra-group transactions carried out between entities opting for the advanced level of the Special System for the group of entities.

  2. Issue date.

  3. Full name and full business name, both for the party required to issue the invoice, and for the recipient of the transactions.

  4. Tax identification number attributed by the Spanish Administration or, where applicable, by that of another Member State of the European Community, with which the person obliged to issue the invoice has carried out the transaction.

    Likewise, the consignment of the recipient's Tax identification number will be compulsory in the following cases:

    • The supply of goods to another Member State is exempt under Article 25 of the Tax Law.

    • When it is an operation whose recipient is the taxpayer of the corresponding tax.

    • When they are operations carried out in the territory of application of the tax, and the employer or worker obliged to issue the invoice has to be considered as established in this territory.

  5. Tax address of sender and consignee.Where the recipient of the transactions is a natural person who is not acting as a trader or professional, it is not compulsory to indicate his address.

  6. Description of the transactions, including all information needed to determine the gross taxable base and its amount, including the tax-free unit price of said transactions, as well as any other discount that is not included on said unit price.

  7. The tax rate(s), if applicable, applied to the transactions.

  8. The tax liability , which, if applicable, is charged, must be entered separately.

  9. The date of the transaction which is documented or on which, where applicable, the advance payment was received, if different from the date of issue of the invoice.

    The signature of the recipient is not required.

  10. If the transaction is exempt from tax, reference to the provisions of Directive 2006/112/EC, of the LIVA or indication that the transaction is exempt.

  11. In the case of invoicing by the acquiring or the addressee, the words "invoicing by the addressee".

  12. If the taxable person is the acquirer or the recipient of the transaction, the words "reverse charge".

  13. In the case of application of the special scheme for travel agents, the words "special scheme for travel agents".

  14. In the case of application of the REBU, the words "régimen especial de los bienes usados", "régimen especial de los objetos de arte" or "régimen especial de las antigüedades y objetos de colección".

  15. In the invoices issued for supplies of new means of transport exempt from VAT because they are destined for another Member State, the characteristics of the means of transport, the date on which they were first put into service and the distances travelled or hours of sailing completed must be stated.

  16. In the case of application of the special cash basis scheme the mention "régimen especial del criterio de caja".