Skip to main content
Practical Handbook VAT 2022

Rectification invoices

1.Rectification assumptions

A corrective invoice must be issued in cases where the original invoice does not meet any of the requirements established as mandatory in articles 6 or 7 of the Regulation on Invoicing, approved by Royal Decree 1619/2012 of 30 November.It will also be compulsory to issue a corrective invoice in cases where the amounts charged have been determined incorrectly or where the circumstances giving rise to the modification of the taxable base have arisen.

The Taxation Management Department of the Tax Agency may authorise other invoice correction procedures, at the request of the interested parties, when justified by the commercial or administrative practices of the sector of activity in question.

Corrective invoices are not considered to be those issued in replacement of simplified invoices issued previously, provided that they meet the regulatory requirements.

A corrective invoice shall be made as soon as the party required to issue it becomes aware of the circumstances requiring issuance of an amending invoice, provided that less than four years have passed since the tax was chargeable or, if applicable, from the date on which the circumstances set forth in Article 80 of the Tax Law occurred (modification of the taxable base).

Corrective invoices must be sent before the 16th day of the month following the month in which the invoice was issued.

2.General requirements for correction invoices

The correction shall be carried out by issuing a new invoice containing the identification data of the corrected invoice.

Several invoices may be corrected in a single correction document, provided that all the invoices corrected are identified.

This corrective invoice must comply with the requirements established as compulsory in general.

When a corrective invoice is issued, the gross tax base and the charge can be assigned, either by directly indicating the amount of the amendment, regardless of whether or not the result is positive or negative, or leaving the invoice as it is following the amendment, in which case the amount of the amendment must be specified.

All corrective invoices shall state their status as an corrective document and the identification of the invoices being corrected.

However, there are two exceptions to these requirements:

  1. When the modification of the taxable base is a consequence of the return of goods or packaging and an invoice or simplified invoice has been issued for the transaction in which they were delivered, it will not be necessary to issue a corrective invoice or simplified invoice, but the correction may be made on the invoice issued for a subsequent transaction with the same recipient, provided that the tax rate applicable to all the transactions is the same, regardless of whether the result is positive or negative.

  2. When the modification of the taxable base is due to the concession of discounts or rebates for volume of operations, as well as in other cases authorised by the Tax Management Department of the State Tax Administration Agency, it will not be necessary to specify the invoices rectified, and it will be sufficient to simply determine the period to which they refer.