Taxpayers' accounting obligations

Entrepreneurs or professionals, taxable persons of VAT, must keep the following registers:

1. Register of invoices issued.

2. Register of invoices received.

3. Register of investment goods.

4. Register of certain intra-Community transactions.

5. Special registry books:

   • Record book of transactions carried out under the simplified regime.

   • Register of operations carried out under the special regime for agriculture, livestock and fishing.

   • Receipts issued to justify the reimbursement of compensation for the purchase of goods or services from taxpayers under the special scheme for agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

   • Register of transactions carried out under the special regime for second-hand goods, works of art, antiques and collectors' items.

   • Registration of transactions included in the special schemes applicable to distance sales and certain domestic supplies of goods and services.

The books or registers which taxable persons are required to keep in order to comply with their tax or accounting obligations may be used for the purposes of VAT, provided that they comply with the established requirements.

If taxable persons are the owners of several establishments located in the territory where the tax applies and are not obliged to keep the registers through the Tax Agency's Electronic Headquarters, they may keep, in each of these establishments, registers in which they shall record separately the transactions carried out from these establishments, provided that the summary entries thereof are transferred to the corresponding general registers to be kept at the taxable person's tax domicile.

The Tax Administration Department of the State Tax Administration Agency may authorise the replacement of these registry books by different registry systems, as well as the modification of the requirements demanded for the registry entries, provided that they respond to the administrative and accounting organisation of the taxpayers and that the verification of their tax obligations is guaranteed.It may also authorise that the register books of invoices issued and received do not contain all the particulars or information referred to in Articles 63(3) and 64(4) of the VAT Regulation, as well as the making of summary entries under conditions other than those indicated in Articles 63(4) and 64(5) of the said Regulation, when it considers that commercial or administrative practices in the sector of activity concerned, or the technical conditions for issuing invoices, accounting supporting documents and customs documents, make it difficult to enter these particulars and information.

- Requirements if the books are kept by electronic and computerised means:

Entrepreneurs or professionals who use electronic and computerised means to manage invoicing, accounting and the generation of taxable books and records must keep in electronic format, during the limitation period, the files, databases and programmes necessary to allow complete access to them without justified delay, enabling adequate control.