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General issues

We briefly describe the general aspects of the Public Electronic Invoicing Solution and the mandatory electronic invoicing system between businesses and professionals, which includes

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Who is required to comply and what transactions are included?

The Spanish electronic invoicing system imposes the obligation to issue electronic invoices in structured format on businesses or professionals in the transactions carried out with another businessperson or professional established in Spainas well as reporting certain invoice statuses, especially those related to payment.

Business owners and professionals who are obliged to issue and deliver invoice for the operations they carry out in the course of their business or professional activityThey must do so electronically when the addressee the operation is carried out by a businessman or professional who has a business in Spain headquarters of its economic activity, or has in Spain a permanent establishment or, failing that, the place of their home or usual residenceprovided that the transactions are destined for said headquarters, permanent establishment, domicile or habitual residence.

Under the terms above, this obligation affects the operations of these entrepreneurs or professionals subject to VAT, IGIC and IPSI .

Therefore, the following must occur:

  • The transaction is subject to the obligation to issue and deliver an invoice.

  • The operation is carried out in the course of business or professional activity.

  • The recipient is a businessperson or professional established in Spain.

For the purposes of the Electronic Invoicing Regulations, they are business owners or professionals those considered as such in Article 5 of Law 37/1992, of December 28, of Value Added Tax.

The obligation to issue electronic invoices affects all invoices that include the identification of the recipient of the transactions, along with that of the party obligated to issue an invoice. This includes the so-called complete invoices whose mandatory content is established by Article 6 of the Billing Obligations Regulation (ROF), such as those called qualified simplified invoices, issued in accordance with article 7.2 of the same regulation.

Issuing an electronic invoice is NOT mandatory in the following cases:

  1. Simplified invoices (except for qualified simplified invoices, issued in accordance with Article 7.2 of the ROF).

  2. Other supporting documents issued between business and professionals insofar as they do not have the status of an invoice in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation that governs invoicing obligations (ROF).

  3. Those operations in which there is no obligation to issue an invoice. Those transactions that, based on tax regulations (especially in the ROF) should not be documented in an invoice, as well as those other cases that have specific authorizations, issued by the Management Department of the State Tax Administration Agency to not issue invoices.

  4. Operations whose recipient is a private consumer (B2C - the recipient of the transaction is a private individual).

  5. Operations international (including intra-community transactions) carried out with another businessperson or professional (B2B) not established in Spain.

  6. Excluded transactions by Order of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Enterprise in consideration of the proper economic functioning of the sector concerned. Exclusion can be temporary or permanent.

  7. Certain operations carried out by the market operator electric, the organized market operator of gas regulated and of the clearing and settlement houses of payment platforms transport, whose invoices will be issued in accordance with sector regulations.