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VAT invoicing

Invoicing obligation, exceptions, types of invoices and contents

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Rectification invoices

When is it mandatory to issue them?

  • In the event that the invoice does not meet one or more of the requirements laid down as mandatory in Articles 6 and 7 of the Regulation governing invoicing duties.

  • When the circumstances that give rise to the modification of the taxable base of VAT established in Article 80 of Law 37/1992 (return of containers or packaging, discounts, termination of operations, alteration in prices or provisional prices, non-payment) have occurred.See "Related content".

  • When the Value Added Tax amounts applied have been determined incorrectly.

However, rectification of the tax amounts applied will not be appropriate:

  • When the rectification is not motivated by the causes laid down in article 80 of the Law 37/1992, and implies an increase of the amounts applied and the recipients of the operations do not act as employers or professionals of the Tax, except in cases of legal rise of the tax rates, when the rectification can be carried out within the month in which the new tax rates come into force and in the next.

  • When the tax administration reveals, through the corresponding assessments, tax payments accrued and not passed on that are greater than those declared by the businessman and he has participated in a fraud or he knew or should have known that he was carrying out a transaction that was part of a fraud.

When must they be issued?

The rectification shall be made as soon as the person obliged to issue the invoice is aware of the circumstances that make it necessary to issue it, provided that four years have not elapsed from the time when the tax was accrued or, where applicable, from the date on which the circumstances regulated in Article 80 of Law 37/1992, which give rise to the modification of the VAT taxable base, have arisen.

What requirements should rectification invoices comply with?

All corrective invoices shall state that they are corrective invoices and a description of the reason for the correction, the identification details of the corrected invoice or invoices (it will be sufficient to indicate the period to which they refer in the case of discounts for volume of operations and when authorised by the Tax Management Department of the AEAT) and the correction made, and they must comply with the requirements established as obligatory in general.

The AEAT's Tax Management Department may authorise other invoice rectification procedures, at the request of the interested parties, when justified by commercial or administrative practices in the sector.