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VAT invoicing

Invoicing obligation, exceptions, types of invoices and contents

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Duty to preserve the invoices

Los empresarios y profesionales deberán expedir y entregar facturas y conservar las facturas y justificantes que tengan relación con sus obligaciones tributarias durante el plazo de prescripción de 4 años (artículo 29.2, letra e) de la Ley 58/2003, de 17 de diciembre, General Tributaria y 165.Uno de la Ley 37/1992).

Asimismo, deberán conservarse con su contenido original, ordenadamente y durante el plazo que establece la Ley General Tributaria los siguientes documentos:

  • Facturas recibidas.
  • Copias o matrices de las facturas expedidas.
  • Los justificantes contables en las operaciones en las que sea de aplicación la inversión del sujeto pasivo cuando el proveedor no esté establecido en la Comunidad.
  • Los recibos justificativos del reintegro de la compensación del Régimen especial de la Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca, tanto el original de aquél, por parte de su expedidor, como la copia, por parte del titular de la explotación.

Similarly, this duty binds business owners or professionals enrolled in any of the special Value Added Tax systems, as well as those not classed as business owners or professionals but who are required to pay Value Added Tax, although in the latter case it shall only encompass invoices received and copies of or electronic data on issued invoices.

The various documents, in paper or electronic format, shall be stored by any means enabling the party bound by the duty to guarantee the authenticity of their origin, the integrity of their content and their legibility, as well as immediate access to them by the Tax Agency except for duly justified reasons. This duty may be discharged through use of electronic means.

In order for storage by electronic means in a third country with which there is no legal instrument agreeing mutual assistance to be considered valid, the Tax Agency must have been informed to this effect in advance.

When the invoices received or issued relate to acquisitions for which VAT quotas of have been borne, the deduction of which is subject to an adjustment period, they must be kept for the corresponding adjustment period and the following four years.

Los empresarios o profesionales que realicen operaciones que tengan por objeto oro de inversión, deberán conservar las copias de las facturas correspondientes a dichas operaciones durante un período de cinco años.