By Law 11/2021, of July 9, known in an abbreviated form as "on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud", a new letter j) is added to article 29.2 of the General Tax Law (LGT), which establishes the obligation, for producers, marketers and users, that the computer or electronic systems and programs that support the accounting, invoicing or management processes of those who carry out economic activities, guarantee the integrity, conservation, accessibility, legibility, traceability and unalterability of the records, without interpolations, omissions or alterations for which the proper annotation is not left in the systems themselves. Furthermore, in accordance with said regulation, a specific sanctioning regime is established in article 201 bis of the aforementioned Law, derived from the mere production of these systems or programs, or the possession of the same without the appropriate certification.

The purpose of this precept is multiple. In addition to preventing the production and possession of computer programs and systems that allow the manipulation of accounting and management data, as contemplated in the explanatory statement of Law 11/2021, other very different reasons are associated with it, such as, for example, giving a significant boost to the modernization and digitalization of the Spanish business fabric and, very especially, of SMEs, micro-enterprises and the self-employed, while promoting tax compliance and the fight against fraud and, at the same time, ensuring a simple, cheap, secure and efficient connection between citizens and the Administration in digitalized environments.

The countries around us have adopted solutions equivalent to the one that is to be implemented in Spain. These initiatives are in line, on the other hand, with the recommendations made by international institutions such as the OECD . Thus, strict regulations and techniques have been implemented, which have evolved in parallel with technological progress for nearly forty years, seeking different objectives and control and security measures with the main objective of making fraud difficult through the use of computer means that hide or falsify information on invoices issued and facilitating the verification of data that, due to its digital nature, is volatile, duplicable and easily manipulated in ways that are very difficult to detect.

The new article 29.2.j) of the LGT provides that regulations may establish the technical specifications that these computer systems must meet, as well as the need for them to be duly certified and the use of standard formats for their readability. In this regard, a draft royal decree is being processed approving the Regulation establishing the requirements that must be adopted by computer or electronic systems and programs that support the billing processes of entrepreneurs and professionals, and the standardization of billing record formats. The public information process ended on March 14.

In general terms, the draft Regulation leaves autonomy to taxpayers, developers and marketers to implement computerized billing systems, provided that they meet a series of requirements that guarantee the principles of integrity, inalterability, traceability, accessibility, legibility and conservation established by the LGT and the Regulation itself and that must be developed by ministerial order. This compliance is guaranteed by a responsible declaration that the computer system complies with the provisions of the LGT, the Regulation and the development specifications. On the other hand, taxpayers who meet the requirements established by ministerial order may use, where appropriate, the computer application developed by the tax administration.

Please note that in other countries around us, in order to avoid the existence of so-called dual-use software, the use of certain software or hardware elements imposed or certified by the tax authority or by third parties is mandatory, or in certain cases, the issuance of electronic invoices is mandatory, with automatic transmission of invoice information to the tax authorities.

The draft Regulation under discussion establishes that for each invoice, a registration record – and, where applicable, a cancellation record – must be automatically generated in the computer system, containing some of the data of the invoice to which it refers, in accordance with the Regulation governing billing obligations, approved by Royal Decree 1619/2012. Elements that guarantee compliance with the principles established in the LGT must also be incorporated into the record, such as the fingerprint or " hash " of the previous record and the moment in which the billing record is generated. The registration must also be signed electronically.

The Regulation provides that taxpayers may voluntarily send to the Tax Agency by electronic means all billing records generated by such systems. Computer systems that send billing records are considered – in the draft Regulation – as "verifiable invoice issuing systems" or "VERI*FACTU Systems". These VERI*FACTU systems have specific characteristics that determine, by their very existence, that they meet by definition the requirements of integrity, inalterability, traceability, accessibility, legibility and conservation. They will also not need to electronically sign billing records.

The draft royal decree approving the Regulation also establishes a modification to the Billing Regulation, by incorporating in its wording that invoices, whether simplified or not, that have been issued by the billing computer systems referred to in the Regulation, must include a graphic representation of certain invoice data, using a code " QR ". The inclusion of the "QR" code in the invoice is intended to facilitate the possibility for the recipient to voluntarily provide, using an appropriate device capable of reading the code and transmitting and receiving data, certain information to the Tax Agency, by capturing the "QR" code with the device.
In short, the approval and application of the Regulation will allow, through these computer or electronic systems and programs that support the billing processes of entrepreneurs and professionals, in the medium term, significant savings in tax compliance costs; while reinforcing the corporate responsibility of the producers, manufacturers and developers of these systems and programs that issue responsibility statements.