Invoicing requirements in Spain: invoice content, series, VERI*FACTU and e-invoicing

Spain applies the EU invoicing baseline through the Reglamento de facturación (Real Decreto 1619/2012) and adds two regimes of its own that are reshaping invoicing software: the certified invoicing-system rules known as VERI*FACTU, and mandatory structured B2B e-invoicing under the Crea y Crece law. Here is where each stands as of September 2026.

What a full invoice must contain

Article 6 of Real Decreto 1619/2012 lists the content of a factura completa. It matches the EU list and adds Spanish detail:

• Number and, where applicable, series; numbering must be correlative within each series.
• Date of issue, and the date of the operation or of the advance payment if different.
• Name or company name, NIF and address of both the issuer and the recipient.
• Description of the operations with the data needed to determine the taxable base, including the unit price without VAT and any discount not included in it.
• The VAT rate(s) applied and the VAT amount, shown separately; where the operation is exempt or reverse-charged, a reference to the applicable provision or an indication that it is exempt ("operación exenta") or that the recipient is the taxable person ("inversión del sujeto pasivo").
• For intra-EU operations: the recipient's NIF-IVA, and the issuer's, which in Spain requires registration in the ROI (Registro de Operadores Intracomunitarios).

Simplified invoices

Article 4 allows a factura simplificada for amounts up to EUR 400 (VAT included), for rectifying invoices, and up to EUR 3,000 for listed activities such as retail sales, hospitality, transport of persons and hairdressing. It omits the recipient's identification and may show the VAT as included, but it cannot be used when the recipient needs a full invoice to deduct VAT, nor for intra-EU supplies or reverse-charged operations.

Series and rectifying invoices

Series are mandatory in several cases (Article 6.1.a): rectifying invoices, invoices issued by the recipient (self-billing), and invoices from different establishments or on behalf of third parties. A factura rectificativa (Article 15) is required whenever an invoice fails a requirement or the amounts must be corrected; it must say it is rectifying, name the invoice it corrects, state the reason, and be numbered in a specific series.

VAT rates

Ley 37/1992 sets the standard rate at 21% (Article 90), with a reduced rate of 10% and a super-reduced rate of 4% for the goods and services listed in Article 91. The Canary Islands apply IGIC rather than VAT, and Ceuta and Melilla apply IPSI.

VERI*FACTU: certified invoicing systems

Real Decreto 1007/2023 requires the invoicing software used by most businesses and professionals to guarantee the integrity, conservation, accessibility, legibility, traceability and unalterability of billing records. Each invoice generates a record that is hashed and chained to the previous one; invoices carry a tax QR code; and a system that sends every record to the Agencia Tributaria as it is issued operates in VERI*FACTU mode and may say so on the invoice. Software producers file a responsible declaration; users must use a compliant system. Per the Agencia Tributaria's own FAQ, the adaptation dates are 1 January 2027 for corporate-income-tax filers in scope and 1 July 2027 for the remaining taxpayers. Taxpayers already in the SII regime are outside it.

B2B e-invoicing (Crea y Crece)

Ley 18/2022 made structured electronic invoicing mandatory between businesses and professionals, and Real Decreto 238/2026, published in March 2026, develops it: a public e-invoicing solution, private platforms interoperating with it, and structured formats. The decree ties the start of the transition periods to a ministerial order on the public solution that had not been published at the time of writing, so there is no fixed calendar date yet; larger companies get twelve months from that trigger and the rest twenty-four.

Retention and language

Invoices and their records must be kept for the tax limitation period (four years under the Ley General Tributaria) and, under commercial law, six years; electronic storage must guarantee legibility and allow online access by the tax authority. Invoices may be issued in any language, but the Agencia Tributaria may require a translation into Spanish for supplies in Spain.

Cross-border from Spain

Services to businesses in other Member States are reverse-charged, with the mention "Inversión del sujeto pasivo"; goods to VAT-registered businesses in other Member States are exempt intra-Community supplies; both are reported in Modelo 349, and both require the Spanish issuer to be in the ROI so that its own NIF-IVA validates in VIES.

What EUFactura covers today

Spanish invoice content checks, correlative numbering per series including a separate series for rectifying invoices, the 21% standard rate suggested for domestic supplies, the reverse-charge and exemption mentions in Spanish, PDFs in Spanish and a structured UBL file. It is not yet a VERI*FACTU system and does not yet connect to the public e-invoicing solution; both are on the roadmap and neither is claimed. Businesses within the 2027 scope should plan for a compliant system by their date.