The Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) has decided to postpone again the implementation of the Verifactu invoicing system: October 2028. The Tax Office announced this measure on Monday. The objective, it specified, is to foster the greatest possible convergence between electronic invoicing systems and the Verifactu regulation on computerised invoicing systems.
This Monday, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published the ministerial order defining the technical and operational aspects of the public electronic invoicing solution, for its entry into force in October 2028, for businesses and professionals whose annual turnover does not exceed 8 million euros.
The Government had already delayed by one year, until 2027, the entry into force of the Verifactu system, which promotes the digitalisation of invoicing processes in companies. Specifically, it was stipulated that the system would be mandatory from 1 January 2027 for Corporate Income Tax filers and from 1 July 2027 for all other self-employed individuals and companies.
The Tax Office has specified that, once this alignment of the implementation calendars has been approved, a modification will be undertaken focused on achieving convergence of the scopes of application and certain technical aspects of the current regulations, taking into account the future digital reporting requirements arising from the European ViDA directive (VAT in the Digital Age).
The requirements and rules for Verifactu are not altered
In any case, the requirements established in the Verifactu regulation regarding integrity, conservation, accessibility, legibility, traceability and unalterability, as well as the remaining technical guarantees of the system, will be maintained in terms substantially equivalent to those provided for in its current regulatory development.
The Tax Office's decision has been welcomed by business and tax organisations. The association of tax inspectors Adeaf has stated that "this coordination will also make it possible to progressively align the Spanish system with the digital information model that will be mandatory within the European Union from 2030 and which until now had not been sufficiently taken into account, thus avoiding successive adaptations of invoicing systems within a very short period of time", the association highlighted.
The employers' association Cecot also welcomes the fact that the Tax Office is unifying the entry into force of the two systems. The organisation considers that it is neither efficient nor reasonable to impose differentiated administrative and technological obligations when the objectives pursued are complementary and affect the business community itself. In this regard, the employers' association defends that regulation should move towards greater administrative simplification, avoiding duplications, unnecessary burdens and successive implementation processes that generate additional costs for SMEs and the self-employed.