On 15 June 2023, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration published the draft of the project of Royal Decree implementing Act 18/2022, of 28 September, on the creation and growth of companies in relation to electronic invoicing between companies and professionals.
First of all, it is necessary to know that after the publication of the draft, a public hearing period will begin and end on 10 July 2023, during which companies and service providers may submit their remarks and suggestions regarding the mandatory electronic invoicing project in Spain.
The draft details the concepts of Electronic invoicing, Electronic Invoice Exchange Platform and Public Electronic Invoicing Solution. Below, we will discuss in detail the content and its implications for companies.
1. Scope of application
The Royal Decree applies to all entrepreneurs and professionals who are obliged to issue invoices pursuant to Royal Decree 1619/2012. However, it does not apply to those entrepreneurs and professionals whose economic activity is not carried out in Spanish territory or who do not have a permanent establishment in said territory to which the invoice is addressed, or, failing that, who do not have their habitual address or residence in said territory.
Despite the obligation established in this draft, there are some exceptions for the issuance of electronic invoices:
- Simplified invoices.
- Invoices issued voluntarily without obligation to do so.
- Other exceptions duly authorised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
2. Spanish electronic invoicing system
The system will be made up of a set of private electronic invoice exchange platforms that meet the requirements set out in this Royal Decree, as well as the public electronic invoicing solution, which will also act as an invoice repository and will be managed by the State Tax Administration Agency.
All e-invoice issuers who do not use the public e-invoicing solution will be obliged to send a true copy of each invoice in Facturae syntax to said public solution. More information about Facturae can be found at the following link.
Operators of private e-invoicing platforms must be able to transform the invoice message between all the supported formats.
Access to the public e-invoicing solution will be granted to any company or professional, provided that the Facturae syntax is used and that the corresponding references to the issuer’s NIF and the invoice recipient’s NIF are correctly included.
3. Electronic invoice
For the purposes of this Royal Decree, an electronic invoice is considered to be a structured computer message, in accordance with the semantic data pattern EN16931 of the European Committee for Standardisation, and which complies with one of the following syntaxes:
- XML message of the invoice UN/CEFACT, applicable to the whole industry as specified in the XML 16B schemas (SCRDM – CII).
- UBL invoice and credit note messages, as defined in the ISO/IEC 19845:2015 standard.
- EDIFACT invoice message, in accordance with the ISO 9735 standard.
- Facturae message, in the version currently in force for invoicing between entrepreneurs and professionals at any given time.
The UBL (Universal Business Language) format aims to simplify the automation of the exchange of financial information using XML language.
4. Content of the invoices
All electronic invoices must contain a unique code with the issuer’s tax identification number, the invoice number and series, and the date of issue. Companies and professionals may agree with their suppliers to include additional information on invoices.
5. Status of electronic invoices
Recipients of electronic invoices must provide the following information:
- On private platform:a) Commercial acceptance or rejection of the invoice and its date.
b) Full actual payment of the invoice and its date. In addition, the following statuses can be reported:
- Partial commercial acceptance or rejection of the invoice and its date.
- Partial payment of the invoice, the amount paid and its date.
- Assignment of the invoice to a third party for collection or payment, with identification of the assignee and the date of assignment.
The information on the status of the invoice must be sent within a maximum of 4 calendar days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays, from the date of the status reported in each case.
- On public platform:a) Commercial acceptance or rejection of the invoice by the recipients and the date thereof. Rejection shall be deemed to have taken place if a corrective invoice is issued and sent within the deadlines laid down in the regulations.
b) Full effective payment and its date.
Recipients of electronic invoices who keep VAT Register Books (in accordance with Article 62.6 of the Value Added Tax Regulations) are obliged to report, within a maximum period of 4 calendar days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays, on the full effective payment and its date in relation to the invoices registered in their register book of received invoices.
Exception: Entrepreneurs or professionals included in the monthly return register (pursuant to Article 30 of the same Regulation) whose volume of transactions did not exceed EUR 6,010,121.04 in the previous year.
In other cases, the recipients of e-invoices must report the full amount of the actual payment and its date on the invoices they receive. The way in which this is to be done is determined by a joint Order of the Head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Head of the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration.
6. Deadlines
We are awaiting the final Royal Decree and its publication date in the Official State Gazette, which will determine the entry into force and start of counting of the deadlines for the mandatory issuance of electronic invoices established in Act 18/2022, of 28 September, on the creation and growth of companies, to which we refer.
- Companies and self-employed persons with an annual turnover of more than EUR 8 million will have a maximum period of 12 months from the date of publication of the Act.
- Companies and self-employed persons with an annual turnover of less than EUR 8 million will have a maximum period of 36 months from the date of publication of the Act.
Regarding the obligation to report on the status of invoices:
- Entrepreneurs with an annual turnover of less than EUR 6,010,121m04 will have a period of 36 months from the date of publication of the Royal Decree in the Official State Gazette.
- Professionals with an annual turnover of less than EUR 6,010,121.04 will have a period of 48 months from the publication of the Royal Decree in the Official State Gazette.
Until these deadlines are met, the provision of information on invoice status will be voluntary.
During the first 12 months following the entry into force of this Royal Decree, companies that are obliged to issue e-invoices in their transactions with entrepreneurs and professionals must attach to these e-invoices a document in PDF format that guarantees their readability for those who are not yet obliged to receive e-invoices, unless the recipient of the invoices expressly accepts to receive them in the original format.
At Bové Montero, we are at your disposal to assist you in this transition and to find the most appropriate solutions for your software, whether through a public or private platform, to successfully comply with the new electronic invoicing regulations.
