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Spain’s B2B e-invoicing plan given EU approval

Mandatory B2B e-invoicing has moved one step closer to being introduced in Spain after the European Commission gave its backing to the country’s plans this month.

Spain’s draft legislation, Ley Crea y Crece, aims to stimulate economic growth by making it easier to create and scale new businesses. The regulation includes the arrival of e-invoicing across the country to help companies overcome one of the most common causes of liquidity issues: delayed payments.

Following a recent request from Spain to the European Commission to deviate from the EU Directive by giving legal priority to e-invoices, the European Commission found no infringement of EU law and permits the nation to proceed with its new digital regulations.

However, Spain does not yet have the final European Commission approval required to mandate e-invoicing.

The Spanish government is now expected to formally approve the B2B e-invoicing proposal in the coming weeks. National laws determine at least 12 months must pass from notice of the introduction to its inception, meaning 1st July 2025 is currently the target launch date.

As it stands, the arrival of B2B e-invoicing in Spain will follow a two-phase approach:

July 2025: Large businesses with turnover in excess of €8 million.

July 2026: All other taxpayers.

What does it mean for software providers?

The regulations set out within the Draft Law on Measures to Prevent and Combat Tax Fraud – better known as the Anti-Fraud Law – were approved by Spanish authorities on 5th December 2023.

Software developers and manufacturers – including ERPs and other major technology system providers – have nine months from the date of approval to adapt to the regulations. This means their systems must be compatible with Spanish e-invoicing requirements by 5th September 2024.

How should businesses prepare for Spanish B2B e-invoicing?

Businesses with revenue of more than €8 million in the year before approval of the law will have 12 months from the regulations being published in the Official State Gazette to comply.

During this time, organisations must implement systems and prepare processes that will allow them to start issuing e-invoices and reporting on invoice statuses.

E-invoices will be accepted via one of the following methods:

  1. Direct to the Spanish Tax Administration Agency exchange platform with basic authentication and identification.
  2. Via an app for smaller taxpayers.
  3. Through a certified e-invoicing agent.
  4. Any combination of the above.

What e-invoicing formats will be accepted?

Once B2B e-invoicing is mandatory, businesses will be permitted to submit the documents in any of the following formats:

  1. CII XML
  2. UBL
  3. EDIFACT
  4. Facturae

How can tax teams ensure compliance with e-invoicing regulations?

For large businesses, investing in an automated e-invoicing solution with multi-jurisdictional capabilities will be essential. Modern e-invoicing mandates are vast in reach and complexity and only state-of-the-art technology is suitable for fast, reliable and compliant processing.

However, simply investing in a leading solution is not enough. Just as important is ensuring the master data fuelling your e-invoicing systems are clean, complete and correct.

As with a tax solution, an e-invoicing setup will be unable to deliver accurate and complete results if the data it relies upon is flawed. We often say if you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out – and that’s just as true with e-invoicing as it is with tax.

Interested in how we help to cleanse and complete master data to ensure tax and e-invoicing success? Read more about our TaxMaster® Data Suite here.