If you run a business in Spain you have probably been told, more than once and by people who sounded confident, that electronic invoicing is about to become obligatory and your current setup will be illegal. You may also have noticed that the date keeps moving.
Here is the situation as it stands, with the one distinction that clears up most of the confusion.
This is general information to help you know what to ask, not tax or legal advice. Deadlines here have already shifted once, so confirm your own position with your gestor or asesor.
There are two different rules, and almost everyone mixes them up
This is the root of nearly all the confusion:
- Verifactu governs how you issue an invoice. Your invoicing software has to meet technical requirements: unalterable records chained to one another, a digital fingerprint, a QR code on the invoice, and the ability to report to the tax agency. It applies to invoices to businesses and to consumers alike.
- The Crea y Crece e-invoicing rules govern the format and channel of invoices between businesses. A structured electronic invoice, exchanged digitally. A PDF emailed across stops counting as an electronic invoice for B2B purposes.
Different rules, different scope, different dates. When somebody tells you "e-invoicing is compulsory next year", the useful reply is: which of the two do you mean?
Verifactu: the dates
Verifactu was originally due to bite in 2026. It was pushed back by Real Decreto-ley 15/2025, approved in December 2025. The timetable as it stands:
- 1 January 2027 for businesses paying corporate income tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades).
- 1 July 2027 for everyone else, which includes the large majority of self-employed people.
So there is time. Not so much that it can be ignored, but enough that nobody needs to buy anything in a panic this month.
What Verifactu actually requires
In practice, compliance is mostly a question of the software you use rather than anything you do differently at your desk. A compliant system must:
- Create an unalterable record of each invoice, chained to the previous one, so nothing can be quietly changed or deleted afterwards.
- Apply a digital fingerprint to each record.
- Print a verifiable QR code on the invoice.
- Be able to send the invoice records to the AEAT, either continuously or on request depending on the mode you use.
The practical consequence for a lot of small businesses is blunt: invoicing from a Word template, an Excel sheet or a paper book will not satisfy this. If that is you, plan the change rather than discovering it in June 2027.
Who falls outside it
Some taxpayers are outside the Verifactu regime because they already report through other systems, notably businesses under the SII, and those under regional systems such as TicketBAI in the Basque Country. There are other particular cases too, and this is exactly the sort of detail worth confirming with your gestor rather than assuming from a blog, including ours.
The penalties, in proportion
The regime does provide for serious fines, including amounts in the tens of thousands of euros for using non-compliant invoicing software, and larger ones for the companies that produce and sell it. Worth knowing so you take the deadline seriously. Not worth losing sleep over in 2026, provided you sort your software out during 2027 rather than after it.
Crea y Crece: the other one
This is the rule that ends the emailed PDF between businesses. Invoices to other companies and professionals will have to be issued in a structured electronic format, such as Facturae, that the receiving system can read and process automatically.
Timing here is phased by company size, with larger businesses first and smaller businesses and the self-employed given considerably longer, running into 2028. Be aware that this timetable has proved less than firm and the detail depends on ministerial development. Treat any specific date you read, including from us, as provisional and check it closer to the time.
What to do now, in order
- Ask your gestor which rules apply to you and from when. Five minutes of their time beats an afternoon of reading.
- Ask your invoicing software provider, in writing, whether they will be Verifactu compliant and by when. If the answer is vague, that is your answer, and you have plenty of time to move.
- If you invoice from Word, Excel or paper, start looking now. Not because of the deadline, but because the change is easier when it is not urgent.
- Tidy your customer data. Structured invoicing is unforgiving about missing tax IDs and addresses. Fixing that gradually beats fixing it all at once.
- Do not panic-buy. Anyone cold-calling you about an imminent obligation and a special price today is selling urgency rather than compliance.
The quiet upside
There is a genuine benefit buried in all this. Once your invoices exist as structured data rather than PDFs and paper, the admin around them becomes automatable in a way it never was before: recording them, matching receipts, chasing what is unpaid, and preparing the quarter without a shoebox.
That is the same argument we made in automating invoices and receipts with AI and in automating your business paperwork. If you are going to be forced to modernise the invoice, you may as well collect the benefit. Our document AI and automation services exist for exactly that part.
Frequently asked questions
Is Verifactu the same as mandatory e-invoicing?
No. Verifactu sets requirements for your invoicing software and covers both business and consumer invoices. The Crea y Crece rules set the format and channel for invoices between businesses. They are separate obligations with separate timetables.
When does it affect me as a self-employed person?
For Verifactu, the current date for most self-employed taxpayers is 1 July 2027. The B2B e-invoicing format requirement comes later again, phased by size. Confirm your own case with your gestor.
Can I keep invoicing from Excel?
Not once Verifactu applies to you. The requirements for unalterable chained records, digital fingerprints and QR codes cannot be met by a spreadsheet.
What if my current software is not adapted in time?
Ask the provider now, in writing. Most established Spanish invoicing products are working on it. If yours will not commit, you have a comfortable window to move to one that has, which is far better than discovering the problem the week before.
Has the deadline really moved before?
Yes. Verifactu was expected during 2026 and was postponed to 2027 by Real Decreto-ley 15/2025. That is precisely why it is worth checking the current position rather than acting on an article from last year, including this one in a year's time.
The honest summary: two rules, both real, both later than the scare stories suggest, and both easier to handle as a planned change than an emergency. If you would like help making the paperwork side of it less painful once you switch, get in touch and we will tell you plainly what is worth automating and what is not.