Mandatory electronic invoicing in the private sector in Spain as a result of the approval of Law 18/2022 on the Creation and Growth of Companies, better known as the “Crea y Crece” Law, on September 29, 2022, which establishes electronic invoicing as the only system that may be used in commercial relations between companies and self-employed workers in Spain.
However, for the entry into force of this obligation, it will be necessary to wait for the approval of the Regulation that develops this Law, which has not yet been approved.
Mandatory electronic invoicing in the private sector
The Crea y Crece Law established a period of six months from the publication of the law for the administrations involved to determine the technical and information requirements to be included in the electronic invoice.
To this end, a public consultation promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation was opened to gather opinions on the problems to be solved with the initiative, the objectives of the regulation and possible alternative solutions.
After this consultation, the Regulation that will develop this law will be definitively approved. This regulation will include key aspects such as those relating to payment (recording of dates and average payment periods). The requirements to be met by technological solution providers to enable interoperability between them. There will also be questions on admissible formats, security, control or standardization of devices and computer systems.
It will not be enough just to send a PDF by mail. It must meet certain requirements to guarantee its authenticity, and to this end an electronic signature must be inserted. But the document must also be a readable file that can be modified by invoicing software.
From that date onwards, there will be a period of time for the entry into force, which will depend on the annual invoicing volume, as indicated in the Ley Crea y Crece in the eighth final provision related to the entry into force.
For more than 8 million invoicing. The obligation comes into force one year after the approval of the Regulation.
For the rest. Two years after the approval of the Regulation.
Obligations for companies and professionals
As we have said, the Crea y Crece Law establishes the obligation for both companies and self-employed professionals. And what we already know is, what are the obligations that this law reflects.
First of all, the obligation to issue and receive electronic invoices between and with entrepreneurs and professionals.
In addition, information on the status of invoices must be provided.
It is necessary to guarantee free interconnection and interoperability between the different possible solutions or technological platforms.
And since this is so, the recipients of electronic invoices will therefore not be able to oblige their issuer to use a predetermined electronic invoicing solution, platform or service provider.
Access to electronic invoices must be maintained for 4 years for the recipients of these invoices. And when these have ceased to be customers of the issuing companies, their access must be allowed for 3 years after the end of the contracts.
Finally, the access, viewing, downloading and printing of the electronic invoice must be made easier for the recipients.
Benefits of the use of the mandatory electronic invoice
The use of electronic invoicing in the relations between companies and self-employed workers also brings some advantages in the daily operations of companies.
The most obvious one is the digitalization and optimization of business relations.
In addition, there is undoubtedly a reduction in time and costs, which in turn implies an improvement in the productivity of the processes.
Being an automated process, it increases the security and reliability of electronic transactions, since human errors can be reduced.
Finally, digitization implies greater traceability and control of payments between companies and/or self-employed workers.
