General requirements of the newly published royal decree for new invoicing requirements in Spain

The Spanish government has introduced a draft version of the new royal order, which we published last week. It considers the main requirements of the invoice management system that will be applied in Spain starting in 2024. In general terms, it contains data and additional requirements that were established in the previous decree. As a reminder, in February 2022, Spain published a Draft Royal Decree establishing invoicing and billing software requirements to secure Spanish antifraud regulations.

That is all in relation to the digitization of business management processes, In order to carry out the proper registration and control of operations and the correct issuance of invoices or other supporting documents by businessmen and professionals, which is generally carried out through the use of computer systems, that must ensure that all operations carried out are recorded in the computer system in a secure, non-manipulable, accessible manner and with a standard structure and format to facilitate the legibility of the records, automated analysis, and simultaneous referral to the Tax Administration.

More precisely, the Draft Decree ensures billing software meets the legal requirements of integrity, conservation, accessibility, legibility, traceability, and inalterability of billing records. It sets standards for systems known as SIF (Sistemas Informaticos de Facturación). To comply with SIF standards, taxpayers may use a Verifactu system—a verifiable invoice issuance system which is further detailed later in this Royal Decree. Also explained are the scope of the regulations, special codes that must be used (QR codes and special IDs), system requirements, the transmission of the data, audits, and much more.

You can find the Royal Decree here.