Compliance updates - Spain

On 29 September “Ley Crea y Crece” was published in the Official Bulletin of the State (BOE). As we have previously mentioned, one of the requirements of that law is to establish B2B e-invoicing among taxpayers in Spain. However, the technical specifications for e-invoicing adoption are not available yet. The next two relevant steps to know are:

• Public consultation will be shortly available and no later than 6 months from 29 September 2022. Taxpayers will be able to give feedback on how e-invoicing should be implemented.
• After those 6 months (preliminary date 1 April 2023), technical specifications will be publicly available.

From the date e-invoicing technical specifications are published, there will be different timelines to adopt e-invoicing for taxpayers according to their revenue:

• 1 April 2024 (preliminary): E-invoicing adoption for large taxpayers (annual turnover higher than EUR 8 million)
• 1 April 2025 (preliminary): E-invoicing adoption for all remaining taxpayers

It is important to keep in mind that all EU member states need to get the EU commission derogation in order to implement mandatory B2B e-invoicing. Therefore, the preliminary dates may be affected as Spain has not obtained such derogation yet.

As previously explained, one of the measures taken by the draft law “Crea y Crece” (En.: Creation and Growth) is to implement e-invoicing in the business sector to ensure that every invoice gets paid on time and help the economy grow. This draft law was approved on 15 September by the Spanish congress.

The law still needs to be published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE), which is expected in the upcoming days. Starting the day of publishing, the deadlines for the adoption of e-invoicing will be:

• 1 year for large taxpayers (annual turnover higher than EUR 8 million);
• 2 years for all remaining taxpayers.

Once the draft law gets published in the State Official Bulletin, large taxpayers (with annual revenue of more than EUR 8 million) will have one year to adapt their workflows to issue, exchange and receive e-invoices. The rest of the taxpayers will have a longer period of two years.

Taxpayers may use the services of e-invoicing service providers, and these must guarantee the possibility to interoperate with one another without implying additional costs to any involved party. Hence, interoperability agreements will be in place among the different service providers. Neither invoice recipients nor their service providers will be allowed to force the suppliers to use any particular system or platform to issue or exchange e-invoices.

Pagero is an open network for exchanging electronic invoices and other types of documents with more than 70 interoperability agreements with different service providers worldwide. Get in contact to find out how Pagero can help you fulfil the new Spanish requirements soon to be mandatory.

As previously mentioned, the remaining entities not required to implement TicketBai software in Álava were supposed to do it by 1 October 2022.

As per the request of large taxpayer groups in Álava, the Tax Authority has deferred the obligation to adopt TicketBai software to 1 December 2022. Even though this date is final now, there might be further postponements to the mandatory TicketBai adoption, as this is not the first time delaying this requirement.

In addition, the Tax Authority has exonerated 60-year-old freelancers from the TicketBai obligation. This exemption will apply to nearly 3000 taxpayers in Álava.

Regarding the other two Basque provinces, the timelines for TicketBai adoption have not been altered.

The Spanish Tax Authority AEAT (Sp.: Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria) has released a new Real Decree on public consultation until 14 March 2021, establishing new requirements for electronic billing systems or ERP software used by taxpayers for invoicing. Although this is not an e-invoicing regulation, the Spanish Tax Authority explicitly states there will be synergies between the new requirements for the billing systems and e-invoicing.

With the new decree under public consultation, there are several objectives the Tax Authority aims to achieve. The main goals are business digitalization and reducing tax evasion.

Main aspects of the regulation

• An invoice must be generated from the certified billing systems. Once the invoice is generated, the system will automatically create a registry of invoice issuance. Therefore, all issued invoices will be saved in the registry of invoices that can be transmitted to the Tax Authority;
• The billing systems will have the functionality to allow the Tax Administration to access the system and extract the required data;
• Every issued invoice will include a QR code and a UUID (universally unique identifier) number;
• E-signature will be mandatory, and invoices will contain the previously issued invoice data (invoice chaining) for a reliable audit trail;
• Submission of the invoice registry data to the Tax Authority will be voluntary.

Timeline to comply with the regulations

According to this decree, every taxpayer using billing systems will have to fulfil all the above requirements by 1 January 2024.

Next steps

Spain will be releasing new documentation in regards to:

• Technical specifications for the billing systems
• E-signature and invoice chaining specifications
• Billing systems’ certification process
• Technical specifications for voluntary data submission to the AEAT
• Content, format, design requirements and submission deadlines

Stay tuned with Pagero to be up to date with all developments in Spain.

On 30 November 2021, the law was approved by the Council of Ministers.

These are expected timelines for taxpayers to start issuing e-invoices:

• Taxpayers with annual turnover above EUR 8 million: 1 year after approval by the parliament and publication on the BOE (State Official Bulletin);
• Rest of the taxpayers: 3 years after approval by the parliament and publication on the BOE.

Within six months, the Spanish government also intends to create a “National Debt Observatory” that will monitor and analyse payment transactions and promote good practices.

Pagero will notify you about the exact deadlines for taxpayers to switch to electronic invoicing as soon as the “Crea y Crece” law gets approved by the parliament and published in the BOE.

The e-invoicing requirements were supposed to enter into force on 1 January 2022, but Bizkaia (one of the Provincial Councils) already postponed the requirements until 2024.

The other two provinces, Gipuzkoa and Álava, have postponed the deadlines for some months. It will still be a gradual roll-out of mandatory TicketBAI implementation for different taxpayers.

Below is an overview of the new timelines.

Timelines in Álava

The province of Álava has set the following dates:

• 1 January 2022 – e-invoicing on a voluntary basis;
• 1 April 2022 – mandatory TicketBAI adoption for consultancies (natural and legal persons) collaborating with the Provincial Council of Álava;
• 1 July 2022 - B2C suppliers of medicines, medical and personal hygiene products, and representatives of other certain professional activities listed here;
• 1 October 2022 - all other taxpayers.

TicketBAI roll-out in Gipuzkoa

• Current voluntary adoption of TicketBAI;
• 1 July 2022 - mandatory TicketBAI adoption for tax management service providers;
• 1 September 2022 - professional activities (the list of codes can be found here);
• 1 November 2022 - accommodation and hospitality service providers;
• 1 April 2023 - construction, real estate, transportation, and recreational and cultural service providers;
• 1 June 2023 - manufacturing, wholesale, telecommunications, financial services, artists, and taxpayers in the remaining sectors.

TicketBAI adoption in Bizkaia

Starting 1 January 2022, taxable persons can comply with TicketBAI requirements on a voluntary basis. As of 1 January 2024, e-invoicing will become mandatory for all taxpayers in Bizkaia.

The Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation will create a “National Debt Observatory” that will monitor payment transactions.

The scope and the timelines

All transactions between companies and self-employed will fall into the scope of the new draft law. Once the draft law gets approved and published on the BOE (State Official Bulletin), the implementation timeline is as follows:

• Taxpayers with annual turnover above EUR 8 million: no later than one year after the publication on the BOE;
• Rest of the taxpayers: no later than three years after the publication on the BOE.

Technical specifications

The specifications are expected to be published once the draft law is approved. Furthermore, the Government will develop the regulations for the technical requirements and information e-invoices will have to contain. The regulations will also outline verification of the payment periods, the security, control, and standardisation of the devices and information systems that generate the documents.

E-invoicing model

Although the exact model is not established yet, it is likely to be the centralised exchange model as an extension of the existing FACe platform.

Current challenges for SMEs

Today many self-employed and small entrepreneurs in Spain do not have the necessary technology or knowledge to issue electronic invoices. Resources for digitalisation will be provided by the Digital Toolkit Program as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. These measures are funded by the Next Generation EU recovery package.

Public consultation

The pre-project has been submitted for public consultation, where individuals and taxpayers can send feedback on the new proposal until 6 September 2021.

The provincial council of Bizkaia has introduced a fiscal system Batuz to combat tax fraud. The system has the following components:

• TicketBAI billing software
• Book registry (LROE)
• VAT, corporate tax, and income declaration drafts

Batuz voluntary adaptation began on 1 October 2020. Bizkaia was planning to mandate the implementation of the fiscal system from 1 January 2022, but it has been postponed to 1 January 2024.

With the 2-year extension, taxpayers in Bizkaia will have a reduced tax of 15% as an incentive if they adopt the Batuz system from 1 January 2022 on a voluntary basis. The voluntary adoption of Batuz only involves the adoption of the TicketBAI requirements. The progressiveness of the incentive would be established according to the table.

What is TicketBAI?

It is a framework to ensure the recognition of all sales transactions carried out. It is a joint project between the Basque government and the provincial treasuries in Álava, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa.

Who are in the scope?

Taxpayers established in any of the relevant provinces of the Basque Country. Both B2C and B2B transactions are subject to the requirement irrespective of their amount.

What are the requirements?

• TicketBAI file, a file created in XML and complied with TicketBAI format schema
• An e-signature is required in the TicketBAI file
• The invoice presentation will be generated by the software in physical or electronic format. It will use part of the signature of the signed TicketBAI file to create two invoice required elements:
  • TicketBAI identifier;
  • TicketBAI QR code;
  • Invoices provided to the customers must display both values;

   

• TicketBAI XML file must be reported to the province within 4 days of its issuance

When is the TicketBAI mandate taking place?

• Álava: gradually rolls out throughout 2022
• Gipuzkoa: starts from 1 January 2022 with deployment by industry
• Bizkaia: Batuz system starts from 1 January 2024

It is not impossible that the timeline for the mandatory implementation of TicketBAI framework gets postponed in the remaining provinces.

Among those mentioned are Greece and France. However, we consider Spain a serious candidate to be the next European country to roll out such mandates.

Extension of the B2G mandate

The Spanish Tax Ministry is rolling out the FACeB2B platform, and the Public Procurement Law 9/2017 marks the starting point for the use of this platform.

From June 30, 2018, it will be mandatory for sub-contractors and main contractors under public procurement contracts to exchange e-invoices on invoice amounts exceeding EUR 5.000 via FACeB2B. The process will go as follows:

• Companies should register in the Single Electronic Register to receive Dire code.

   

  – The sub-contractors must submit invoices to FACeB2B, while the main contractor must fetch the e-invoice from FACeB2B. No direct exchange of invoices will be allowed.
• The main contractor must use FACeB2B to reject an invoice, while the subcontractor is also required to use FACeB2B to issue rectification documents and new invoices.
• All e-documents must be in the Facturae format, similar to the current B2G process.
• For B2B e-invoices, a special extension for Facturae has been released.
• It is not mandatory to apply an e-signature to B2B e-invoices.

Optional e-invoicing via a governmental platform

On the same day that the extended mandate enters into force, it will be permitted for all private companies to voluntarily use the FACeB2B platform.

Why Spain?

The above-described scenario is very similar to the developments in Italy. First, Italy mandated B2G e-invoicing via a governmental hub called Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) in 2014. In 2017, they made it optional for private businesses to use SDI. Beginning in July 2018, it will be mandatory to exchange e-invoices via SDI for subcontractors and main contractors under public procurement, and finally starting from January 2019, all remaining B2B invoices must be issued via the governmental hub.

Spain has not yet received derogation from the EU Commission to implement the B2B mandate. For that reason, it is impossible to give any estimates when the mandate could occur. Last year, Spain implemented the real-time reporting SII, so it is only a matter of time before a political decision needs to be taken on which route to proceed with: e-invoicing or e-reporting.

The Spanish B2G mandate has been in force since 2015, and now they will expand the scope of this mandate and open up the platform for voluntary use in B2B invoice exchanges. Finally, according to our sources, the envy towards the Italians is significant.

In general, Spain has also progressed much further in comparison to the other “candidates”:

• In France, the B2G e-invoicing mandate is not fully rolled out, and serious questions are surrounding the capabilities of Chorus Pro to handle the B2B invoice volumes.
• In Greece, there is nothing currently in place.

It is still a work in progress

Even though the Spanish deadline is near – June 30, 2018 – not everything is in place. Below is a list of open points, which may impact the imminent live-date of FACeB2B and its functionality going forward:

• A test environment has not yet been released, meaning that it is not possible to see how or if the actual connectivity works.
• No schematrons have been published, meaning that it is not possible to know how the platform will perform the content controls.
• It is not clear whether support for formats other than Faturae will be added, as this format is not widely used in the private sector.

Stay tuned for more information about the developments in Spain.