It was to come into force on January 1, 2026. Verifactu, the new billing system of the Tax Agency. Companies, freelancers, billing software… everyone had been preparing for months, but The Government postponed it at the last minute for a political issue and added even more chaos to a regulation that from the beginning has been marked by confusion.
To learn more about the whole Verifactu mess we spoke with José Rodríguez, product manager at held and in charge of leading the Verifactu project within the company.
The wolf is coming. As we said, when there were just weeks left for its entry into force, the Government announced that Verifactu was postponed for one year, until January 1, 2027. In reality, it is the second postponement of the regulations, but it was the most striking due to the short notice that was given. José Rodríguez believes that this has meant that the regulations are no longer taken seriously, a the wolf is coming that never ends up materializing: “It was a delay that happened fifteen days before it was effective and I believe this gives little credibility and little weight to the regulations.”
Ignorance. The postponements have contributed to a deep lack of knowledge about Verifactu. According to a survey carried out by Holded, 27% of business owners admit to being unfamiliar with the regulations and 22% believe that they will come into force in 2026. There is another fact that has contributed to this confusion and that is that tax communications are not exactly intuitive. “The Tax Agency is very technical, which is correct, but sometimes I understand that for a person who is not so technical or who does not understand the subject much, needs it to be explained in a simpler way,” says Rodríguez.
Precisely, the part of explaining it is the work that software and consulting companies have been doing since the regulations were known. “A lot has been delegated to software to evangelize companies and the self-employed,” he confesses.
Adapt to Verifactu. Although there is still half a year left for its final entry into force, billing software is already required to comply with one of the requirements of the anti-fraud law of which Verifactu is a part and that is that, when creating an invoice, it is blocked and the essential data can no longer be modified. According to Rodríguez, this is the first point of friction: “This has brought to light a lot of billing flows that were not really complying with the regulations.” Many of these flows, he explains, were practices established by habit rather than conscious errors: “There were clients who created negative invoices when in reality a rectification was required, or businesses that directly edited an invoice already issued.”
Anyone who already uses certified invoicing software will not notice anything when Verifactu comes into force, since the other part is simply its telematic sending to the Tax Agency that is done automatically. However, those who make invoices by hand will notice it more. According to Rodríguez, “The most traditional or older businesses are the ones that have it the most complicated because it is a double learning process. Not only Verifactu, but also the anti-fraud law,” but he adds that “those who already have some contact with technology, I think they are quite safe in that sense.”
The electronic invoice mess. In parallel, another regulation is advancing, the Crea y Crece law, which regulates electronic invoices and aims to exchange invoices between client and supplier in a digital format. They are two different laws that regulate different aspects of the same bill; one, its sending in real time to the Treasury; the other, its format when circulating between companies. José Rodríguez tells us that this has caused even more confusion and, in fact, is the most recurring doubt among businessmen: “there are two regulations that affect the invoice, they are regulated in two different laws, and people do not understand why.”
Although it is something that many professionals claim, The Tax Agency refused to unify both systems because they have different objectives: the electronic invoice is to control payment terms between suppliers and Verifactu serves to prevent fraud.
Who is affected by Verifactu? The obligation covers practically all companies and self-employed workers in Spain, with two territorial exceptions and one size exception. Businesses located in the Basque Country, which has its own equivalent system called Ticket BAI, and Navarra, which is also implementing its own, are left out. Nor does it affect large companies that invoice more than 6 million euros annually, since they are subject to another control mechanism of the Tax Agency, the Immediate Supply of Information.
There has been much talk about the exemption to the self-employed who make simple invoicesthat is, those that do not include any automation or macro. However, José confesses that not even he himself is entirely clear about this exemption: “There are many gray areas. What do you define as automation, is it a formula, a function…? If you have a sum, are you already in a sanction regime? It is not clear to me.”
How to prepare. If they do not postpone it again, which at this point no one completely trusts, Verifactu comes into force on January 1, 2027 for companies and July 1, 2027 for self-employed workers. His recommendation for those entrepreneurs or self-employed people who have not done anything yet is that “If you use invoicing software, make sure that it already complies with the anti-fraud law so as not to have problems. If you do not use it, I would tell you that by consulting an invoicing software, it should be working by January 1st” and he adds that “There are a lot of software that have free trial periods, I would consult that.”
It is not advisable to relax because you bill little: “The change can be very large, even if you bill very little per month,” he warns, because what changes is not the volume but the process. Although at the moment we do not know how strict the Treasury will be with this, it highlights that “The fine for clients is up to 50,000 euros per year. We, as software, if we do not comply with all these requirements of the law, we can have a fine of up to 150,000 euros.”
Image | Holded, Xataka with Magnific
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