Regulation on mandatory e-invoicing published in Official Gazette of the Spanish State, application date unknown
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SubscribeRoyal Decree 238/2026, of March 25, implementing the mandatory e-invoicing system between business owners and professionals ("RD 238/2026") has been published in the Official Gazette of the Spanish State ("BOE"). This regulatory development of article 2 bis of Act 56/2007, on measures to promote the information society, marks another step forward in the mandatory e-invoicing system that will be implemented for transactions between business owners and professionals (B2B transactions). Under article 2 bis, all business owners and professionals—individuals or companies—must issue, send and receive e-invoices in their commercial relations with other business owners and professionals.
Following the approval and publication of RD 238/2026, all that remains is for the Spanish Ministry of Finance to approve the ministerial order on the "public e-invoicing solution" platform and for it to be published in the BOE.
Effective application of this new obligation hinges on the ministerial order’s entry into force and will be rolled out in phases from that date:
- Business owners and professionals —individuals or companies— with an annual turnover exceeding €8 million will have to comply 12 months from the ministerial order’s entry into force.
- All other business owners and professionals will have to comply 24 months from the ministerial order’s entry into force.
This will affect business owners and professionals—as defined in article 5 of Act 37/1992, on VAT—who are required to issue and deliver invoices under the invoicing regulation (approved by Royal Decree 1619/2012) for their commercial transactions with other business owners and professionals. This is under the provision that the recipient's headquarters, permanent establishment, or habitual residence is in Spain (provided the transactions are addressed to the headquarters, permanent establishment or habitual residence).
The obligation will affect (i) full invoices, and (ii) simplified invoices in which the recipient is identified, as provided for in article 6 and article 7.2 of the invoicing regulation, respectively.
RD 238/2026 specifies that the e-invoicing system in Spain will comprise a set of private e-invoicing exchange platforms and the public e-invoicing solution. The public e-invoicing solution will serve as the central repository for all e-invoices issued in Spain. Business owners and professionals that use the private e-invoicing exchange platforms to issue their invoices must forward an exact copy of the invoice to the public e-invoicing solution.
Recipients of e-invoices must communicate the following invoice statuses to the issuer and the public e-invoicing solution: (a) commercial acceptance or rejection of the invoice, including the corresponding date; and (b) full payment of the invoice, along with the payment date. With this information, the State Observatory of Private Default will monitor late payments in commercial transactions in Spain.
Finally, this new obligation must not be confused with the mandatory adaptation of invoicing systems and software—required under the Veri*factu regulation—that some business owners and professionals must undertake, and which we discussed in our post Legal Flash | Invoicing programs and Veri*factu system. The cut-off date for adapting the invoicing software under the Veri*factu regulation has been postponed until 2027, as mentioned in our Post | Deadline for adapting invoicing systems and software is extended.
For more information, please contact our specialists through the Knowledge and Innovation Area.
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