What a Spanish Invoice Must Contain

The minimum content

• A number, and a series where one is used. Numbering within each series must be consecutive, with no gaps.
• The date of issue, and the date of the transaction if it is different.
• Your name, tax number and address.
• The customer's name, tax number and address. For business customers in other EU countries, their EU VAT number.
• A description of the goods or services.
• The taxable amount, the VAT rate and the VAT amount, shown separately, and the total.
• Any income tax withholding, where the customer is a Spanish business and the supplier a professional.

When there is no VAT

An invoice without VAT must say why. The wording commonly used:

• Business customer in another EU country: a reference to the reverse charge, indicating that the customer accounts for the VAT.
• Business customer outside the EU: a note that the transaction is not subject to Spanish VAT under the place-of-supply rules.
• Exempt activity: a reference to the exemption that applies.

The invoice may be written in any language. The tax agency can ask for a translation in a review.

Corrections

An invoice already issued is not edited or deleted. A mistake is corrected with a separate corrective invoice, in its own series, that identifies the original and states what changes. Reusing a number or leaving a gap in the sequence is precisely what the numbering rules are there to detect.

Software rules from 2027

Spain has approved technical requirements for invoicing software, known as Verifactu, intended to make issued invoices tamper-evident. For the self-employed they are scheduled to apply from 2027. Invoices made in a word processor or a spreadsheet will not meet them; software that complies, or the tax agency's own tool, will. If you are choosing a tool now, choose one that already states it will comply. Clients of our bookkeeping service issue their invoices from our own invoicing page.

Numbering in practice

A common scheme is the year followed by a sequence: 2027-001, 2027-002. A separate series can be used for corrective invoices (R-2027-001) and for a second line of business. Within each series the dates must follow the numbers: invoice 015 cannot be dated before invoice 014.

If you start using a new tool mid-year, continue the sequence where the old one stopped. Two tools issuing invoices in parallel is how duplicates and gaps arise.

Deadlines for issuing

An invoice to a business must be issued before the 16th of the month following the one in which the service was supplied. For recurring work, a single monthly invoice covering that month's services is allowed. An invoice issued months later, when the client finally pays, is late for VAT purposes even if nobody notices at the time.

Keep a copy of every invoice issued, in the format in which it was sent, together with the supporting contract or order where there is one. For clients abroad, keeping evidence of where the client is established, such as its registration details or VAT number check, supports the VAT treatment applied.