Developments Regarding Electronic Invoicing: Royal Decree 238/2026 of March 25
The approval of Royal Decree 238/2026 of March 25 marks a turning point in the implementation of mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses and professionals in Spain. With this regulatory development, the framework established by the "Create and Grow" Law ("Ley Crea y Crece") ceases to be a future prospect and becomes an obligation with immediate operational, technological, and tax implications.
The new system primarily seeks to strengthen control over late commercial payments and advance the digitalization of B2B relationships. To achieve this, the Administration will receive information not only regarding invoice issuance, but also concerning receipt, acceptance, rejection, and effective payment. This transforms electronic invoicing into a much broader supervisory tool than the traditional supporting document for transactions.
The model intended to be implemented in Spain will allow both private exchange platforms and the free public solution managed by the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT). However, even when private providers are used, it will be mandatory to send an identical copy of each invoice to the AEAT public platform.
One of the most significant aspects of the regulation is the obligation to communicate the status of invoices. Recipients must report commercial acceptance or rejection, as well as effective payment and its date. This continuous flow of information will enable the Administration to monitor payment periods and strengthen oversight of business late payments.
From a business perspective, adaptation will require far more than simply implementing an electronic invoicing tool. Companies will need to review their internal invoicing processes, validation, reconciliation, and document retention, while also ensuring interoperability with customers, suppliers, and technological platforms.
The electronic invoicing implementation schedule will be gradual. Companies with turnover exceeding €8 million must adapt within twelve months from the approval of the ministerial technical order activating the system, while all other businesses and professionals will have twenty-four months.
Another particularly sensitive aspect will be the coexistence between this new model and other existing information reporting obligations, such as SII, VeriFactu (whose implementation has been postponed), and document retention requirements.
The major practical issue will be how these three systems coexist within each company's operational reality. Generally speaking, companies mandatorily subject to the SII system will be exempt from VeriFactu obligations, since immediate information supply already provides a high level of tax control.
However, this does not mean that companies subject to SII will be excluded from B2B electronic invoicing obligations, as the purpose of each system differs: VeriFactu is aimed at combating tax fraud, whereas electronic invoicing seeks the digitalization of administrative processes.
The objective of electronic invoicing is for invoicing information to cease circulating solely between company and customer and instead become continuously integrated into the Administration's tax supervision systems.
Ultimately, Spain is moving toward a near real-time tax supervision system, but the true challenge lies in designing a coherent mechanism capable of coordinating SII, VeriFactu, and electronic invoicing under a single framework so that compliance costs for taxpayers remain minimal.
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