Spain has taken a very significant step in recent days towards the introduction of mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses. On March 31 2026, Royal Decree 238/2026 was published in the Official State Gazette, setting out the Spanish mandatory B2B e-invoicing system and amending the country’s invoicing regulations.
The royal decree formally enters into force, but its effective application is deferred until the ministerial order establishing the technical specifications of the public e-invoicing solution is approved. From the entry into force of that order, the implementation periods will begin to run: 12 months for companies with an annual turnover exceeding €8 million, and 24 months for all others.
This means that, if the ministerial order is indeed approved during 2026, the realistic timetable places the material entry into force of mandatory e-invoicing for large operators in 2027 and, for the rest of the business community, in 2028. Therefore, unless there are further delays or regulatory adjustments, it may be expected that the obligation will become fully generalised in Spain during that year.
Article 3 of the new rule on e-invoicing provides that those who are required to issue invoices under the Spanish invoicing regulations must do so in electronic format where the recipient is a business or professional having in Spain the seat of its economic activity, a fixed establishment, or, failing that, its domicile or habitual residence, provided that the transaction is directed to that recipient in Spain.
An apparent excess in the scope of the Spanish regulatory framework
At first sight, the above wording may appear reasonable. However, its drafting is broad enough to cover situations in which the issuer of the invoice is a non-resident entity that, despite not being established in Spain, is still required to issue an invoice under Spanish rules. This may occur, for example, in certain transactions in which the reverse-charge mechanism does not apply, as may happen in some leases of immovable property located in Spain. In such cases, the non-resident supplier must issue its invoice in accordance with the Spanish invoicing rules. If Article 3 is read literally, it could also be concluded that the invoice must be issued in electronic format merely because it is addressed to a business established in Spain.
However, this provision raises doubts as to its compatibility with Article 218 of the EU’s VAT Directive, in so far as that provision appears to limit the power of member states to impose mandatory e-invoicing on taxable persons established within their territory. From this perspective, the new Spanish legislation may be extending its scope beyond what is permitted under EU law. It should also be recalled that this issue was already raised during the public consultation process for the measure, yet no amendment was ultimately introduced on this point.
This is not a minor issue but a matter with clear practical implications, since this type of transaction is relatively common in Spain. The affected suppliers could find themselves required to issue electronic invoices under Spanish legislation built around a complex system of interconnected digital platforms and a public solution managed by the tax authorities, being obliged to inform, in a very short period, of the status of each invoice (accepted, rejected, and paid). This represents a significant burden for those operators and operates in an area that, at least for the time being, does not appear to sit comfortably within the framework of the VAT Directive.
An increasingly crowded landscape of overlapping systems
That said, the significance of this reform lies not only in its timetable. What is truly relevant is that mandatory e-invoicing is not being introduced into an empty space, but into a Spanish system already heavily populated by reporting and control mechanisms. Since 2017, Spain has operated a real-time reporting system that is a mechanism for the electronic keeping and submission of VAT ledgers based on the near real-time transmission of invoicing data to the tax authorities. Added to this is the regime governing invoicing software systems, commonly known as VeriFactu.
The consequence is clear: within a very short period, the Spanish framework may end up combining mandatory B2B e-invoicing, the real-time reporting information system, and invoicing software systems with transaction-level reporting.
From the perspective of tax policy and tax control, the desire to strengthen the traceability of transactions is understandable. Nevertheless, from the taxpayer’s point of view and, above all, from the perspective of compatibility with EU law, important questions are beginning to arise, particularly in light of the ViDA Directive and the harmonised reporting system for B2B transactions that is expected to apply from 2030. It therefore seems necessary to start considering an adaptation strategy capable of ensuring that the Spanish model remains coherent with the future European framework.
