Spain is implementing one of the most comprehensive B2B e-invoicing mandates in Europe. After four years of legislative development since the Crea y Crece Law (Law 18/2022) first introduced the obligation in September 2022, the regulatory framework is now complete. Royal Decree 238/2026, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 31 March 2026, establishes the legal architecture of the system. The draft Ministerial Order, released for public consultation on 17 April 2026 (open until 8 May 2026), defines the technical specifications of the public platform and — critically — sets 1 October 2026 as the date from which all compliance deadlines begin to run.
This post covers what the system looks like, how invoices will flow through it, what obligations apply, and what the two newly published instruments change.
Why Spain Is Doing This
Unlike most European e-invoicing mandates, Spain’s B2B reform is not primarily a VAT compliance measure. Its driving policy objective is combating late payments in commercial transactions. Spain has one of the longest average payment periods in the EU — approximately 80 days, well above the 60-day legal maximum established by Law 3/2004 and the EU average. According to the government’s own data, only around 20% of large Spanish companies currently pay on time.
The system is designed to generate structured, traceable, real-time data on every B2B invoice: when it was issued, when it was accepted or rejected, and when it was actually paid. This data flows to AEAT (the Spanish tax authority), which shares it with the Ministry of Economy and the State Observatory of Private Late Payments for enforcement and public disclosure.
The secondary benefit — and a significant one — is the digitalisation of Spain’s business fabric. With SMEs representing approximately 99% of the productive sector, the mandate is expected to drive broad adoption of structured invoicing, reduce manual processing costs, and improve data quality for both businesses and tax authorities.
Spain’s Three Digital Invoicing Regimes
Before examining the new B2B mandate in detail, it is important to understand where it sits within Spain’s broader digital invoicing landscape. Three separate regulatory regimes coexist, each serving a different function.
SII (Suministro Inmediato de Información) has been operational since July 2017. It is a near-real-time VAT data reporting obligation for large taxpayers (turnover above €6,010,121.04), VAT groups, and businesses under the REDEME scheme — approximately 75,000 taxpayers. SII requires structured XML submission of invoice data to AEAT within four calendar days of issuance or receipt. Crucially, SII does not dictate invoice format: a business under SII may still issue PDF or paper invoices and report the data separately. Other taxpayers may opt into SII voluntarily.
Verifactu (SIF) regulates the invoicing software used to generate invoices. Introduced under Anti-Fraud Law 11/2021 and specified by Royal Decree 1007/2023, it requires certified billing systems to produce tamper-proof, sequentially chained invoice records with a digital fingerprint, QR code, and timestamp. After multiple delays, the current deadlines under Royal Decree-Law 15/2025 are 1 January 2027 for corporate taxpayers and 1 July 2027 for self-employed persons. Businesses under SII are exempt. Non-compliant invoicing software has been banned from sale since 29 July 2025.
Crea y Crece and Royal Decree 238/2026 govern the format, transmission, and exchange of B2B invoices between trading partners, plus mandatory invoice status reporting. This is the regime covered in this post.
The three are complementary, not substitutive. A single business may be subject to all three simultaneously: Crea y Crece for how it exchanges invoices, Verifactu for how its software generates them, and SII for how it reports VAT data. SII exempts from Verifactu, but not from Crea y Crece.
What Changed: Royal Decree 238/2026 and the Draft Ministerial Order
Two instruments published in March–April 2026 complete the regulatory package.
Royal Decree 238/2026 (BOE, 31 March 2026)
Approved by the Council of Ministers on 24 March 2026, this Royal Decree develops Article 12 of the Crea y Crece Law and amends the existing invoicing regulation (Royal Decree 1619/2012). It establishes:
- The scope: all domestic B2B transactions where the recipient is a business or professional established in Spain
- The system architecture: private platforms plus a public solution operated by AEAT
- The faithful copy (copia fiel) obligation for invoices exchanged outside the public solution
- Invoice status reporting requirements (acceptance, rejection, payment)
- Interoperability and interconnection rules for private platforms
- The phased timeline, linked to a forthcoming Ministerial Order
- Penalties and data confidentiality rules
The Royal Decree entered into force twenty days after publication, but its effective application is entirely deferred until the Ministerial Order takes effect.
Draft Ministerial Order (Public Consultation, 17 April 2026)
This order — still in draft — specifies the technical and functional rules of the public electronic invoicing solution (Solución Pública de Facturación Electrónica, or SPFE). It defines:
- The EN 16931 semantic model under UBL syntax as the mandatory standard for the public solution
- The unique invoice identification code structure (NIF + invoice number/series + issuance date)
- Procedures for invoice issuance, interconnection, and faithful copy submission (via web forms or web services)
- The payment status communication service and its technical format (UBL, per Annex II)
- Authentication mechanisms (electronic certificates, Cl@ve)
- The invoice retrieval service for private platforms and recipients
- Entry into force: 1 October 2026 — the date that triggers every compliance deadline in the system
The public consultation closes on 8 May 2026. Once finalised and published, this order activates the entire B2B e-invoicing rollout.
Implementation Timeline
| Date | Milestone |
| 31 March 2026 | Royal Decree 238/2026 published in the BOE |
| 17 April – 8 May 2026 | Draft Ministerial Order in public consultation |
| 1 October 2026 | Ministerial Order enters into force; all compliance deadlines begin |
| By 1 August 2027 | Public solution must be operational (at least two months before first effective application) |
| 1 October 2027 | Large businesses (turnover > €8M): mandatory e-invoicing — issuance, reception, and invoice status reporting all apply |
| 1 October 2027 | Private platform operators: faithful copy, interconnection, and technical requirements take effect |
| 1 October 2028 | All remaining businesses and professionals: mandatory e-invoicing — issuance and reception apply |
| 1 October 2029 | Invoice status reporting becomes mandatory for natural persons and entities under the income attribution regime with turnover ≤ €8M (36 months after entry into force). Until this date, status reporting is voluntary for this group. |
Transitional measure: During the first twelve months after each wave takes effect, issuers must accompany structured e-invoices with a PDF document ensuring legibility — unless the recipient expressly agrees to receive the structured format alone. Subcontractors using the existing FACeB2B registry have twenty-four months to migrate to the new system.
Who Must Comply
All businesses and professionals required to issue invoices under Royal Decree 1619/2012, where the recipient is another business or professional established in Spain (including foreign companies with a Spanish permanent establishment). Self-employed professionals and microenterprises are in scope. The €8 million threshold governs only sequencing — every entity must comply by 1 October 2028.
Exclusions: simplified invoices (unless “qualified”), regulated electricity and gas market operators, IATA clearing-house settlements (CASS, BSP, SIS-ICH), and B2C transactions. The Ministry of Economy may grant temporary sector-specific exclusions where compliance would materially disrupt an industry’s functioning.
How the System Works: Invoice Flow
The Spanish system operates on a hybrid architecture combining private platforms with a government-operated public solution. The invoice lifecycle works as follows:
Issuance and Transmission
The issuer generates a structured electronic invoice in one of the four accepted syntaxes (see Section 7) and transmits it to the recipient through one of two routes:
Route A — Private platform. The issuer’s platform routes the invoice to the recipient’s platform. If the two platforms are not yet directly interconnected, the public solution acts as the intermediary routing channel. At the moment of issuance, the issuer’s platform must simultaneously send a faithful electronic copy (copia fiel) of the invoice — in UBL syntax — to the public solution. This copy must preserve all semantically equivalent data elements and satisfy the minimum content requirements of Royal Decree 1619/2012. No attachments are permitted.
Route B — Public solution (SPFE). The issuer creates the invoice directly through AEAT’s web form (individual issuance) or web services (automated submission). The invoice is validated, assigned a secure verification code (CSV), and made available to the recipient. No faithful copy is needed — the invoice is already within the system.
A combination of both routes is permitted. Businesses that have not designated a private platform as their entry point are presumed to use the public solution by default.
Reception and Processing
The recipient receives the invoice through their designated platform or the public solution. Private platforms are obligated to automatically retrieve invoices exchanged via the public solution and make them available to the recipient immediately. Recipients may also access the public solution directly to download received invoices at any time.
Invoice Status Reporting
Once the invoice is received, the recipient must report its status back — both to the issuer and to the public solution (regardless of which channel was used for the original exchange).
Two mandatory statuses must be reported within four calendar days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays):
- Commercial acceptance or rejection, with the date
- Full effective payment, with the actual payment date
Three optional statuses may also be reported:
- Partial acceptance or rejection
- Partial payment (with amount and date)
- Assignment to a third party for collection or payment
The effective payment date is defined strictly as the date on which the supplier actually receives the funds — not the date a payment instruction is initiated or a financing mechanism activated. In the absence of rejection or a corrective invoice, the invoice is presumed accepted.
Corrections
If an invoice is incorrect, rejected, or does not correspond to the documented operation, the issuer may issue a credit note (to reduce or cancel the amount) or a debit note (to increase it). Both must reference the original invoice, be formatted in an accepted syntax, be digitally signed, and follow the standard submission process. If a faithful copy of the original has already been submitted, it may be cancelled through a “baja” message with full traceability preserved.
Data Availability
AEAT makes invoice and payment data available to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism for late-payment monitoring. During Q1 of each year, AEAT transmits to the State Observatory of Private Late Payments the data needed to compile the list of companies that failed to meet payment deadlines under Law 3/2004. Issuers and recipients may also consult their own invoice and payment data through the public solution at any time.
Accepted Invoice Formats
All e-invoices must conform to the EN 16931 semantic data model. Four syntaxes are accepted for exchange via private platforms:
- UBL (Universal Business Language) — the mandatory syntax for the public solution and for faithful copies. Peppol BIS messages are accepted where they employ UBL and comply with EN 16931.
- CII (Cross Industry Invoice) — UN/CEFACT XML
- EDIFACT — retained under ISO 9735 for industries with legacy EDI infrastructure
- Facturae — Spain’s national XML format, mandatory for B2G via FACe since 2015. Facturae remains a valid syntax for B2B exchange on private platforms, but cannot be used for invoices or copies submitted to the public solution.
Every invoice carries a unique identification code based on the concatenation of the issuer’s NIF, invoice number and series, and issuance date. All invoices exchanged via private platforms must carry an advanced electronic signature. No attachments or embedded files are permitted in the public solution.
Private Platform Requirements
Operators of private electronic invoice exchange platforms must satisfy the requirements set out in Article 13 of Royal Decree 238/2026:
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification (or equivalent) for information security
- AS2 or AS4 secure transmission protocols
- eIDAS-compliant advanced electronic signature and seal capability
- Ability to exchange and transform invoices across all four syntaxes while preserving authenticity and integrity
- Business continuity plans proportionate to transaction volume
- Data governance standards and security systems to prevent breaches
- Free interconnection with all other platforms in the system — operators must accept requests within one month, provide technical specs and a test environment, and may not charge fees
Interconnection may be established through direct links or network-based approaches such as Peppol. Where interconnection is not yet operational, both platforms must accept the public solution as the interim routing channel.
Archiving
Electronic invoices must be stored ensuring integrity, authenticity, legibility, and accessibility for a minimum of six years from the end of the fiscal year. Storage through the public solution, certified private platforms, or internal systems is permitted.
Penalties
- Up to €10,000 under Article 19 of Law 6/2020 for electronic trust service violations affecting invoice authenticity or integrity
- Up to €50,000 per fiscal year for non-compliance with Verifactu/SIF software requirements
- Additional administrative sanctions for failure to submit faithful copies, meet status reporting deadlines, or comply with platform interconnection obligations
ViDA Alignment
Spain’s adoption of EN 16931 as the semantic model and UBL as the public solution’s mandatory syntax positions businesses for the EU’s ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) cross-border reporting obligation, effective 1 July 2030. Businesses that achieve compliance with the Crea y Crece framework will be substantially prepared for ViDA’s intra-Community requirements — provided their platform provider implements the additional cross-border reporting layer.
