Mandatory e-invoicing between businesses and with public bodies

Rocío runs an office-supplies distributor in Seville whose turnover last year exceeded €9,500,000. Every month she emails about a thousand invoices as PDFs. A large customer writes that 'mandatory e-invoicing starts in January' and asks her to get ready. Her software supplier gives her another date, and a forum a third. On 5 October 2026, what exactly does the law say, and what sets the start date?

An emailed PDF is not a mandatory electronic invoice

The Invoicing Regulation defines an electronic invoice as one issued, transmitted and received in electronic format. Today its use requires the recipient's consent, except in the mandatory cases of the new article 8 bis. A PDF sent by email can be an electronic invoice the customer has agreed to, but it does not meet the business-to-business obligation.

The mandatory electronic invoice must have the technical features of article 7 of Real Decreto 238/2026: a structured computer message, following the European semantic model EN16931, in one of the accepted syntaxes. A program reads it without human input, whereas a PDF is designed to be read by a person.

The program that produces the electronic invoice must also meet the requirements for invoicing software. Article 2 bis.6 of Ley 56/2007 says so expressly: systems that manage invoicing and keep electronic invoices must comply with article 29.2.j) and its implementing rules.

The rule in the law: every business, with every other

Article 2 bis.1 of Ley 56/2007, as worded by Ley 18/2022 on business creation and growth, is short: all businesses and professionals must issue, send and receive electronic invoices in their commercial dealings with other businesses and professionals. Issuer and recipient must report on the invoice's statuses.

• E-invoicing platforms must guarantee free interconnection and interoperability (paragraph 2)
• For four years after issue, the recipient may ask for a copy of its invoices at no extra cost (paragraph 3)
• The recipient cannot force the issuer to use a particular solution, platform or provider (paragraph 3 bis)
• Electronic invoices must in every case comply with the specific invoicing rules (paragraph 6)

The obligation reaches the self-employed person invoicing a single company just as it reaches the large distributor. Size only changes when it takes effect, the source of almost all the confusion about dates.

When it takes effect: a chain of three links

First link: the eighth final provision of Ley 18/2022 makes the obligation take effect one year after the implementing regulation is approved for those invoicing more than eight million euros a year, and two years after for everyone else. It also makes its entry into force conditional on an EU exception to the VAT Directive.

That exception concerns articles 218 and 232 of Directive 2006/112/EC. Directive (EU) 2025/516, with which the preamble of Real Decreto 238/2026 declares itself consistent, amended them from its entry into force so that Member States may require e-invoicing without the recipient's acceptance. No Spanish text read states that the condition is met.

Second link: the implementing regulation is Real Decreto 238/2026 of 25 March, published in the BOE on 31 March 2026 and in force since 20 April 2026. Being in force does not mean it already binds anyone: its fourth final provision defers its actual application.

Third link: that provision counts the periods from the entry into force of the ministerial order that governs the public e-invoicing solution. Actual application comes twelve months later for those whose turnover exceeded 8 million euros in the immediately preceding calendar year, which the text does not pin down, and twenty-four months later for everyone else.

That order now exists: Orden HAC/1028/2026, published in BOE no. 247 of 5 October 2026, has been in force since 6 October 2026. Its single final provision starts the running of the periods.

The conclusion Rocío needs is a calculation: article 5.1 of the Civil Code counts periods set in months from date to date. The twelve months of those whose turnover exceeded 8 million euros the previous year end on 6 October 2027; everyone else's twenty-four, on 6 October 2028. The obligation applies from each end date.

Private platforms have their own timetable: faithful copies, interconnection and technical requirements will apply twelve months after that entry into force, from 6 October 2027. The public solution must be available at least two months before that first application: by 6 August 2027 at the latest. No rule read states these dates.

Who is covered and which invoices fall outside

Article 3 of Real Decreto 238/2026 builds on the Invoicing Regulation: anyone required to issue an invoice must do so electronically when the recipient is a business or professional with its place of business, a permanent establishment or, failing that, its domicile in Spain, and the transaction is addressed there.

Sales to final consumers fall outside this obligation, as do invoices to business customers established in another country. To decide who counts as a business or professional, the decree refers to article 5 of the VAT Law.

Article 4 excludes the simplified invoices of article 4 of the Invoicing Regulation, except the qualified ones of article 7.2: those where the business recipient requires its details to be added. An ordinary simplified invoice is possible up to €400 including VAT and, in certain sectors, up to €3,000.

Also excluded are the regulated activities of the electricity market operator and the organised gas market, and transactions settled through IATA clearing houses. The Ministry of Economy may exclude other transactions by order, in principle temporarily and where a sector faces serious difficulty adapting.

Accepted formats

Article 7.1 accepts four syntaxes, all following the EN16931 model: CII, UBL with any necessary adaptations, the EDIFACT invoice message and the Facturae message. The preamble justifies Facturae by its established use in invoicing public bodies and EDIFACT by its spread across many sectors.

Every electronic invoice is identified by a unique code that must include the issuer's tax number, the invoice number and series and the issue date. Invoices sent through private platforms must carry an advanced electronic signature, by the issuer or by authorised delegated signature, under article 7.3.

Private platforms must be able to convert the message between all accepted formats without affecting its authenticity or integrity. If issuer and recipient use different platforms, the syntax is the one they agree; without agreement, the one the public solution requires. The customer may only ask for extra data if this has been agreed by contract.

Private platforms and the public solution

The Spanish e-invoicing system combines two routes, under article 5: private exchange platforms that meet the decree's requirements, and the public solution run by the Agencia Tributaria, which also acts as the invoice repository. A business may use one, the other or both.

The public solution is the default route. A business that has not expressly agreed with its suppliers to receive invoices through a private platform is deemed to choose it, with no declaration needed. A business that picks a private platform must publish its entry point in its communications with other businesses and, if it has one, on its website.

Platforms that do not issue through the public solution must send it, at the moment of issue, a faithful copy of each invoice in UBL syntax. This way the Agencia Tributaria gathers every business-to-business invoice and can measure payment times. Access to the public solution is free for users.

Interconnection: one month and free of charge

A private platform must connect with any other when a customer asks, and accept every request it receives. The connection must be working within one month of the request at most, with technical specifications and a test environment made available to the requesting platform.

Until the connection works, the requesting platform deposits the invoices in the public solution, and the receiving platform must accept them through that route. It may never charge the requesting platform for setting up the connection on time, in line with the free-of-charge rule in article 2 bis.2 of Ley 56/2007.

Invoice statuses and reporting payment

Article 10 requires the recipient to inform the issuer of two statuses: commercial acceptance or rejection of the invoice, with its date, and full actual payment, with the actual payment date. It may also report partial acceptance or payment, and the assignment of the invoice to a third party, on a voluntary basis.

The deadline is short: four calendar days from the status event, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and national public holidays. Article 12 also requires full payment to be reported to the public solution within the same period, with the due date, and rejection to be reported too, without a set period, whether or not the business uses a private platform.

Without a rejection or a later corrective invoice, article 12 presumes the invoice accepted. In day-to-day terms, rejecting a wrong invoice is no longer a phone call to the supplier: it must be recorded, with a date, in whatever system the business uses.

Three transitional periods

The second transitional provision targets those above 8 million euros. For the twelve months after the decree takes effect for them, they must attach to their electronic invoices a PDF ensuring legibility, unless the recipient expressly accepts the original format alone. That PDF is not sent to the public solution.

The third transitional provision eases things for individuals and income-attribution entities that did not exceed 8 million euros. The obligation to report invoice statuses applies to them twelve months after the decree takes effect for them; until then, reporting is voluntary.

The first transitional provision concerns subcontractors on public contracts who currently submit their invoices to the main contractor through the FACeB2B register. They have twenty-four months from the entry into force of the ministerial order to move to the new system, which will replace it.

Invoices to public bodies: an obligation that already exists

E-invoicing the public sector is not new. Since Ley 25/2013, every supplier to a public body may issue electronic invoices, and public and private limited companies, among the other entities listed in article 4, must use them and submit them through the relevant general entry point.

• Sociedades anónimas and sociedades de responsabilidad limitada
• Legal persons and entities without legal personality that lack Spanish nationality
• Permanent establishments and branches of non-resident entities
• Temporary business joint ventures and the groupings and funds listed in letter f)

The same article lets each public body exclude invoices of up to €5,000 from that obligation by regulation. A self-employed individual is not on the mandatory list: they may invoice a public body electronically, but the law does not require it. Check the rules of the receiving public body in each case.

Ley 25/2013 requires a structured format and an advanced electronic signature or seal based on a recognised certificate. Each public body has a general entry point that registers the invoice, issues a receipt showing date and time and lets the supplier track its processing. Its second additional provision refers to Facturae 3.2 until the planned order is approved.

Payment times at the heart of the system

The preamble of Real Decreto 238/2026 explains the purpose: measuring actual payment times between businesses to reduce late payment. Article 15 calculates each invoice's payment period under article 4 of Ley 3/2004 and, if the invoice does not state the transaction date, from its issue date.

Each first quarter, the Agencia Tributaria will send the State Observatory on Private Late Payment the information needed to list companies that failed to meet payment deadlines in the previous year and meet the conditions of the sixth final provision of Ley 18/2022. Paying late will no longer go unseen: the payment date is recorded in the public solution.

Getting ready with the timetable now fixed

It is worth preparing without delay. The first step is to measure last year's turnover to know which timetable applies. The second is to ask the software supplier whether it will issue in an accepted syntax, with an advanced signature, and whether it will send the faithful copy to the public solution.

The third step is to organise receipt: choose between the public solution and a private platform, publish the entry point where needed and make someone responsible for acceptances, rejections and payments within four days. The last: note the calculated dates, 6 October 2027 and 2028, and watch the Sede.