An invoice is much more than an accounting document: it’s the legal and tax-related proof of any transaction involving the delivery of goods or services in Spain. To ensure the legality of transactions before the Tax Agency and allow customers to exercise their tax rights (such as VAT deduction), it’s important to know when a full standard invoice is mandatory and when it can be replaced by a simplified invoice.

Digitization and the fight against fraud have boosted the expansion of electronic invoicing: according to the 12th Electronic Invoicing Study (XII Estudio de Facturación Electrónica), almost 558 million structured electronic invoices were processed in 2024, representing an increase of 21.18% compared with the previous year. Since records began in 2012, the total number of electronic invoices issued amounts to more than 2.6 billion.

While these figures mainly reflect B2B transactions—in which it’s always mandatory to provide an invoice to the customer—B2B transactions are not the only ones that must comply with this obligation in Spain. In this guide, we explain the cases in which the law requires providing an invoice to the customer and the penalties that apply to companies for failing to comply with this obligation.

What’s in this article:

• When is it mandatory to issue an invoice in Spain?
  
• When is it not mandatory to issue an invoice in Spain?
  
• What information must an invoice contain in Spain?
  
• Penalties for not issuing an invoice when required
  
• How Stripe can help simplify customer invoicing
  
• Frequently asked questions about customer invoicing obligations in Spain
  

When is it mandatory to issue an invoice in Spain?

In Spain, several regulations establish invoicing obligations. For example, Royal Decree 1619/2012 approved the entry into force in January 2013 of the regulation governing invoicing obligations, while the Create and Grow Law (Ley Crea y Crece) introduced mandatory electronic invoicing requirements for companies and self-employed professionals. These regulations establish different obligations depending on the recipient of the transaction: customers (B2C), businesses (B2B), or government (B2G). Let's take a look at each of these cases:

Transactions with customers (B2C)

As a general rule, in B2C transactions, there’s an obligation to document all transactions, although documentation doesn’t always have to be in the form of a full standard invoice. Issuing simplified invoices (commonly known as “receipts” or “sales slips”) is sufficient to comply with the obligation to provide invoices to customers as long as the sales amount doesn’t exceed €400 (VAT included). This limit increases to €3,000 (VAT included) in some cases, such as the following:

• Retail sales
  
• Sales or services delivered to a customer’s home
  
• Personal services (hairdressing, beauty treatments, photo developing, dry cleaning, and laundry)
  
• Leisure services (dance halls, nightclubs, and movie rentals)
  
• Hospitality services
  
• Vehicle-related services (toll highways and parking lots or car parks)
  
• Ambulance services
  

An important aspect to consider is that the customer always has the right to request a standard invoice. In a B2C transaction, if a customer requests or agrees to receive an invoice from a company, the company is obliged to issue it. One of the reasons a customer might request an invoice is to provide evidence of an expense for tax purposes; for example, if a customer buys a solar panel for their home, they need the invoice to document the expense and to qualify for subsidies, such as those offered by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE).

In addition to cases where the consumer requests an invoice for their purchase, there are three scenarios in which it’s mandatory to provide an invoice, even if the customer does not expressly request it:

• Sale of products that require installation or assembly before being made available to customers, regardless of whether the final process is carried out by the company itself or is an outsourced service
  
• Distance sales of products subject to excise taxes, such as alcohol and gasoline
  
• Distance sales to private customers or nonprofit organizations in other EU countries
  

Transactions with businesses (B2B)

In B2B transactions, it’s always mandatory to provide an invoice to the customer, even if the transaction is exempt from VAT because it’s an intracommunity transaction or an export. These types of transactions are very common in Spain, which ranks as the EU country with the seventh-highest volume of intracommunity transactions, with a total of €255.921 million in exports from January to August 2025.

When a professional customer makes a purchase in a personal capacity, it’s not mandatory to provide them with a full invoice. For example, if a financial advisor usually buys all their office supplies at the stationery store in their neighborhood (and receives a full invoice for each purchase), when they buy school supplies for their daughters at that same store, the store is not required to provide them with a full invoice; the simplified invoice issued in B2C transactions will suffice. However, if a company has doubts about whether a purchase is professional or personal in nature, it’s advisable to provide a full invoice to ensure compliance and avoid potential penalties.

Transactions with the government (B2G)

If the customer is a public sector entity included in Article 2 of Law 39/2015, such as the Autonomous Communities and public universities, the company is obligated to provide them with a full invoice. This requirement applies to all providers that conduct B2G transactions, such as software as a service (SaaS) companies that implement citizen identification solutions.

Furthermore, Law 25/2013 requires that these invoices be issued in electronic format and submitted through the FACe platform if the amount exceeds €5,000, except in the case of invoices for services sold abroad. Data from the Report on Electronic Invoices Submitted to Government Agencies Through FACe reveals that, between January 15, 2015, and September 30, 2025, more than 141 million invoices were recorded, most of which were issued for Autonomous Communities and city councils.

When is it not mandatory to issue an invoice in Spain?

Most exemptions from the obligation to issue and deliver invoices to customers, as set out in the VAT regulations and special regimes, are truly exceptional. While these cases are rare, here is a summary to help you check whether they apply to your business activity:

• Transactions carried out under the following special regimes:
  
  • Equivalence surcharge regime—except for real estate sales
    
  • Simplified VAT regime—except for sales of fixed assets (i.e., goods the company acquires for long-term use, such as machinery or vehicles)
    
• Operations where the Tax Agency allows invoices not to be issued in order to avoid problems in the conduct of economic activity, such as sales via vending machines and other unattended payment terminals
  
• Operations by businesses or professionals specifically exempted by the Tax Agency from the obligation to issue and deliver invoices. This explicit exemption requires justified reasons, such as technical difficulties in issuing invoices (for example, on platforms handling high volumes of micropayments)
  
• Private tutoring by self-employed individuals, provided the subjects taught are part of official study plans
  
• Professional services by authors, editors, and artists, including copyright payments
  
• Social assistance services provided by public or private nonprofit entities, such as care for the elderly or people with disabilities
  
• Education and training services provided by authorized public or private centers, such as day care centers, language schools, and universities
  
• Certain leases that can be considered services, such as renting farmland
  
• Assignment of personnel by religious entities for health care and teaching activities
  
• Insurance, reinsurance, and capitalization operations, including customer acquisition
  
• Certain financial operations, such as deposits and the granting of credit
  
• Services provided by public entities, federations, committees, or social sports clubs related to their core activity (excluding sporting events)
  
• Cultural services provided by public or private nonprofit entities, such as visits to museums and theater performances
  
• Lotteries, betting, and games run by state agencies (such as Loterías y Apuestas del Estado and ONCE) or their equivalents in the autonomous communities
  
• Social Security benefits, except for medication or medical supplies
  
• Basic postal services provided by the official postal operator (Correos)
  
• Sales of postage stamps at no higher than their official price
  

What information must an invoice contain in Spain?

There’s certain information that must be included on all invoices (and in some cases, additional information is required). This is the information all invoices must contain:

• Invoice number (and series, if applicable)
  
• Date of issue
  
• Tax identification number
  
• Name and tax domicile of the issuing company
  
• Name and tax domicile of the customer
  
• Description and price of each product or service
  
• VAT rates
  
• VAT amount
  

Spanish regulations include several cases in which the invoice must include additional information. For example, if transactions are exempt from VAT, it’s mandatory to explicitly state that the rate applied is 0% and to cite the legal provision that justifies the exemption. If the invoice is for an intracommunity transaction, the list of mandatory information is even more extensive, including the need to cite the European VAT number of the issuer and the recipient. The list of scenarios requiring specific information on invoices is extensive, so we recommend consulting our guide on How to Create an Invoice in Spain to learn the particularities of each situation and help avoid incurring penalties.

Penalties for not issuing an invoice when required

In Spain, there are two laws that govern the penalties for companies and self-employed individuals who fail to comply with the obligation to provide invoices to customers: the General Tax Law and the Create and Grow Law. Below is a summary of the consequences provided by these laws:

Penalties under the General Tax Law

In accordance with Article 201 of Law 58/2003 (General Tax Law), failure to provide an invoice to a customer when it’s mandatory to do so constitutes a serious offense that carries the following penalties:

• If the invoice has been issued, but has not been provided to the customer: 1% of the total invoice amount
  
• If the invoice has not been issued or provided to the customer: 2% of the total invoice amount
  

If the amount cannot be determined, the penalty is €300 for each transaction in which an invoice is not provided to the customer. These minimum penalties can be increased according to the criteria for determining tax penalties defined in Article 187, such as repeat offenses and the harm caused to the Tax Agency. Therefore, in some cases, the penalty can increase by 25%.

Penalties under the Create and Grow Law

The Create and Grow Law, as it comes into force following publication of the final regulations, will penalize companies that fail to provide electronic invoices to their customers, if they’re required to do so. In some cases, this breach of the law will result in a warning; however, if the breach is considered serious under Law 6/2020—such as resisting an inspection—the fine could be as high as €10,000.

VAT penalties

Not providing an invoice can be considered an attempt to evade paying taxes, an act that’s subject to VAT penalties in Spain. Depending on the severity and recurrence of the offense, the offending company could incur extra charges, monetary fines, or even criminal liability.

How Stripe can help simplify customer invoicing

After completing a sale, it’s common for a company to prepare an invoice using specialized software, provide it to the customer in person or by email, and collect payment through a payment gateway. If disconnected systems are used to complete this process, it can lead to difficulties, such as errors in data entry or delays in issuing invoices and collecting payment.

By working with a complete payment platform, such as Stripe Payments, each of these steps is integrated into a complete solution that automates all processes of invoice issuance, collection, and payment reconciliation. With Stripe, you can simplify customer data collection (for example, by allowing customers to indicate that the billing address is the same as the shipping address) and accept payments in more than 195 countries with your customers’ preferred ecommerce payment methods, such as credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and even installment payment options.

To further streamline your company’s operations, Stripe has its own App Marketplace, a library of applications that integrate seamlessly with your payment platform and adapt to the specific needs of your business.

One of the applications available in the Stripe App Marketplace is Billit, a pioneering electronic invoicing platform in Europe that focuses on ensuring compliance with the various electronic invoicing requirements across the EU. Billit has automation features that allow you to link your company's bank account and simplify the reconciliation of your invoices.

The Stripe App Marketplace also includes Invopop, a solution developed in Spain that offers features specifically designed to comply with Spanish regulations. One of its most important functions is its full integration with the VeriFactu system. After the entry into force of the final regulations, currently set for January 2027, this system will be mandatory for submitting invoices in real time to the Tax Agency. Furthermore, Invopop complies with certain regional regulations, such as TicketBAI in the Basque Country; in fact, it’s listed as certified software for TicketBAI by the Provincial Tax Authorities of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya.

Frequently asked questions about customer invoicing obligations in Spain

Are invoices required to be issued in physical or digital format?

Although the Create and Grow Law introduces electronic invoicing obligations, it’s not always mandatory to provide invoices to customers in digital format, for example, when the transactions are documented with simplified invoices. However, if an individual agrees or explicitly requests to receive electronic invoices, the company must provide them electronically and allow the customer to request copies without incurring any additional costs.

Can sales slips or receipts be provided instead of invoices?

Yes, sales slips or receipts can be provided if the transactions are B2C transactions that do not exceed the general limit of €400 (or €3,000 in the retail sector). However, please note that since Royal Decree 1619/2012 came into force, these documents ceased to be called sales slips or receipts and became, for legal purposes, simplified invoices. Unlike full standard invoices, simplified invoices do not require customer identification or sequential numbering within each series.

What is the deadline for issuing and delivering an invoice?

The deadlines for issuing and delivering an invoice vary depending on the recipient and the type of invoice. In all cases, the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) specifies that a transaction is considered “carried out” at the moment that VAT is accrued (i.e., when the obligation to collect it arises). Here are the specific deadlines for each type of operation:

• Full standard B2C invoice: Must be issued when the transaction is completed.
  
• Full standard B2B invoice: Before the 16th of the month following the transaction being completed.
  
• Summary B2C invoice: Last day of the calendar month in which the transactions are completed.
  
• Summary B2B invoice: Before the 16th of the month following the transactions being completed.
  
• Intracommunity invoice: Before the 16th of the month following the start of the shipment or transport of goods.
  
• Corrective invoice: Must be issued as soon as the reason for the correction is known. It must be sent before the 16th of the month following the issuance of the corrective invoice.