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If you are self-employed in Spain, you should know how to make a complete invoice. This article interests you if you don’t know what it must contain to be completely valid. 

Requirements to issue a complete invoice

Below, we explain the requirements that all invoices and their respective copies must contain, listed in article 6 of the Regulation that regulates billing obligations.

1. Complete invoice number

And, if applicable, correlative series. That is, you can issue invoices with separate series when there are reasons that justify it. For example, in the case of a corrective invoice, it is mandatory to have a different billing series.

Let’s see it with an example:

If your billing for 2022 starts with 22 and a total of 4 digits, the first invoice would be 2201. Therefore, if you issue a corrective invoice for it, you could do so with the numbering 12, for example thus: 1201. 

2. The date of the complete invoice

It is crucial that the numbering of your invoices is correlative both in number and date. Therefore, this example would be incorrect:

Invoice 1: 2201 dated 21/06/2022 

Invoice 2: 2202 dated 19/06/2022

3. Name and surnames on the complete invoice

You must include the full name or company name, both of the person obliged to issue the invoice and of the recipient of the operations. One of the reasons why these invoices are called “complete” is because they include the complete data of the company or professional to whom you issue the invoice. 

4. NIF or NIE of the one issuing the invoice

It is also mandatory to enter the NIF of the recipient in the following cases: 

• In the case of a delivery of goods destined for another Member State that is exempt by article 25 of the VAT Law.
• An operation whose recipient is the taxpayer of the corresponding VAT.
• If it is about operations that are understood to be carried out in the territory of application of VAT and the businessman or professional obliged to issue the invoice must be considered established in said territory.

5. Address

Both of the person obliged to issue an invoice and of the recipient of the operations. Suppose these have several fixed places where they carry out their activity. In that case, you must indicate the location of the activity headquarters or establishment to which they refer in the cases in which said reference is relevant for determining the corresponding tax regime.

When the recipient of the operations is a natural person who does not act as a business person or professional, the consignment of their address will not be mandatory.

6. Description of the operations

Including all the data necessary to determine the VAT tax base is essential. Moreover, we recommend you include the description of products or services you offer in as much detail as possible. 

Remember that in the case of rebilling expenses, this description must indicate the invoice number containing the expense you rebill. Read more about rebilling expenses here.

7. The type of tax applied

Here we also include the tax rates, if applicable, applied to the operations. We refer to the taxes applied as VAT or IRPF if they apply.

8. The tax quota 

That is the base according to the type of tax that is applied. For example, if the VAT you apply is 21% on a tax base of €1,000, this tax rate would be €210.

9. Date of the documented transactions 

That is the date you received the advance payment, as long as it is different from the invoice issuance date.

When to issue a complete invoice

The usual thing is that in the case of business people and professionals, they are obliged to issue and deliver invoices for each of the operations they carry out. 

However, you can include all the operations carried out for the same recipient in a single invoice. Of course, you must issue them no later than the last day of the calendar month you carried out the operations.

If the recipient of these is a businessman or professional, they must make the issue within one month from that day. These invoices must be issued before the 16th day of the month following the VAT settlement period during which the operations were carried out.

Finally, remember that the obligation to issue and send the originals of the invoices or substitute documents is yours! If the customer asks for a copy of the invoice, you are also obligated to provide it.

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