Simplified invoices, full invoices and returns in ecommerce

An online store issues lots of small invoices, almost all to consumers, and every now and then there is a return. Here is when a simplified invoice is enough, when you need a full one and how to document a return with a corrective invoice, with a worked example.

Everything here comes from the Spanish Invoicing Regulation (Real Decreto 1619/2012) and the Spanish VAT (IVA) Act.

1. You must invoice, consumers included

Article 2 of the Invoicing Regulation requires businesses and professionals to issue an invoice and keep a copy for the sales and services of their activity, «sin más excepciones que las previstas» (with no exceptions other than those provided for) in the regulation itself. Selling to a consumer online is not, in general, one of them. The exceptions in article 3 are specific cases, such as the equivalence surcharge, which we cover in its own article. What changes is the type of invoice you can use.

2. The simplified invoice: when it is allowed

Article 4 allows a simplified invoice in these cases:

• Up to €400 including VAT, for any transaction.
• Up to €3,000 including VAT for retail sales, even if you made the product yourself. A retail sale is a sale of goods to someone who is not acting as a business or professional but as the final consumer. It is not a retail sale if the product, by its nature or presentation, is mainly for professional use.
• When you have to issue a corrective invoice, whatever the amount.

And you cannot use it, however small the amount, in these cases that affect online stores:

• Exempt sales to businesses in other EU countries (intra-Community supplies under article 25 of the VAT Act).
• Sales to consumers in other EU countries that are taxed in the customer's country, unless you declare them through the One Stop Shop. We explain this in the article on the EU VAT One Stop Shop.

3. What each one must show

Detail	Simplified (art. 7)	Full (art. 6)
Number and series	Yes	Yes
Date of issue	Yes	Yes
Your tax ID (NIF) and name	Yes	Yes, plus your address
Customer's name, tax ID and address	Only if they ask (see below)	Name and address always; tax ID in the cases of article 6.1.d
What you sell	Type of goods	Description, unit price excluding VAT and discounts
VAT rate	Yes (it may say «IVA incluido», VAT included)	Yes
VAT amount shown separately	Only if they ask (see below)	Yes
Amount	Total consideration	Taxable base of the transactions

If a business or professional customer asks for the invoice to deduct the VAT, you must add their tax ID, their address and the VAT amount shown separately to the simplified invoice (article 7.2). The same applies if a consumer asks for it to exercise a tax right (article 7.3).

If one order includes products at different VAT rates, both types of invoice must show the base for each rate separately.

4. Returns: the corrective invoice

When a customer returns a product and you refund them, the sale is cancelled in full or in part. Article 80.Dos of the VAT Act says that the taxable base «se modificará en la cuantía correspondiente» (shall be adjusted by the corresponding amount). Article 15.2 of the Invoicing Regulation then requires a corrective invoice (factura rectificativa) whenever one of the article 80 cases arises.

What it must look like:

• A new invoice that identifies the invoice it corrects (article 15.4). The original is not edited or deleted.
• In its own series of corrective invoices.
• It can be a simplified invoice, whatever the amount (article 4.1.b).
• It can show the amount of the correction directly, or the amounts as they stand after the correction, also stating how much was corrected (article 15.5).
• It is issued as soon as you know it is needed, and at the latest within the following four years (article 15.3).

There is one exception: if the return is offset against a later sale to the same customer, and everything is at the same VAT rate, you can subtract the returned amount on the invoice for that new sale instead of issuing a corrective invoice (article 15.2).

5. A partial return, worked through

These amounts are only an example. A customer buys two T-shirts at €29.95 each, VAT included, and pays €4.95 for shipping, also VAT included. Everything is at 21%. The store issues a simplified invoice:

Item	Total incl. VAT	Base	VAT 21%
2 T-shirts	€59.90	€49.50	€10.40
Shipping	€4.95	€4.09	€0.86
Original invoice	€64.85	€53.59	€11.26

The customer returns one T-shirt and the store refunds €29.95. Shipping is not refunded. The corrective invoice subtracts that T-shirt's share: half the base and half the VAT of the line.

Item	Total incl. VAT	Base	VAT 21%
Correction: 1 T-shirt returned	−€29.95	−€24.75	−€5.20
The sale after the return	€34.90	€28.84	€6.06

Note two things. First, the VAT on the return comes from splitting the VAT already charged on that line (€10.40 across two T-shirts, €5.20 each). That way the total adds up: €5.20 refunded plus €6.06 remaining equals the €11.26 on the original invoice. Second, for your margin the remaining sale is €28.84, not €34.90, because VAT is not your income. You can check it with the order profit calculator.

6. Which quarter the VAT is corrected in

When the return and the sale fall in different quarters, you need to know on which Form 303 that VAT is subtracted. The answer depends on the details of each case, and we do not give it here: check it with your accountant (gestor) before filing the quarter. What you do need is the corrective invoice with its date and the reference to the original invoice, because that is what your accountant needs to decide.

7. And with Verifactu

With invoicing software adapted to Verifactu, the corrective invoice is a new invoice with its own record, chained to the previous ones. The original invoice and its record are never changed. We cover this in the article on Verifactu for online stores.

If you want to see orders, returns and invoices side by side in one dashboard, have a look at the Plentia demo.

Sources

• BOE · Real Decreto 1619/2012, Invoicing Regulation (arts. 2, 4, 6, 7 and 15, in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026
• BOE · Ley 37/1992, Spanish VAT Act (art. 80, in Spanish) · checked on 26/09/2026