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Verifactu: key dates and what changes for an online store

Published on · Reviewed on · Taxes · 7 min read

Verifactu is the short name for a Spanish rule that changes how invoicing software has to work. If you run an online store in Spain and issue invoices with a program, it applies to you. Here are the dates, what changes on each invoice and what to check about the software you use.

Everything below comes from the Regulation on invoicing software systems (approved by Real Decreto 1007/2023), from Real Decreto-ley 15/2025, which moved the dates, and from the Spanish Tax Agency's (Agencia Tributaria, AEAT) frequently asked questions.

1. The dates

Real Decreto-ley 15/2025 pushed the deadline back. According to its article 3 and the Tax Agency's information note, invoicing systems must be adapted:

  • Companies (those filing Corporate Income Tax): before 01/01/2027.
  • Everyone else, self-employed people included: before 01/07/2027.

The regulation applies, among others, to personal income tax (IRPF) payers who carry out an economic activity (article 3.1.b). In other words, to a self-employed person selling online.

The Tax Agency adds that the time left until those dates is a testing period: you can send test records with a VERI*FACTU program and stop sending them, and keep invoicing with other software until the deadline.

2. Who it applies to and who it doesn't

The Tax Agency sums up who is in with four conditions. It applies to you if you are established in Spain, issue invoices and:

  • You use some software to invoice. Someone who writes every invoice by hand, in a receipt book, is out.
  • You are not on the Immediate Supply of Information system (SII).
  • Your tax address is not in the Basque Country or Navarre, which have their own rules.
  • You do not hold a decision that exempts you.

Online stores are in. The Tax Agency's FAQ asks the question directly, «¿Están afectadas las tiendas online?» (are online stores affected?), and answers yes: it makes no difference whether you sell in a shop or over the internet.

Spreadsheets come with a nuance. If you only use them to type, print and keep invoices, they are not an invoicing system. If you also use them to produce your VAT (IVA) or income tax books, your accounts or any other result used to meet your tax obligations, they are.

3. The two modes

The regulation allows two ways to comply:

  • VERI*FACTU (verifiable invoice issuing system). The software sends every invoicing record to the Tax Agency, online and automatically, as soon as it is created (article 16).
  • Non-verifiable invoice issuing system. The software sends nothing, but has to store the records so they cannot be altered for the whole limitation period, with more requirements: electronic signature of the records, an event log, export features and other controls.

According to the Tax Agency, with VERI*FACTU the user does not have to keep the records for years or hand them over when asked, because the Tax Agency already has them. In return, once you choose VERI*FACTU you have to stay in that mode at least until the end of the calendar year. You do not need to report it on form 036: starting to send the records is enough.

4. What an invoicing record is

Every time the software issues an invoice, it has to create, at the same time or just before, an invoicing record (registro de facturación de alta, article 9). It is a summary of the invoice with data set by the regulation (article 10), including:

  • your tax ID (NIF) and name, and the customer's when the invoice must show them;
  • the number, series and date;
  • whether it is a full, simplified or corrective invoice;
  • the VAT base, rate and amount, and the total;
  • part of the fingerprint of the previous record;
  • the exact date and time it was created, and details of the software that created it.

The fingerprint (hash) is a code calculated from the content of the record. Because each record carries part of the previous one's fingerprint, they form a chain: if someone changes an old record, the chain stops adding up.

That is why a record is never edited. If an invoice was wrong, a new record is created that cancels or replaces it, and the original stays as it was. In the Tax Agency's words, «no hay acciones permitidas sobre los registros de facturación una vez producidos» (no actions are allowed on invoicing records once they have been produced).

There is one chain per system and per business, not per series. The Tax Agency explains that when one system issues invoices in several series, all the records go into a single chain.

5. The QR code on the invoice

Invoices produced with an invoicing system carry a QR code in either mode. What changes is what it does for the customer:

  • If the software is VERI*FACTU, the customer scans the QR code and the Tax Agency tells them whether that invoice is in its records («Factura encontrada», found, or «Factura no encontrada», not found).
  • If it is not, the answer is «Factura no verificable» (cannot be verified), although the information stays with the Tax Agency.

Invoices from a VERI*FACTU program also carry the phrase «Factura verificable en la sede electrónica de la AEAT» or «VERI*FACTU» (article 6.5 of the Invoicing Regulation). According to the Tax Agency, the QR code goes at the start of the invoice, on the first page, and measures between 30 × 30 mm and 40 × 40 mm. On a structured e-invoice, which is not printed, the QR code is replaced by its content, including the verification address.

6. The Tax Agency does not approve software

This is often misunderstood. The Tax Agency does not review or approve any invoicing software. It is the maker who signs a statement of compliance (declaración responsable) saying that the software meets the law (article 13 of the regulation).

  • No outside review and no prior registration of the software is needed. The Tax Agency calls it the maker's own «auto-certificación» (self-certification).
  • The statement has to be visible inside the software and also outside it, so you can read it before signing up.
  • Each version of the software needs its own statement.

If a program tells you it is «approved by the Tax Agency», be wary: no such approval exists. What you should be able to see is the maker's statement of compliance.

7. What to check before July 2027

  1. What issues your invoices. List everything in your business that produces invoices: your invoicing software, the online store itself if it issues invoices, any installed app. All of it counts.
  2. Whether the software is VERI*FACTU. Ask which mode it works in and whether you can choose.
  3. The statement of compliance. Ask where it is and check that it matches the version you use.
  4. A single chain. If you issue invoices from two different places at once, ask how the records are chained, so you do not end up with crossed numbering or chains.
  5. Your accountant (gestor). Verifactu does not replace your record books or information returns. The Tax Agency says so: invoicing records do not replace the book of issued invoices or forms 347 and 349.

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

Sources

This article explains the general rule with its official sources. Your case may have exceptions: it doesn't replace your accountant.

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