How to write an invoice that does not come back
It is not a matter of taste: the regulations say exactly what it has to carry. Here are the fields one by one, when a till receipt is enough — and up to what amount, which almost nobody knows — and the deadlines almost nobody looks at.
The fields of a full invoice
They are in article 6 of the invoicing regulations, and they leave no room for interpretation:
- The number and, where applicable, the series, sequential.
- The date of issue, and the date of the transaction if it is different.
- First name and surname or company name of the issuer and of the customer.
- The NIF of whoever issues it, and the customer's in the cases the rules require: intra-Community supplies, reverse charge and domestic transactions when the customer is a business or a professional.
- The address of both parties.
- A description of the transaction, with the unit price excluding tax and any discounts not already included in it.
- The tax rate or rates applied.
- The output VAT, shown separately. A total marked «IVA incluido» is not enough.
And the wordings that save you from an adjustment when it matters: «inversión del sujeto pasivo», the reference to the provision granting an exemption, «facturación por el destinatario», or whichever special regime applies — travel agents, second-hand goods, the cash basis.
Without those fields, your customer cannot deduct the VAT
The regulations say so expressly: only an invoice meeting these requirements evidences the right to deduct. An incomplete invoice is not your problem: it is your customer's problem, and it ends up being yours when they send it back.
When a till receipt is enough, and up to what amount
A simplified invoice — what everybody calls a till receipt — can be issued up to €400 including VAT, and always for corrective invoices.
But there is a closed list of activities where the limit rises to €3,000 including VAT, with no need to ask anyone for authorisation. It is a fact that is widely ignored and that saves work:
| Activities with the €3,000 limit |
|---|
| Retail sales, including those made by manufacturers or processors |
| Sales or services on an itinerant basis and at the consumer's home |
| Passenger transport and their luggage |
| Hospitality and catering, dance halls and nightclubs |
| Hairdressers and beauty salons |
| Use of sports facilities |
| Photo developing and photographic studios |
| Vehicle parking and toll motorways |
| Film hire, dry cleaners and launderettes |
| Telephone services from call boxes or with non-personalised cards |
If your activity is not on that list, your cap is €400. And there are transactions where a simplified invoice is never allowed: intra-Community supplies, distance sales, reverse charge and transactions carried out outside the Community.
The simplified one carries fewer fields: number and series, dates, your NIF and your name, the type of goods or services, the tax rate and the total consideration. It does not carry the customer's details.
That said: if the customer is a business or a professional and asks for it so they can deduct the VAT, you have to add their NIF, their address and the output VAT shown separately. Without that, they cannot deduct.
Numbering and series
Numbering is sequential within each series, and there can be no gaps. That is the whole rule, and everything else follows from it:
- You can use separate series where there are reasons that justify it: several premises, transactions of a different nature.
- A separate series is compulsory for corrective invoices, for those issued by a third party or by the customer, and for certain specific reverse-charge cases.
- Full invoices and simplified ones each have their own sequential numbering — articles 6.1.a) and 7.1.a) — so in practice they go in separate series. The regulations do not impose that separation in those words, only the cases above, but mixing them in a single series is asking for things not to add up.
Starting the year at 1 is not compulsory, but it is the usual thing and the cleanest. What you cannot do is cancel an invoice and reuse its number: that leaves a gap, and a gap in the numbering is the first thing anyone looks at.
The deadlines almost nobody looks at
There are two, and they are different: one for issuing the invoice and another for getting it to the customer.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Issuing it, if the customer is a private individual | At the time the transaction is carried out |
| Issuing it, if the customer is a business or a professional | Before the 16th of the month following the chargeable event |
| Sending it to the customer | At the very moment it is issued; if the customer is a business or a professional, before the 16th of the following month |
| A recapitulative invoice for a month | The last day of the month at the latest; if the customer is a company, before the 16th of the next one |
| Corrective | As soon as the error is spotted, and always within four years |
When an invoice has to be corrected
With a corrective invoice, in its own series and referring to the one it corrects. Never by deleting or reusing the number.
There are two ways of expressing the correction and both are valid: by difference, showing only the amount of the correction with its sign, or by substitution, giving the final amount and also stating what the corrected one was.
There is no such thing as a «negative invoice»
It is a common expression with no backing in the rules. What exists is the corrective invoice of article 15, in its specific series. That the regulations allow the amount to be shown with its sign is a way of expressing the correction, not a type of invoice.
And what changes in 2027
Everything above will stay the same. What changes is what you issue with: from 1 January 2027 for companies and 1 July 2027 for autónomos, the program you invoice with will have to generate a chained record for every invoice, print a QR code and carry its maker's responsible declaration.
A Word template or a spreadsheet cannot do that. It is set out on the VeriFactu page and in is Excel an invoicing computer system?.
Invoice properly without having to remember the rules
The program puts in the fields, the series and the numbering. You write the item.
Frequently asked questions
A properly made invoice is not argued over
Not with the customer, not in an inspection, not three years later.
No minimum term · VeriFactu included · The program, in Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Basque and English