E-invoicing between businesses: what the regulation says and when it applies to you
Companies and the self-employed will have to send and receive the invoices they issue to each other in electronic format. This is set out in Royal Decree 238/2026, published in the BOE on 31 March 2026, which implements the «Crea y Crece» law. The deadlines don’t run from the decree but from the entry into force of an order from the Ministry of Finance (Hacienda): the draft that Hacienda put out for consultation in April sets that date as 1 October 2026.
When it applies to you
- Companies with a turnover above 8 million euros: 12 months after the order. With the draft’s date, 1 October 2027.
- Everyone else, self-employed included: 24 months. With the draft’s date, 1 October 2028.
- Self-employed individuals and joint ownerships (comunidades de bienes) get one more year for one specific part: reporting the status of invoices (36 months).
What changes
An invoice will no longer be a PDF sent by email: it becomes a structured file that the customer’s software reads automatically (the reference syntax is UBL). It can be sent through a private platform or through the free public solution being built by the Agencia Tributaria; anyone using a private platform must also send a copy to the public solution. And whoever receives the invoice must report whether they accept or reject it and when they pay it.
What doesn’t change
The obligation applies between businesses and professionals. The receipts a bar or a shop gives its private customers are not part of this; those fall under VeriFactu, which is a different rule with its own timetable. What is included are your suppliers’ invoices and the ones you issue to other businesses: catering for an office, goods you sell to a hotel, the rent on your premises.
Two years sounds like a lot, but the sensible move is to choose invoicing software now that will handle it, rather than switching programs twice: once for VeriFactu and again for e-invoicing.