The head of government, Pedro Sánchez, mentioned on Tuesday in his interview on Rac1 some of his “non-compliance” with Junts that he intends to resolve. One of them, which was turned over to the Cabinet on Tuesday, is to postpone compliance requirements for the Verifactu invoice verification system, an IRS program that digitizes the process. It is designed to facilitate the process for SMEs and self-employed people and, at the same time, to tighten the Treasury’s control over these invoices. The Verifactu compliance period is scheduled for January 1, 2026 for companies paying corporate tax and July 1, 2026 for self-employed people and SMEs. With this postponement, according to the Treasury, the first will not be binding until January 2027 and the second until July 2027.
As the tax agency explains on its website, Verifactu is “the regulation that establishes the requirements that must be adopted by computer or electronic systems and programs that support the invoicing processes of business and professionals, and to standardize the formats of invoice records.” As of mid-November, only 8% of SMEs and self-employed workers had implemented this system, while 15% were in the process of doing so, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. TeamSystem Observatory: radiography and diagnostics for SMEs, freelancers and consultanciesproduced by Ipsos.
This Verifactu system seeks to ensure that invoices are issued only through approved software that ensures the authenticity, integrity and traceability of payments, in addition to facilitating immediate monitoring by the treasury. Penalties for non-compliance can reach €50,000.
In his interview on Tuesday, Sánchez announced the Cabinet’s approval of a royal decree that includes measures to “facilitate compliance with corporate tax obligations.” “We will extend this period to consolidate and enhance the digitalization of billing processes within these companies. This is something that the Catalan business community has been asking of us, and something that Junts has echoed,” commented the CEO’s president.
The president of the self-employed association ATA and also the vice president of the CEO, Lorenzo Amor, celebrated the announcement on the social network, where Omar had been calling for this postponement for weeks. “It was nonsense to start this like this,” Omar adds. “For now, it’s a relief.”
“The only thing that changes with Verifactu is that the Treasury will know all the income of professionals, and not change their current taxes,” lawyer Gonzalo de Luis noted in a recent report for this newspaper. He explained that the current VAT regulations will continue to operate and nothing will change in this regard. “Treasury compliance is inevitable, but the real benefit is in reducing late payments, accelerating collections and professionalizing the management of the entire business,” noted in the same text TeamSystem Spain CEO Emilio de la Fuente.