Royal Decree 1007 of 5 December 2023 was published in the Spanish State Journal on 6 December 2023. This approved the Regulations establishing the requirements to be adopted in relation to IT or electronic systems and programmes that support corporate and professional invoicing processes, along with the standardisation of formats for invoicing records.

The technical requirements for the IT systems regulated under this royal decree make it possible for the records containing the information generated to be standardised, as well as allowing these records to be submitted to the Tax Authorities. They also ensure that the extraction and submission of any invoicing data that is to be forwarded to the Tax Authorities is made in their original format, without any alterations to the records containing the information generated when issuing the invoice documents in electronic or physical form.

Furthermore, within a short period of time, and at the latest by 1 July 2025, paper invoices and invoices prepared in other formats (i.e. Word, Excel and pdf) will no longer be valid for accounting and tax purposes; for this reason, both businesses and self-employed workers will have to have the relevant IT programme in order to generate the necessary electronic invoices.

At present, this measure remains pending implementation by means of the relevant Ministerial Order, which will define the system’s other technical and functional specifications.