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VAT invoicing

Invoicing obligation, exceptions, types of invoices and contents

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Invoices issued by the recipient or by a third party

The billing documents that must be issued by an entrepreneur or professional can be materially prepared by a third party or by the recipient of the operation (customer). In any case, the issuer of the invoice, responsible for the fulfilment of the duty, is still the employer or professional who carries out the operation, so his identifying data shall be the ones featuring in the document (Article 5 Billing Regulations).

The following requirements must be met:

  • There must be an agreement between the business owner or professional that carries out the transactions and the recipient of these transactions, under which the former authorises the latter to issue the invoices. This agreement will have to be subscribed prior to the performance of the operations, and it should specify the operations it refers to.

  • Each invoice issued in this manner must undergo a procedure of acceptance by the business owner or professional that has carried out the transaction. This procedure will be arranged as decided by the two parties.

  • The transaction recipient that issues the invoices corresponding to said transactions must deliver a copy to the business owner or professional that carried them out.

  • These invoices shall be issued in the name and on behalf of the business owner or professional that has carried out the transactions listed on the invoices.

When the transaction recipient or the third party that issues the invoices is not established in the European Union, except when said recipient or third party is established in the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla or in a country with which there is a legal instrument agreeing mutual assistance, in order for the duty to issue an invoice to be considered to have been legally discharged it shall suffice for the Tax Agency to be notified to this effect in advance.

The obligation to issue invoices may be fulfilled by contracting third parties to whom they entrust the issue of invoices.