A basic guide to the deadlines for issuing and sending invoices.

Invoicing is one of the most basic and important obligations of any company and self-employed worker. By law, you are required to issue invoices, and to do so on time and in the proper form.

The invoice is the document evidencing the provision of a service or the supply of goods, through which self-employed workers and SMEs charge for the transaction. The record of the volume of invoices issued gives a clear picture of the self-employed worker’s income. That income, together with expenses, makes up the basic information your advisory firm needs in order to file your taxes.

When is the business owner required to issue the invoice and send it to the recipient? The answer differs depending on whether the recipient is a self-employed professional or a private individual.

– If the recipient is a private individual customer, the invoice must be issued when VAT (IVA) becomes chargeable or, in other words, when the transaction is carried out. Likewise, the invoice must be sent at the time it is issued.

– If the recipient of the transaction being invoiced is a professional or businessperson, the invoice must be issued and delivered to the customer before the 16th day of the month following the month in which the tax became chargeable or the transaction itself took place.

Summary invoices, corrective invoices, and invoices for intra-Community transactions

Summary invoices (facturas recapitulativas) and corrective invoices (facturas rectificativas), as well as certain intra-Community transactions, are also subject to specific deadlines for issuance and sending. In the case of the first of these, summary invoices grouping several transactions with a single customer under one invoice, the deadline for issuance and sending also depends on the type of customer: a private individual, or a professional or businessperson.

– If the summary invoice is addressed to businesspeople or professionals, it must be issued and sent before the 16th day of the month following the month in which the transactions were carried out.

– If the recipient of the summary invoice is a private individual customer, the invoice must be issued and sent on the last day of the calendar month in which the documented transactions were invoiced.

Where the professional or businessperson has to issue a corrective invoice, it must be issued at the time the issuer becomes aware of the circumstances requiring a corrective invoice to be issued, and it must be sent before the 16th day of the month following the month in which the invoice was issued.

In any event, the self-employed worker may not issue a corrective invoice if more than four years have elapsed since the transaction that is now to be corrected was carried out.

Where the self-employed professional or businessperson makes intra-Community supplies, the invoice must be issued and sent before the 16th day of the month following the month in which the dispatch or transport of the goods to the customer begins.

Penalties for failure to comply with the stipulated deadlines

If the invoice is issued and sent outside the established deadlines, the penalty will consist of a proportional fine of 1% of the total amount of the transactions giving rise to the infringement.

If the non-compliance is due to the failure to issue the invoice, the fine increases to 2% of the total amount of the transactions for which no invoice was issued or, where that amount cannot be determined, €300 for each transaction for which the corresponding invoice was not issued.

And what if a false invoice is issued? This infringement is classified as serious and carries a fine of 75% of the total amount of the transactions giving rise to the infringement.