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Verifactu for the self-employed: July 2027
Three dates are circulating and two are repealed. What Spanish law says today, who it applies to, and why the flat-rate regime does not exempt you.
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This is not tax advice. It is a guide so you understand what the rule says and stop reading contradictory dates. Your particular case needs an adviser. I am not one.
That said: if you are self-employed in Spain and you have searched for “Verifactu”, you will have found three different dates, and two of them are repealed. Here is what Spanish law says today.
The date that applies to you
Dates in force as of 4 September 2026
When the system has to be ready
Royal Decree 1007/2023, fourth final provision, consolidated text
Why there is so much confusion: the original rule set July 2025. Royal Decree 254/2025 moved it to January and July 2026. And Royal Decree-Law 15/2025, of 2 December, moved it again to 2027. That last change arrived inside a rule that is mostly about local authority investment, so a lot of people missed it and keep publishing the old calendar.
If you are a self-employed individual, your date is 1 July 2027. Never January.
What this is actually about
The obligation is not “use Verifactu”. The obligation is that the software you invoice with meets certain requirements: that every invoice leaves a record that cannot be altered or deleted, chained to the previous one.
From there, there are two ways to comply:
Verifactu. Your software sends every invoicing record to the Tax Agency automatically and immediately. In exchange, it is presumed to meet the requirements “by design”, it does not have to electronically sign each record, and it is spared the event log. This is the simple route.
Non-verifiable system. It sends nothing to the Tax Agency, but then your software has to carry the whole technical load on its own: an electronic signature on every record plus an event log. It is equally legal.
Your software chooses, not you by hand. In practice, what you are deciding is which program you buy.
Two details worth knowing. The QR code on the invoice is compulsory in both modes; what only Verifactu invoices carry is the sentence stating the invoice is verifiable on the Tax Agency’s site. And opting into Verifactu is not a button you press and unpress: the option is deemed exercised once you start sending, and it lasts at least until the end of that calendar year.
Who it does not apply to
The only exclusion by type of taxpayer in the regulation is one: anyone keeping their VAT books through the SII, the immediate information supply system. They are out. And that is not exactly the case of a small self-employed worker.
There are other, narrower exclusions: operations of permanent establishments abroad, certain invoices issued by the customer or by a third party, and the foral territories of the Basque Country and Navarre, which run their own systems.
Being on the flat-rate regime does not exclude you. This has to be said carefully, because it is the opposite of what you read elsewhere. The regulation does not mention objective estimation anywhere. It does not say you are in; it simply does not take you out. The article defining who it applies to speaks of all “personal income tax payers carrying out economic activities”, without distinguishing regime.
What does take many flat-rate workers out is something else. The regulation only applies to whoever uses a computer system to invoice. The Tax Agency says it literally in its FAQ: if invoicing is done manually, on invoice books or written on them by hand or by typewriter, it would not affect you.
Be careful with that door, it is narrower than it looks. “Computer system” is defined broadly: admitting, storing or processing invoicing information. Do not assume your spreadsheet or your Word template falls outside. That is exactly what to ask an adviser.
The Tax Agency’s free application
It exists, it works, and the Tax Agency announced it in October 2025. It is aimed at “self-employed workers, professionals and companies issuing a small number of invoices per year”. They publish no figure: do not trust any limit you read elsewhere.
It is free, but it has limits worth knowing before you rely on it:
- It works only in Verifactu mode. It always sends to the Tax Agency.
- It issues full invoices, not simplified ones. That is, it is no use for till receipts. That leaves out much of retail and hospitality.
- Every invoice must carry a recipient.
- It does not let you export the records to another program. If you want to switch later, that matters.
You get in with an electronic certificate, the Spanish electronic ID card or Cl@ve Móvil.
What Verifactu is not
Since 2026 there is a new confusion, and it is an easy one to fall into: compulsory electronic invoicing between businesses is not the same as Verifactu. They are two different rules, with different calendars. Electronic invoicing is developed by Royal Decree 238/2026, of 25 March, and comes from the “Crea y Crece” law. Being told about one tells you nothing about the other.
What I would do about this
You have until July 2027, which is almost two years. There is no rush, but there are two things worth doing without waiting for the last quarter:
- Ask your current software whether it will be adapted and whether it will charge you extra for it. That is the conversation that decides whether you switch.
- If you invoice by hand, ask an adviser whether your particular case falls outside. Do not decide it by reading an article, this one included.
And if you do end up changing software, have a copy of your data first, and always reach the Tax Agency’s site by typing the address yourself. Fake email campaigns impersonating the tax authority spike with every change in the rules.
Sources
- Royal Decree 1007/2023, consolidated text — BOE, in Spanish
- Royal Decree-Law 15/2025, of 2 December — BOE, in Spanish
- Extension of the deadline to adapt invoicing systems — Tax Agency, in Spanish
- Who is obliged and which operations are included? — Tax Agency, in Spanish
- Free VERI*FACTU invoicing application — Tax Agency, in Spanish
Related
Review
Responsible for publication: Ibrahin. Date: 2026-09-04. Last checked: 2026-09-04. The dates come from the consolidated text of Royal Decree 1007/2023 in the BOE, last amended on 3 December 2025, and from the Tax Agency’s notices. This article is not tax advice.