VeriFactu and e-invoicing, together in 2028: two years to do it just once

The short version

If you are self-employed or an SME, in October 2028 two things hit you at once: issuing with software that complies with VeriFactu, and sending your business clients real e-invoices, not a PDF by email. If your company invoices more than 8 million euros, e-invoicing reaches you a year earlier, in October 2027.

It is the best news the calendar could bring: one change instead of two, and two years to do it calmly.

What has happened

On 5 October 2026 the BOE, Spain’s official gazette, published Orden HAC/1028/2026, which regulates the Tax Agency’s public e-invoicing solution. It came into force the following day, and with it the clock started running on the deadlines of Real Decreto 238/2026, the regulation on mandatory e-invoicing between businesses.

That same day, the Spanish Treasury announced that it is moving the VeriFactu obligations to October 2028, to line them up with e-invoicing for anyone under 8 million euros. In its own words, the idea is the “greatest possible convergence” between the two systems.

What exactly e-invoicing between businesses is

It is not a PDF. A PDF is a photo of an invoice: people can read it, but a machine does not understand it. An e-invoice is a structured file —in UBL format, the European standard— that your client’s software can read on its own, without anyone typing anything in.

What the rules require, in four points:

• Issue and receive invoices between businesses and professionals as e-invoices, through a private platform, through the Tax Agency’s public solution —which is free— or through both.
• If you use a private platform, it also sends a copy of each invoice to the public solution at the same time.
• Whoever receives the invoice says whether they accept or reject it, and when they have paid it.
• The payment date and the due date also reach the public solution. In other words: late payment is going to show.

Why it is an opportunity

One change, not two. With the old dates, you first had to adapt to VeriFactu and then, a year later, change again for e-invoicing. Now it is done once: the same software, the same rollout and the same training for whoever does the invoicing.

Get paid sooner. Today, if a client pays you at 120 days, that stays between you and them. With e-invoicing, the payment date is recorded and the delay shows. That is exactly what the Crea y Crece (Create and Grow) law was passed for: so that large companies stop financing themselves at the expense of small suppliers.

Stop typing in supplier invoices. If the invoices you receive are structured files, the expenses go into your software on their own, with their base amount, VAT and withholding. No more copying amounts from a PDF.

Time to do it properly. Two years is enough to switch software in the middle of a quiet quarter, not in the week of the deadline. And for mistakes to surface while they still cost nothing.

What is worth having done already

• Your clients’ details, clean. Correct NIF, exact company name and address. An e-invoice with a mistyped NIF goes nowhere.
• Out with Excel and Word. Neither of them is going to issue an e-invoice, and an Excel file that does more than print invoices is already invoicing software in the eyes of the tax office.
• Start issuing now with software that complies with VeriFactu. There is no need to wait for 2028: every quarter you invoice with it is a quarter of getting everything running smoothly.
• Check who is big on your client list. If you work for companies with more than 8 million euros in turnover, they get going a year before you do, and they will probably ask you for e-invoices before your date.
• Talk it over with your accountant. If they receive your invoices as files, your taxes get prepared sooner and with fewer mistakes.

What Factuza does

Today, every invoice you issue in Factuza is born with its chained hash, its QR code and its submission to the Tax Agency, as VeriFactu requires. For public administrations you can already download the invoice in Facturae, ready for FACe.

E-invoicing between businesses will be ready before your date: in UBL format, connected to the Tax Agency’s public solution and with the status of each invoice —accepted, rejected, paid— in plain sight. No switching software along the way: what you issue in Factuza today is what you will issue in 2028.

In short

• October 2028: VeriFactu and e-invoicing, at the same time, for the self-employed and SMEs.
• October 2027: e-invoicing, for anyone who invoices more than 8 million euros.
• A PDF is not an e-invoice. An e-invoice is a file your client’s software reads on its own.
• It is an opportunity: one single change, payments in plain sight, expenses that come in on their own and two years to do it without rushing.