NIE, VAT and an invoice a Spanish client accepts
The tax number appears twice, and both places are prescribed. Article 10 LSSI requires your NIF and clear price information stating whether taxes are included to be permanently and freely accessible, and the invoice regulation lists the items a factura must contain, beginning with number, date, name and NIF. Both lists are short enough to check in an afternoon.
What the website has to show
Article 10 of Ley 34/2002 lists what has to be permanently, easily, directly and free of charge accessible. Three items on that list catch people out.
The NIF, written exactly as issued. An email address or other means allowing direct communication, which means a contact form alone does not satisfy it. And clear and exact price information stating whether taxes are included, which is more specific than most German pages are used to.
The rest of the list is identity and registry data: name or company name, residence or the address of an establishment in Spain, registry details where registered, professional credentials for regulated professions, and any codes of conduct.
None of it is difficult. What makes it a recurring problem is that a page written for another country satisfies a different list, and the difference is invisible until somebody points at it.
What the invoice has to carry
The invoice regulation lists the contents of a factura, and the first items are mechanical: number and series, issue date, the full name and NIF of the issuer, and the address of issuer and recipient.
Then the substance: a description of the operation including unit price and any discounts, the tax rate or rates, the tax amount charged, and the date of the operation where it differs from the invoice date. Where an operation is exempt, the exemption has to be referenced.
Counted, that is around 9 fields for an ordinary service invoice, and every one of them is a field a client's accountant will look for. An invoice missing the recipient's details or the tax breakdown is an invoice that comes back, and a returned invoice delays payment by whatever your cycle is.
| Where | What is required | Common omission |
|---|---|---|
| Website, Article 10 LSSI | NIF, email, price with tax statement | Contact form instead of an address |
| Website | Name, domicile or establishment in Spain | A foreign address only |
| Invoice | Number and series, date, name, NIF | Series missing |
| Invoice | Description, tax rate, tax amount | Rate stated without the amount |
| Invoice | Operation date where different | Omitted entirely |
How to make this routine
Build the invoice template once with all the fields present, then filling it is mechanical. The same applies to the legal page: write it once against the list rather than translating a page written for somewhere else.
And keep the two consistent. The NIF on the invoice and the NIF on the site are the same number, and a business whose two published versions differ has created the one contradiction that a professional reader will notice immediately.
Questions and answers
Is a contact form enough on the website?
Do I have to state whether prices include tax?
What is most often missing from a factura?
Can I use my German legal page in Spain?
Sources
- Article 10, Ley 34/2002 (LSSI) The information that must be permanently and freely accessible
- Real Decreto 1619/2012, invoicing obligations The mandatory contents of a factura
