a project by

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Spain

Executive summary

1- Executive summary.

There have been several events to boost electronic invoice in Spain lately. In this sense, from the Public Administrations, year 2007 was important establishing the basis of the legal framework. Also the private sector has worked to spread e-invoicing usage.

The main aspects regarding electronic invoices, i.e. authenticity & integrity, issuance, storage, service providers, etc. are laid down in Order EHA 962/2007 of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

According to this Order, in Article or Section 2, says there are three possible methods to guarantee authenticity and integrity in Spain:

EDI.
E-Signature.
Other means subject to prior authorization (article 3 order EHA 962/2007).

The most used way is e-signature using a qualified certificate.

Any qualified certificate issued by a Spanish Certification Authority or a EU Certification Authority is valid (article 4 Order EHA 962/2007).

Another important rule is the Order PRE 2971/2007. This one sets up the e-invoicing technical format to be used by the providers of the General Administration of State (AGE). This format is FACTURAE.

The rule aforementioned doesn’t compel anyone (with the exception of AGE’s providers) to use the FACTURAE format.

This technical format is based on standards, it uses an XML Schema (XSD), the W3C standard for data interchange on the Internet and it also uses e-signature based on XADES, the standard for e-signature on XML supported by ETSI.

Ending the review about the current legal rules, the e-Procurement law “Ley 30/2007” says the starting point to make e-invoicing mandatory for the General Administration of State’s providers will be the approval of a future rule. Nowadays this new rule has not been approved yet though it was expected in May 2009.

Public sector is also trying to boost e Invoicing among small and medium-size enterprises from a more practical point o view and not only with legal rules. That is the reason of the official website about electronic invoicing in Spain www.facturae.es. There you can find the legal rules, technical documentations about FACTURAE format (v. 3.0, v. 3.1, v3.2) and about signature policy (v. 3.0 and v. 3.1), free applications etc.

For instance, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade has developed an application called “Gestión de Facturación Electrónica” that allows users to generate electronic invoices compliant with “FACTURAE” format scheme in an easy and handy way. Developed as open source, is mainly aimed at SME´s, microSME´s and self-employed workers, it will give them the chance of solving the problems they have as a result of their paper invoicing storage.

Also aimed at providing an easier way to include ‘FACTURAE’ e-invoice schema in the currently existing or under developing ecommerce softwares, a java API (ready to download from http://www.facturae.es) is provided for developers that implements the software functions needed to successfully face with thousands of technical and process implementation options along the way to meet the challenges on generating e-invoicing within the FACTURAE scheme.

This website also allows to download general set of utilities to help developers to create and verify digital signature based on XADES, supported by ETSI, format structure and accounts and to visualize the resulting XML format file.

On the private sector the Chambers of Commerce are very active in promoting and helping the implementation of a simplified utilization model of the e-invoice by the SME's. Other private sectors like the automotive one, are also very much involved but, for the moment and in general terms, the use of e-invoicing is still limited.

Several important private associations have created working groups about electronic invoicing. For example CEOE (Businessmen Association), ASIMELEC (IT Companies Association), CCI (Banking Association), etc.

2- Legal aspects.

Order EHA/962/2007 of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, 10th April, which develops certain provisions related to online invoicing and electronic invoice storage, contained in Royal Decree 1496/2003, of 28 November, which approved the Invoicing Obligations Regulations. (Official Journal of Spain: BOE 14-04-2007)

(English version at: http://www.facturae.es/NR/rdonlyres/BCB3D3EC-24A1-44B0-8A30-4A0ECD10E591/0/4Ordinance962_2007ElectronicInvoicingESCEN.pdf )

Order PRE 2971/2007 of Ministry of the President, of 5 October, on the issuing of invoices by electronic means when their addressee is the General State Administration or public organisations linked to or dependent on the former, and on filing with the General State Administration or public organisations linked to or dependent on the former invoices issued between private individuals. (Official Journal of Spain: BOE 15-10-2007 )

(English version at: http://www.facturae.es/NR/rdonlyres/7FA765BD-5259-4AEA-B73B-2A5AE48417D7/0/2Ordinance2971_2007eInvoicingFormat.pdf)

Royal Decree 1496/2003, 28th November, obligations related to invoice issuance and storage, and modifies rules related to VAT (Official Journal of Spain: BOE 29-11-2003)

(http://www.facturae.es/NR/rdonlyres/C528E194-363C-47C4-9CAD-75B809927140/0/Orden1181_2003.pdf)

Resolution 24th October 2007 issued by the Tax Agency, and relating to the approval procedure for digitisation software dealt with in Order EHA/962/2007, dated 10 April 2007. This resolution provides an accreditation service of software as legal compliant to the requirements of converting paper invoice to an e-invoice. (Official Journal of Spain: BOE 1-11-2007)

(English version at: http://www.facturae.es/NR/rdonlyres/4AEAA618-7DDC-46AC-9E40-5458F07E0BC5/0/6en_Resolucion24octubre2007digitalizacioncertificada.pdf)

Law 30/2007 about eProcurement in Public Administrations. (Official Journal of Spain: BOE 31-10-2007)

(http://www.facturae.es/NR/rdonlyres/4BCD60FC-9F3C-4FE3-9BAA-40F27C564AA0/0/3Ley_30_2007_contratos_sector_publico.pdf)