Non-resident companies and Spanish e-regulations

As the final stage before its approval, the Spanish Government has notified the European Commission the final draft of the Ordinance that regulates B2B e-invoicing obligation in Spain (Draft Royal Decree implementing Law 18/2022 of 28 September 2022 on the creation and growth of companies with regard to electronic invoicing between companies and professionals).

This regulation develops the extension to B2B transactions of the obligation to e-invoice introduced by Law 18/2022 of 28 September regulating the creation and growth of enterprises, that modified article 2bis of Law 56/2007 of 28 December of Measures to Promote de Information Society.

In practice, this obligation will not be effective until 12 (24 for companies with a turnover under 8 million Euros) months elapse since the e-invoicing Ordinance is published at the Official Gazette.

To be confirmed in a case by case basis, it is to be assume that non-resident companies operating in Spain which, regardless of being VAT taxable subjects, do not have a permanent establishment for Non-Resident Income Tax purposes, should be marginaly affected by the e-invoicing Ordinance. This is so due to the exclusion from the scope of the Ordinance of those B2B transactions where the destinee is not a tax resident nor operates through a permanent establishment in Spain.

However, it is to be remembered that e-invoicing is only one of the aspects related with tax technology which are regulated in Spain, so the need for any non-resident company operating in the Spanish market to closely analyze its position regarding the legal framework on this field.

With the aim of helping in this task, we attach a summary of different regulations affecting invoicing and data reporting in Spain and how they can affect non-resident companies: