Criterio de caja, RECC (cash accounting VAT scheme)
The criterio de caja (RECC) is an optional VAT regime that lets you pay output VAT when your invoice is collected rather than when it is issued, available to businesses with up to 2 million euros in annual turnover. It has trade-offs: you also deduct input VAT only when you pay, and your clients under the general regime can deduct the VAT on your invoices only once they have paid you, which makes it commercially unpopular.
The deferral is not open-ended either: if an invoice remains unpaid, the VAT falls due on 31 December of the year following the transaction at the latest. You opt in through a census declaration, and the rules are set out in articles 163 decies and following of the Spanish VAT law.
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