It does not replace the original invoice: both remain on record, and together they reflect the final transaction.
As an autónomo or an SL you issue one when you get a detail wrong that affects the amount or the VAT, when a customer returns a product, when you grant a discount after invoicing, or when an unpaid debt meets the requirements to recover the VAT. It has its own numbering series, separate from your ordinary invoices, and states the number and date of the invoice it corrects. You can correct by difference, showing only the adjustment, or by substitution, cancelling the original and issuing the correct data.
The typical mistake is deleting or editing an invoice you already sent and reissuing it with the same number. That breaks the numbering sequence and leaves an inconsistent trail in your books. Another common slip is issuing a new negative invoice with no reference to the original and no reason, so nobody can tell what is being corrected or why.
The factura rectificativa adjusts the output VAT of the period in which it is issued, and therefore that quarter's VAT return, and it is listed in the register of issued invoices. Under Verifactu each corrective invoice creates its own record chained to the previous ones. In kontora you create it from the original invoice, with the reference already linked, and you only need to add the reason.
Guides that use this term
- Factura rectificativa (corrective invoice) in Spain: when it is mandatory, how to issue it and how to report it on the modelo 303
- Verifactu for your online store: WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop and Stripe
- Choosing accounting software as an autónomo in Spain: Verifactu, the free AEAT app and eight criteria to get it right
- How to fill in the modelo 390 box by box: instructions, a full-year example and how to reconcile it with your 303 returns
- Your first invoice in Spain: what it must include to be legal
Related terms
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