Verifactu invoice example: the QR, the phrase and the hash, field by field

What every invoice already carried before Verifactu

Verifactu does not rewrite the content of the invoice. The list of mandatory data remains in article 6 of the Invoicing Regulation (RD 1619/2012): sequential number and series, issue date, name or company name, NIF and address of the issuer and of the client, description of the transaction with its unit price, taxable base, IVA rate and amount shown separately, the date of the transaction if different, and special mentions where they apply (exemption, "reverse charge", cash accounting).

On a simplified invoice or receipt, the list is shorter and is set by article 7. Each item of the full invoice, with examples, is in the guide on your first invoice. Here we start from that base and focus on what is new.

What Verifactu adds to the invoice: QR and phrase

Royal Decree 1007/2023 added a paragraph 5 to article 6 of the Invoicing Regulation (and an identical one to article 7 for receipts). From your obligation date, every invoice issued with a computer system must include:

• A QR code with part of the content of the invoice. It always appears, whether or not your program sends the records to the AEAT.
• The phrase "Invoice verifiable in the AEAT electronic office" or "VERI*FACTU", but only if your system sends all invoicing records to the AEAT, that is, if it works in VERI*FACTU mode.

Order HAC/1177/2024, in its article 20, adds how: both elements must be legible and of adequate resolution, both on paper and in the digital image of the invoice, and the phrase must have "a clearly visible typeface and size, similar to those of the rest of the invoice data". It cannot go in tiny lowercase hidden in the footer.

A useful exception: in a structured electronic invoice, the kind exchanged between programs, there is no need to draw the QR; it is enough to include, as a separate field, the address ("URL") it would contain.

The Verifactu invoice QR code: what it contains and what happens when it is scanned

Article 21 of the order regulates the QR quite precisely:

• Size: between 30x30 and 40x40 millimetres, according to the ISO/IEC 18004 standard and with error correction level M (medium).
• Content: the address of the AEAT verification service, and within it four data points from your invoice: the NIF of the issuer, the series and number, the issue date and the total amount.
• Placement: the order does not set it; it says that the AEAT will publish on its website the placement and presentation of the code within the invoice. Follow what your program applies in line with those instructions.

Notice what it does not carry: neither your client's data, nor the line detail, nor the hash. The exact format of the address, which may differ depending on whether the system is VERI*FACTU or not, is in a technical document of the AEAT, not in the BOE.

What happens when it is scanned? Article 17 of the regulation lets the recipient, whether a business or an individual, voluntarily send that data to the AEAT with a mobile phone. The website shows them the QR data in readable form and, if the invoice carries the phrase "VERI*FACTU", lets them verify that you submitted that invoice to the AEAT. The rule makes clear that this submission is not a report against you, although the AEAT may use the information in its functions.

Table: each invoice field and where it comes from

The withholding is not required by the invoicing regulation, but in practice it must appear so that your client knows how much to pay in; we explain it in the guide on your first invoice and in the one on modelos 111 and 115 (the quarterly withholding returns).

What you cannot see: the issue record and the chained hash

Every time you issue an invoice, the program generates, "simultaneously or immediately beforehand", an issue invoicing record (art. 9 of the regulation). It is an XML file that the client never sees and that, according to article 10, contains among other data: your NIF and name, the client's, who issues the invoice (you, your client or a third party), number, series and dates, whether it is full or simplified, whether it is corrective, the description, the total amount, the IVA regime, the base, the rate and the amount, and the identification of the program with the date, hour, minute and second of generation.

The key piece is the hash. Article 13 of the order states what data it is calculated from in an issue record: NIF of the issuer, number and series, issue date, invoice type, total amount of IVA, total amount, hash of the previous record and date, time and time zone of generation. Since it includes the hash of the previous record, each record is hooked to the one before. In addition, each record stores the first 64 characters of the previous hash together with its NIF, series, number and date (art. 7.a). If someone alters an old invoice, its hash changes and the chain no longer adds up. The specific algorithm is set by a technical document of the AEAT.

If your system does not work in VERI*FACTU mode, each record is also electronically signed. In VERI*FACTU mode the hash is enough (art. 16.3 of the regulation), because the record travels to the AEAT at once.

Verifactu invoice example of a self-employed designer: 1,000 euros plus 21% IVA

Marta is a graphic designer, an autónomo (self-employed person) in Valencia, and in September 2027, with Verifactu already mandatory for her, she invoices a logo to a Spanish SL (limited company). She uses a program adapted to the VERI*FACTU mode. Her invoice, in PDF, says:

• Header: number 2027-0042 of the ordinary series, issue date, her details (name, NIF and address) and those of the SL (company name, NIF and address).
• Item: logo design, 1 unit at 1,000 euros.
• Taxable base: 1,000 euros.
• IVA at 21%: 210 euros.
• IRPF withholding at 15%: minus 150 euros, calculated on the base.
• Total to pay: 1,060 euros.
• Next to the details: the QR code and, in a typeface similar to the rest, "VERI*FACTU".

The figures are the same as in the example of your first invoice: the only things that have visibly changed are the QR and the phrase. The rates come from the IVA Law (21% general) and from the IRPF rules (15% professional withholding; 7% in the start-up year and the two following, art. 101.5 LIRPF and art. 95.1 of its regulation).

Inside, when she clicks "issue", the program generates the issue record with base 1,000 euros, rate 21% and amount 210 euros, calculates its hash using that of the record of invoice 2027-0041 and sends it to the AEAT. The QR contains Marta's NIF, "2027-0042", the date and the total amount: 1,210 euros, not the 1,060 euros to be paid. The AEAT's frequently asked questions on the issue record make clear that withholdings "are not formally part of the invoicing record", so the total amount of the record and of the QR is base plus IVA. The withholding still appears on the invoice so that the SL knows how much to pay in.

When the SL receives the invoice, its accountant can scan the QR and check on the website that Marta submitted it. To record it and deduct the IVA, they do not have to do anything different from usual.

If you make a mistake: cancellation record and corrective invoice

With Verifactu nothing is deleted. There are two paths depending on the type of error:

• Cancellation record. It applies when "an invoice has been issued in error" and its issue record has to be cancelled (art. 11 of the regulation): for example, you issued it twice. The cancellation record identifies the cancelled invoice by its number, series and date, and is chained like any other: the chain contains issue and cancellation records (art. 7.d of the order). Its hash is calculated from fewer data: NIF, number and series, date, previous hash and moment of generation (art. 13.1.b).
• Corrective invoice (factura rectificativa). If the invoice should exist but has a wrong detail or amount, a new one is issued that identifies the corrected one, in its own series (art. 15 of the Invoicing Regulation). Its issue record states that it is corrective, of what type and which invoice it corrects (art. 10.1.g of the regulation).

When one applies and when the other, with examples, is in the guide on the corrective invoice.

What does not change for your client

• The data and the amounts: base, IVA, withholding and total are calculated the same way. Verifactu does not touch the IVA Law or the IRPF Law.
• Their rights: the invoice lets them deduct the IVA with the same requirements of article 6 of the Invoicing Regulation.
• The format: they can keep receiving it as a PDF or on paper. Verifactu is not the mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses, which has another rule and another calendar (you will see it in the guide on mandatory electronic invoicing).
• Their obligations: scanning the QR is voluntary. Nobody obliges them to check your invoices.

For the rest of your questions (dates, Excel, receipts, gestorías) there are the Verifactu frequently asked questions, and the general framework in what Verifactu is.

Frequently asked questions

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