Verifactu for autónomos: your July 2027 deadline explained

Your deadline is 1 July 2027

If you are an autónomo (self-employed in Spain) invoicing today with Excel, Word or a template, this is your date: 1 July 2027. From that day, the software you use to issue invoices has to comply with Verifactu, the verifiable invoicing system created by Royal Decree 1007/2023.

Companies go earlier: an SL and the rest of the corporate income tax payers must have their systems adapted before 1 January 2027. It is not a favour or a punishment: the law chose a staggered calendar that starts with companies and, six months later, reaches everyone else, the self-employed included. The current deadlines were set by Royal Decree-law 15/2025, already confirmed by the Spanish Congress, after two earlier extensions.

You are outside Verifactu in only two cases: if you pay tax in the Basque Country (which uses TicketBAI) or in Navarre, or if you report your VAT books through the SII system, which is unusual for a small autónomo. If that is not you, 1 July 2027 is your date. For the full picture, see the general guide on what Verifactu is.

What Verifactu requires, in plain language

Verifactu does not change how much VAT you charge or which invoices you issue. It changes one thing only: the program you create them with. That program has to do two new things with every invoice.

The first is chained records. Each time you issue an invoice, the software saves a record of its data and adds a digital fingerprint (a hash) calculated from the previous invoice. Every invoice is hooked to the one before it, like the links of a chain. If anyone tries to delete or change a past invoice, the chain breaks and the tampering is visible. That is the whole point of the rules: sales cannot be quietly cooked.

The second is the QR code. Every invoice, on paper or as a PDF, comes out with a printed QR that lets it be checked against the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency. Your client can scan it; you do not have to do anything special, the program prints it. None of this is done by hand: either your software generates it automatically, or you do not comply.

What happens to your Excel, Word and templates

The short answer: they stop working for you the moment the obligation reaches you. An Excel sheet, a Word document or a PDF template does not generate chained records with a hash, nor does it print the QR, and there is no way to bolt that on by hand. They are not banned in themselves: they simply no longer meet what the rules ask of an invoicing system.

One nuance trips a lot of people up. Verifactu regulates the software you issue invoices with, not the file where you keep your books. You can keep using a spreadsheet for your notes, your payment tracking or your cash forecast. What you cannot do, from your date on, is issue the invoice from that sheet.

And watch a common trap: if today you fill in a template and export it to PDF, you are technically using a computerised invoicing system, so the rules reach you too. The way out is not to hunt for the perfect template, but to switch to a program that produces the invoice in a Verifactu-compliant way. The sooner you try it, the less of a rush 2027 will be.

The two modes, explained for non-techies

The rules let you choose between two ways to comply. For someone who is not technical, the difference comes down to whether your program talks to the tax agency in real time or not.

• VERI*FACTU mode: the program sends each invoice to the Agencia Tributaria the moment you issue it, automatically. In exchange for that continuous submission, the rules go easier on you: the hash is enough, no electronic signature of each record is needed, and the invoice carries next to the QR the phrase «Factura verificable en la sede electrónica de la AEAT».
• Non VERI*FACTU mode: you send nothing on a regular basis, but the technical bar rises. Each record must be electronically signed, the system has to keep an event log and store everything under reinforced requirements, and you only show the data if the tax office demands it.

For a small autónomo, VERI*FACTU mode is usually the comfortable option: the program handles the submission and you forget about signatures and technical copies. In both modes, the chain of invoices and the QR are mandatory; what changes is the automatic sending. You do not have to decide this on your own: it is a feature of the software you pick.

The fine: 50,000 euros per year

This is where Verifactu gets serious. The penalties are in article 201 bis of the Ley General Tributaria, Spain's General Tax Law, and they are fixed amounts, not a percentage of what you invoice. It does not matter that you are an autónomo earning little: the figure is the same.

• If you use a non-compliant program: 50,000 euros for each fiscal year in which you invoiced with it (article 201 bis.2).
• If you make or sell that software: 150,000 euros per year and per distinct type of system (article 201 bis.1). This one targets vendors, not you.

A nuance worth getting right: there is no specific fine for not sending your invoices to the AEAT, because continuous submission belongs to the voluntary mode. What is penalised is invoicing with a non-compliant system. Put another way, the risk is not forgetting one submission, but carrying on issuing invoices from Excel, or from a program that is not adapted, once you are already obliged. With fixed fines this size, arriving ready on your date is simply the cheap option.

How to choose software: ask for the declaración responsable

When you go shopping for a program, you will run into vendors claiming to be certified by the AEAT, the Spanish tax agency. Be suspicious: that certificate does not exist. There is no homologation or prior registration of invoicing software. What the law requires is a declaración responsable, a formal statement in which the maker declares, under its own responsibility, that the system complies with the regulation, and which must be visible inside the program itself.

So the right question to any vendor is not are you certified, but where is your declaración responsable. If they cannot answer, bad sign. Ask too which mode the program works in, and whether it only invoices or also keeps your accounts and files your tax forms.

If your activity is very simple, the free AEAT application is the minimum option that meets the rules, though it only issues invoices and keeps no books. At the other end, tools like kontora are built Verifactu-ready (chained records with hash and QR in the core) and also draft your tax forms box by box, reconcile your bank and warn you about deadlines; it is currently in free beta with a waitlist. Whatever you choose, decide on the declaración responsable, not on the slogan.

Your decision calendar: what to do in 2026

You have time, but not as much as it looks: switching invoicing systems in the middle of a tax campaign is the worst idea. A sensible plan for an autónomo:

• Through 2026: choose calmly. Try two or three programs, check that they publish their declaración responsable and decide which one fits how you invoice. Nothing forces you to migrate yet, but this is the moment to look without pressure.
• Second half of 2026: set up your invoice numbering and your data in the chosen program and start issuing a few test invoices. Many systems already let you run in Verifactu mode voluntarily before the deadline.
• Before 1 July 2027: have the program live and in daily use. Turning up on the last day with a freshly installed system is asking for trouble.

If you also run an SL, bring everything forward six months: your date is 1 January 2027. To fit Verifactu around the rest of your obligations, use the 2026-2027 tax calendar. The golden rule is simple: decide in 2026 in peace, so you are not deciding in 2027 in a panic.

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