If you run a bar or restaurant in Spain, every receipt your till prints is a simplified invoice (factura simplificada). And the software that prints it is, for the Spanish tax agency, an invoicing system (sistema informático de facturación). VERI*FACTU is the short name for the rules those systems have to follow.
This guide explains what changes in practice, which dates are in force and what to ask whoever sells or maintains your till (TPV). It doesn’t replace your accountant (gestor or asesor), but it helps you walk into that conversation knowing what it’s about.
What VERI*FACTU is, in plain English
Spain’s 2021 Anti-Fraud Law banned “dual-use” software: programs that let you delete or hide sales. To make that impossible, the invoicing systems regulation (Royal Decree 1007/2023) requires the software you invoice with to:
- Never let you delete or change a receipt once issued. Mistakes are fixed with a new record, and both stay on file.
- Chain every record to the previous one with a digital fingerprint (a hash). If someone tampers with one, the chain breaks and it shows.
- Keep the records and have them available for the tax agency.
There are two ways to comply. In VERI*FACTU mode, the software sends each record to the tax agency (Agencia Tributaria, AEAT) as it happens. In the other mode, the software keeps signed records plus an event log, and hands them over if the agency asks. The first is the easiest to prove, and it’s the one most vendors recommend.
What changes on your receipts
For the customer, almost nothing: they get their receipt as usual. But the receipt carries a QR code that anyone can scan to check on the tax agency’s website that the sale was recorded. If the software works in VERI*FACTU mode, the receipt says so.
For your staff, some habits change:
- Voiding a receipt doesn’t make it disappear. The system records that it was issued and then voided or corrected.
- Tests happen in test mode, not with real receipts that get deleted later.
- The receipt is issued when you take payment, from a compliant system. If you take payment through another device (a digital menu with payment, an online ordering site), that receipt must come from a compliant system too.
Who it applies to and who it doesn’t
It applies to companies and self-employed people (autónomos) who invoice with software, which in hospitality means almost everyone: the till at the bar, the waiter’s tablet or the invoicing program on the office computer.
It doesn’t apply, or works under its own rules:
- If you’re in the Immediate Supply of Information system (SII), which already sends your invoices to the tax agency another way.
- In the Basque Country and Navarre, which have their own systems (TicketBAI and equivalents).
- If you invoice by hand, with no software at all. Nobody is forced to use software, but if you do, it has to comply.
The dates: what is law and what was announced
Here you need to separate what’s in the official gazette (BOE) from what’s only been announced.
- In force today (Royal Decree-Law 15/2025 of 2 December): systems must be compliant before 1 January 2027 if you pay corporate tax (a Spanish SL, for example), and before 1 July 2027 if you’re self-employed or anyone else.
- Announced, but not yet law: on 5 October 2026 the Ministry of Finance announced it will postpone these obligations until October 2028, to line them up with mandatory B2B e-invoicing. As of this guide (25 October 2026), no rule putting that into law has been published in the BOE.
Until that rule is published, the 2027 dates are the ones that count. The sensible move is not to wait: updating a till isn’t expensive if you do it in time, and finding out in December that your system has no update is much worse.
What happens if you don’t comply
Spain’s General Tax Law (article 201 bis) sets fines of up to €50,000 per financial year for using non-compliant software, and up to €150,000 for whoever makes or sells it. It isn’t a fine per wrong receipt: it’s for having a system that doesn’t comply.
What to ask your till provider
Call your provider and ask them this. If they hesitate, that’s a sign.
- Does my software have the responsible declaration (declaración responsable)? It’s the document where the maker states the software complies with the regulation. Ask to see it or where it’s published.
- Does it work in VERI*FACTU mode or the other one? And whether you can switch.
- Is the update included in what I pay, or charged separately? And when will you install it?
- Will my hardware do? Some older tills with no internet connection can’t be updated.
- What about the other ways I take payment? The digital menu, online orders or a card terminal that prints receipts.
- How do I void or correct a receipt from now on? So you can train your staff before the deadline.
If you use a digital menu, online orders or your own tool
More and more bars take payment away from the bar: the customer pays from their phone at the table or when ordering for pickup. That payment also creates a receipt, and that receipt must come from a compliant system. There are two ways:
- The tool passes the sale to your till, and the till, already compliant, issues the receipt.
- The tool itself complies with the regulation, with its own chained records, QR code and responsible declaration.
What doesn’t work is the menu taking money on its own while nobody issues the receipt in a compliant system. If you’re considering a QR menu with ordering and payment or your own ordering site, ask about this from day one.
Summary
- Your till is an invoicing system and must comply with the regulation.
- Dates in force: 1 January 2027 for companies and 1 July 2027 for everyone else. A delay to October 2028 has been announced but not published.
- Ask your provider for the responsible declaration and the date of the update.
- If you take payment through other tools, make sure the receipt comes from a compliant system.
This guide sums up the rules as of 25 October 2026. Dates may change: check them on the tax agency’s website or with your accountant before deciding.