Until now, electronic invoicing was only mandatory for Public Administrations and their suppliers, something that will change with the Create and Grow law, which we have discussed extensively here. Given this context, Cegid confirms the growth of this type of tools in recent years.
In 2021, the use of the e-invoice grew by almost 300% among Spanish companies compared to the previous year. As pointed out Billage (Cegid’s solution for the comprehensive management of SMEs and the self-employed), the number of invoices issued electronically has tripled over the last three years. This translates into more than 50 million euros invoiced in this way, only among Billage users. “So far in 2022, we have already issued 3,133 e-invoices, compared to the 1,231 we issued in 2019”also points out Antoni Guitartresponsible for Billage.
The electronic invoice has its origin in other EU countries and, in fact, it is already mandatory, for all companies and self-employed workers, in 85% of the member countries of the Union.
The Create and Grow Law, in Spain, has two mandatory implementation dates to take into account. The first is October 2023, where it will be mandatory for companies and self-employed workers with a turnover of more than 8 million euros. The second round of mandatory implantation it will be in October 2025, for the rest of the companies and freelancers. Although it is true, many companies have already implemented it, as we have been able to observe.
Much more than electronic invoice: Digitization of the history
In addition to the boom in the issuance of e-invoices, companies are making an effort to transfer invoices previously issued through traditional methods to the digital universe. The increase is being exponential. Diez Software, a Cegid solution for professional offices, consultancies and SMEs, has multiplied the number of digitized invoices by 10 in 2 years. While in 2020 it digitized 128,000 invoices and in 2021 there were already 784,000, without having finished 2022, the company has exceeded 1.5 million digitized invoices.
Along with the Create and Grow Law, the need to digitize procedures to comply with tax obligations and fight against tax fraud. For this, in October 2021, the Anti-Fraud Law came into force: “This regulation seeks to combat new forms of fraudulent behavior, through billing software called VeriFactu. However, the regulation is not yet effective, since it requires further technical development, which may be carried out when the Royal Decree on Anti-Fraud Software is given the green light”points out Rafael Serna, CTO of Diez Software, Cegid’s solution.
Tax fraud causes annual losses of 60,000 million for evaded taxes and another 31,000 million for defrauded Social Security contributions, according to data from the union of technicians of the Ministry of Finance, Gestha. In total, in Spain, this represents losses of more than 90 million euros per year.
In short, we are in a moment of rapid evolution, with the clear objective of rowing towards digitization and transparency, which helps to curb tax fraud, from any point of contact between companies and administrations and, on the other hand, facilitates Administrative tasks for companies and freelancers.
