If you are a supplier of goods or services to Public Administrations, we provide information here on how to comply with the obligation to issue electronic invoices in contractual relations with Public Administrations.
Obligation for Administration to Accept Electronic Invoices
Law 25/2013, of December 27, promotes electronic invoicing and the creation of a registry of invoices in the public sector. According to Article 2 of the Law, it applies to invoices issued within the framework of legal relations between suppliers of goods and services and Public Administrations. For this purpose, Public Administrations include the entities, organizations, and entities referred to in Article 3.2 of the Consolidated Text of the Public Sector Contracts Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 3/2011, of November 14, as well as mutual insurance companies for work-related accidents and occupational diseases in the exercise of their collaborative role in the management of Social Security.
In summary, the following are required to accept electronic invoices:
- The General State Administration, the Administrations of the Autonomous Communities, and the Entities that make up the Local Administration.
- Managing entities and common services of Social Security.
- Autonomous bodies.
- Public Universities.
- Public entities that, with functional independence or with special autonomy recognized by law, have regulatory or control functions of an external nature over a specific sector or activity.
- Public entities linked to or dependent on one or more Public Administrations that meet any of the following characteristics:
- Their main activity is not the production in a market regime of goods and services for individual or collective consumption, or they carry out income and national wealth redistribution operations, always without profit, or
- They are not mainly financed by income, of any nature, obtained in return for the delivery of goods or the provision of services.
- Nevertheless, state public business entities and similar bodies dependent on the Autonomous Communities and Local Entities, commercial companies, nor state, regional, or local public foundations are not considered Public Administrations and therefore are not obligated to accept electronic invoices.
- Additionally, competent bodies of the Congress of Deputies, the Senate, the General Council of the Judiciary, the Constitutional Court, the Court of Auditors, the Ombudsman, the Legislative Assemblies of the Autonomous Communities, and institutions analogous to the Court of Auditors and the Ombudsman, with respect to their contracting activity, are subject to this obligation. The Foral Deputations and the General Assemblies of the Historical Territories of the Basque Country are also required to comply with this obligation concerning their contracting activity. Similarly, mutual insurance companies for work-related accidents and occupational diseases of Social Security are subject to this requirement as specified in the Law.
- As a result, state public business entities and similar bodies dependent on the Autonomous Communities and Local Entities, commercial companies, and state, regional, or local public foundations are not included within the scope of the Law and, therefore, are not required to accept electronic invoices.
