According to its president, Fernando Jesús Santiago, “this delay finally brings the tranquility that companies and the self-employed have not had throughout this year.” Even so, administrative managers warn that this postponement “will only make sense if it is used to do well what has not been done until now”: to clarify who must join the system, to order its implementation, and to prevent the market from suffering another wave of confusion. The Council maintains that the regulations have always been clear: “Only those who bill through a computerized invoicing system, exclusively in the terms of the regulation, are obligated.” “For months, many self-employed people and small businesses have lived with the mistaken idea that Verifactu was mandatory for everyone. This feeling—fueled in part by imprecise communications—opened the door for some companies to sell unnecessary solutions,” explains Santiago. Verifactu: a step forward in digitalization or a new burden for companies? Álvaro Gómez-Elvira The great challenge of Verifactu is not technical, but one of approach. “We are here to help. Spain has an ally in administrative managers: we are part of the solution, not the problem,” concludes Fernando Santiago. The question is whether we conceive of it as just another control mechanism or as a lever to boost efficiency and transparency in business management. Administrative managers insist they have always had absolute technical knowledge of the scope of Verifactu. “No more changes in criteria, no more doubts, no more hasty decisions,” affirms Santiago. The fiscal puzzle of 2024 and its horizon for 2025 Fernando Lafita In the face of a landscape of legal uncertainty, interpretive changes, and the administration's revenue-raising zeal, there will be no choice but to make an active effort to adapt at all levels—business and professional. They also reiterated their willingness to collaborate with the Tax Agency, as they claim to have done for decades, to organize a transition that is “orderly, realistic, and respectful of the operational capacity of small businesses.” “What SMEs and the self-employed need is certainty. The problem was not in the regulation, but in the noise. We knew who had to join and who did not. What we now ask is that this clarity be shared by the Tax Agency, technology companies, and the entire productive fabric.” The Council states that this additional year should serve to define and communicate precisely which companies are obligated and which are not; to ensure a technically viable and homogeneous implementation; to avoid unjustified costs for the self-employed and micro-SMEs; and to ensure that Verifactu does not become a new source of administrative burden. The General Council of Administrative Managers celebrated on Tuesday the Ministry of Finance's decision to postpone the entry into force of the Verifactu system until 2027.
