The public e-invoicing solution now has its order: on 5 October 2026 the BOE published Order HAC/1028/2026, which regulates a free AEAT (Tax Agency) tool to issue, receive and store electronic invoices between businesses and professionals. The order takes effect on 6 October. Mandatory electronic invoicing, the kind that will be required between self-employed people and companies, is developed in Royal Decree 238/2026.
What changes for you today
Nothing you have to do. There is no procedure or open deadline, and your taxes and autónomo contributions do not change. What the tool is and how to use it is in the guide free AEAT e-invoicing: what the public solution is and who can use it. The modelos, the RETA contribution and the autónomo invoicing rules are in foreign autónomo: IRPF and VAT taxes.
What happened
The Ministry of Finance approved Order HAC/1028/2026 of 2 October, in compliance with the third final provision of Royal Decree 238/2026. That royal decree, of 25 March, develops mandatory electronic invoicing between businesses and professionals. The order was published in the BOE on 5 October and takes effect the next day.
How it works now
- Invoice between businesses: today an autónomo has to issue an invoice when the client is a company or a professional, as our autónomo guide describes. The obligation for it to be electronic and exchanged through the new system is not yet shown as enforceable.
- Verifactu: it is another obligation, about invoicing software. The date in that guide for autónomos is 1 July 2027.
What changes
- A public, free tool: the AEAT provides a solution to issue invoices with a web form, receive faithful copies from private systems, store the invoices and check their payment status. The order declares access and its uses free of charge.
- How you get in: with an electronic certificate, with Cl@ve (for the web form only) or through an authorised representative.
- Private software: systems that are not the public solution must send it a faithful copy of each invoice, in UBL format (a standard XML invoice format).
- Payment status: there is a service to report whether an invoice has been paid, rejected or is unpaid. Articles 7 and 8 of the order develop it.
- The clock of the deadlines: the order's entry into force starts the countdown of the deadlines in the eighth final provision of Law 18/2022.
What happens next
- The tool must be available at least 2 months before the first effective application of the obligation.
- The specific dates from which it will be mandatory are not in the order. They are in Law 18/2022 and in Royal Decree 238/2026, and we have not confirmed them. Once we verify them, we will add them here and to the guide.
- The date when the tool goes live in the AEAT electronic office is not in the text of the order.
What you can do
- If you invoice companies or professionals, note that a free tool exists. There is nothing to do today.
- Ask your gestor or your invoicing software provider whether it plans to connect to the public solution.
- Check the dates of the obligation in Royal Decree 238/2026 before changing software.
Official source: BOE, Order HAC/1028/2026.
Informational only; check the official source and a professional for your specific case.