VeriFactu or SII: which one applies to you, how they differ and what happens if you cross the threshold

Where the confusion comes from

Both systems let the Agencia Tributaria (Spanish Tax Agency) see your invoices before you file any return, both go through its online portal and both are promoted with the same “real time” vocabulary. It is natural to mix them up. But they were not born at the same time, nor to solve the same problem.

The SII (Suministro Inmediato de Información, Immediate Supply of Information) arrived in 2017 to put an end to VAT record books filed after the fact: it reports transactions. VeriFactu arrives in 2027 to put an end to dual-use software: it governs how your software produces the invoice. One looks at the data; the other looks at the tool.

The comparison, point by point

The underlying difference: the data versus the tool

It is worth pausing here, because it explains everything else.

The SII is a reporting obligation. It cares about which transactions you have carried out, which is why it also includes the invoices you receive: the Agencia Tributaria wants to match your input VAT with the output VAT charged by your supplier. Your software is just a means; the law doesn't go into how it is built inside.

VeriFactu is an obligation on the system. It is not interested in your purchases. What it cares about is that the invoice you issue cannot be altered afterwards: an issuance record chained by a hash, a cancellation record when needed, and no way of deleting anything without leaving a trace. That is why VeriFactu has a manufacturer's statement of compliance and its own penalty regime — Article 201 bis of the Ley General Tributaria (General Tax Act) — and the SII does not.

How to tell which side you are on

The right question is not “does VeriFactu apply to me?” but “how do I file my VAT?”. If you file Modelo 303 (the Spanish VAT return) monthly, you are in the SII. If you file it quarterly, you are not, and then VeriFactu does reach you in 2027.

You file monthly — and are therefore in the SII — if any of these three cases applies:

• Your turnover (volumen de operaciones) in the previous calendar year exceeded €6,010,121.04. This is the “large company” threshold in Article 71.3 of the Reglamento del IVA (Spanish VAT Regulation).
• You are registered in the REDEME, the monthly VAT refund register.
• You are taxed under the special VAT group regime (régimen especial del grupo de entidades).

You may also have joined the SII voluntarily through a census declaration (declaración censal), something done by companies that prefer monthly refunds and accept the four-day discipline in return.

The case nobody plans for: the year you cross the threshold

Here is the real reason for this article. A growing transport company — adding tractor units, winning a big route, taking over a competitor — can go from a turnover of five million to more than six. And then:

1. In the year you exceed €6,010,121.04, nothing happens straight away.
2. The following year you become a large company: monthly VAT returns and entry into the SII.
3. That same day you leave the scope of VeriFactu, through the exclusion in Article 3.3.

And the reverse also happens: if your turnover drops again, you go back to quarterly returns and VeriFactu applies to you once more. This is no laboratory scenario; in a sector with tight margins and contracts that are won and lost whole, crossing the threshold in both directions is completely normal.

The practical consequence is awkward if you have tied yourself to software that can only do one of the two: a change of tax regime should not force you to change your invoicing software.

What doesn't change in either

It is worth turning the noise down: neither the SII nor VeriFactu touches the essentials of invoicing. You still issue invoices with the same content required by the Reglamento de facturación (Spanish Invoicing Regulation), you still meet the issuing deadlines, you still keep the documents and you still file your tax returns. What changes is when the authorities see it and, in VeriFactu's case, which tool you do it with.

Nor does anything change in the transport documents: the consignment note, the DeCA and the eCMR go their own way — the DeCA with the Ministerio de Transportes (Spanish Ministry of Transport), the eCMR with the CMR Convention and its Additional Protocol — and know nothing about your VAT regime. We cover this in VeriFactu in a transport company.

What your software should handle, whichever side your company is on

1. Both routes implemented, not one promised. A change of regime should be a setting, not a project.
2. Received invoices too: the SII requires them, which means your system has to capture the supplier's invoice with its accounting entry date, not just your own invoices.
3. Retrying and tracking submissions. Four days seem plenty until the portal stops responding on a Friday.
4. A single source for the data: if the invoice comes from the transport order and the delivery note, what gets sent will be the same as what you have charged.