How Long to Keep Invoices and Records in Spain (2026)
How long to keep invoices and records in Spain: the 4, 6 and 10-year rules, exceptions and requirements for electronic storage, with official sources.
TL;DR: The practical rule in Spain is to keep invoices and business records for 6 years from the last entry in your accounting books (article 30 of the Commercial Code), even though the general tax statute of limitations is 4 years (article 66 of the General Tax Law). Several cases stretch the clock: negative tax bases and pending deductions (10 years, article 66 bis LGT), capital goods and real estate (the VAT adjustment period plus 4 years, article 165 of the VAT Law) and anti-money-laundering records for obliged entities (10 years, Law 10/2010). Digital storage is fully valid as long as it guarantees authenticity, integrity and readability.
Key takeaways
- Article 30 of the Spanish Commercial Code requires keeping books, correspondence, documentation and supporting records for 6 years from the last entry in the books — and closing the business does not release you from the duty.
- The general tax statute of limitations is 4 years (article 66 LGT), but its start and interruption depend on the right concerned and on the acts listed in articles 67 and 68 LGT.
- If you offset tax losses or carry deductions forward, the AEAT can audit their origin for up to 10 years (article 66 bis LGT and article 26.5 of the Corporate Income Tax Law): keep the accounts and returns for those years.
- Invoices for capital goods must be kept through the whole VAT adjustment period — the 9 calendar years following acquisition or a later start of use for land and buildings — plus the 4 following years (articles 107 and 165 of the VAT Law).
- Registration, contribution and salary-payment documentation must be kept for 4 years; failing to do so is a typified infringement (article 21 LISOS).
- Failing to keep the required accounting books and records may fall under the infringement in article 200 LGT (1% of the year's turnover, minimum 600 euros); the actual penalty depends on the conduct typified.
Contents
How long do you have to keep invoices and business records in Spain? The short answer: 6 years from the last entry in your accounting books, because article 30 of the Spanish Commercial Code says so — even though the general tax statute of limitations is 4 years (article 66 of the General Tax Law, LGT). The full answer: it depends on the document, because several situations — tax losses carried forward, capital goods, real estate, anti-money-laundering duties — stretch the real period to 10 years or more. This guide walks through every retention period with its exact legal source, so you know what you can delete, what you cannot, and how to build an archive that does not live in a cardboard box.
If you are checking the expenses behind your records, see our guide to deductible expenses for freelancers in Spain.
The general rule: 4 years for tax, 6 years for commercial law
Two clocks run over your paperwork at the same time, and mixing them up is the most common mistake.
The first is the tax clock. Article 66 of Law 58/2003, the General Tax Law, sets a 4-year limitation period on the tax administration’s right to assess tax through a reassessment and to collect assessed debts (in force 2026). The starting point and interruptions depend on the right concerned (articles 67 and 68). Older transactions may still need to be evidenced when they affect a year that is not time-barred (articles 66 bis and 70).
The second is the commercial clock, and it is longer. Article 30 of the Commercial Code obliges business owners to keep “the books, correspondence, documentation and supporting records concerning their business, duly organised, for six years from the last entry made in the books” (in force 2026). Six years — counted not from each invoice’s date, but from the last entry in the books those documents feed into.
| Clock | Period | Counted from | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax authority’s right to assess | 4 years, subject to interruptions | Day after the regulatory filing deadline | Arts. 66–68 LGT |
| Commercial retention duty | 6 years | Last entry made in the books | Art. 30 Commercial Code |
For documents covered by article 30, use 6 years from the last book entry as the commercial reference, then check for longer tax, employment, contractual or anti-money-laundering duties and any open proceedings before deleting anything.
Two details of article 30 almost nobody reads: ceasing activity does not release you from the retention duty, and if the owner dies the obligation passes to their heirs. In dissolved companies it falls on the liquidators. Closing the business is not the same as binning the archive.
When the clock starts (and what resets it)
The 4-year tax period does not start on the invoice date or at year-end: it counts from the day after the voluntary filing deadline of the corresponding return.
A worked example: an invoice from March 2026 belongs to Q1 VAT, whose regulatory deadline is 20 April 2026. For the right to assess, the count starts on 21 April 2026, so absent interruptions that quarter becomes time-barred in April 2030. For income tax on 2026, the clock does not start until the annual return’s regulatory deadline has ended in 2027.
The period can also be interrupted. Article 68 LGT lists, among other acts, any action by the administration aimed at verifying, inspecting or assessing the tax carried out with your formal knowledge, appeals and claims, and any reliable action by the taxpayer leading to the assessment or self-assessment of the debt. Once interrupted, the count starts again (art. 68.6 LGT, with the exceptions in art. 68.7).
The exceptions that stretch the period to 10 years or more
The 4-to-6-year rule has important exceptions. If any of these apply to you, part of your archive needs to live considerably longer.
| Case | Retention period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Negative tax bases and pending deductions | 10 years from the filing deadline of the year they arose (and the return + accounts, beyond that) | Art. 66 bis LGT · Art. 26.5 LIS |
| Capital goods invoices | VAT adjustment period + the 4 following years | Art. 165 VAT Law · Art. 107 VAT Law |
| Land and buildings | 9-calendar-year adjustment period + 4 years of retention; a later start of use shifts the calculation | Art. 107.Three VAT Law |
| Anti-money-laundering records (obliged entities only) | 10 years | Art. 25 Law 10/2010 |
Tax losses and deductions: the full decade
If your company offsets losses from previous years, or you carry deductions forward, article 66 bis LGT gives the administration 10 years to open an audit of those bases or amounts, counted from the day after the filing deadline of the year they were generated (in force 2026). Article 26.5 of Law 27/2014 on Corporate Income Tax mirrors the same period for negative tax bases.
And note the twist that comes after the 10 years: once they elapse, you must still be able to produce the return and the accounts for that old year — including proof that the accounts were filed with the Companies Registry (Registro Mercantil) — for as long as the years in which those losses were offset remain open to assessment (arts. 66 bis.3 and 70.3 LGT and art. 26.5 LIS). A 2020 loss you offset in 2033 keeps 2020 paperwork alive.
Capital goods and real estate
Input VAT deducted on capital goods is adjusted over the 4 calendar years following the purchase; for land and buildings, over the 9 calendar years following it (article 107 of the VAT Law, in force 2026). Article 165 of the VAT Law then requires keeping the purchase invoices “for the adjustment period applicable to those amounts and the four following years”.
If actual use begins after acquisition, article 107 shifts the adjustment period to the year use begins and the next four years, or nine for land and buildings. Retention then extends for four further years. Do not set a fixed deletion date 14 years after purchase without checking the start of use.
For entities subject to Law 10/2010, article 25 counts the ten-year period from the end of the business relationship or the execution of the transaction, depending on the record. Access is restricted after five years and the documents must be deleted at the end of the period. This is not a blanket rule for every business.
Payroll and Social Security records: 4 years
If you employ people, another block applies. Article 21 of the Law on Labour Infringements and Penalties (LISOS, Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000) makes it an infringement not to keep for 4 years the documentation or electronic records evidencing compliance with registration, hiring and termination duties, together with the Social Security contribution documents and the receipts proving salary payments (in force 2026).
Other labour documents may follow different rules; where they also serve as accounting evidence, consider the commercial period as well.
Paper or digital? Requirements for electronic storage
The Invoicing Regulation (Royal Decree 1619/2012) allows paper or electronic storage, provided the method meets the guarantees in articles 19 to 23:
- You must keep received invoices, copies or counterparts of issued invoices and the accounting supporting documents for the period set by the LGT, with their original content and in order (art. 19).
- They may be kept “on paper or in electronic format”, by any means that guarantees the authenticity of their origin, the integrity of their content and their readability, plus access by the administration without delay (art. 20).
- If you store them electronically, you must preserve readability in the original format and guarantee the administration online access, selective search, copying, download and printing (art. 21). Article 23 of the same regulation adds that compliance “will be independent of the place where the documents are stored”.
If records are stored outside Spain, article 22 requires electronic storage with online access for the administration and advance notification to the AEAT. Check that condition when selecting a provider.
Retention can be outsourced to a third party — your accountant or your management software — but you remain ultimately responsible for compliance (art. 19.3).
One caveat for invoices received on paper: scanning them and discarding the original is possible, but only if the digitisation process guarantees those same authenticity and integrity properties. Before destroying the original, validate that the digitisation and retention procedure meets the applicable requirements for the entire retention period; a simple photo-PDF does not establish that by itself.
What non-retention costs you: fines and lost deductions
Failing to keep records carries two price tags, charged separately.
The first is the direct penalty. Article 200 LGT classifies breaches of accounting and record-keeping obligations as a serious infringement, and specifically punishes failing to keep — or to preserve — the accounts, books and records required by tax law, including the software and data files supporting them, with a proportional fine of 1% of the year’s turnover, with a minimum of 600 euros (in force 2026). The baseline fine for other accounting breaches is 150 euros, and inaccuracies or omissions are fined at 1% of the omitted entries, between 150 and 6,000 euros.
Separately, missing evidence can jeopardise a deduction. If you cannot establish the substantive and documentary requirements, the administration may reject it and reassess the tax. The result depends on the tax, the disputed requirement and the available evidence; rejection is not automatic in every case.
VeriFactu: what it adds to retention from 2027
The Regulation on invoicing software (Royal Decree 1007/2023) adds a new object to the archive: the billing records your software generates with every invoice, chained together by digital fingerprint. Among the guarantees the regulation demands from the system is precisely the preservation of those records, alongside their integrity, accessibility, readability, traceability and inalterability.
For the broader invoicing requirements, see our VeriFactu guide for freelancers.
The dates, after the postponement enacted by Royal Decree-law 15/2025 (consolidated BOE text as of 24-10-2026): taxpayers in article 3.1.a) of the Regulation (Corporate Income Tax payers) must have adapted systems before 1 January 2027, and the other taxpayers in article 3.1 before 1 July 2027. The scope has exclusions and special cases, so the labels “freelancer” or “company” alone do not settle every case.
The Ministry of Finance note of 5 October 2026 proposes postponing pending obligations until October 2028. It is an announced intention: the consolidated BOE text checked on 24 October still contains the 2027 dates.
VeriFactu does not work on “official software certificates”. Compliance is evidenced through the software producer’s responsible declaration (article 13 of RD 1007/2023), which must appear in writing and visibly within the program itself and be available to the customer and to the administration. If a vendor boasts a “VeriFactu certificate”, ask for the responsible declaration — that is what legally exists.
The responsible declaration documents the system’s conformity, but it does not automatically fulfil all of the user’s documentary duties: check export, access, backups and retention of supporting documents that are not billing records.
Organising an archive by retention period and risk
Keep a retention schedule linking each document type to its legal basis, starting date, interruptions and authorised deletion date. Review it before deleting records and when the rules change.
This is where software does the grunt work. Frihet keeps issued invoices and scanned expenses in one place, and its free plan covers up to 999 invoices per month. Software can help classify and retrieve documents, but it does not decide on its own which legal period applies or replace the review before deleting anything.
Before deleting a batch, check the schedule against open proceedings and longer obligations, then record the decision.
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FAQ
Can I throw away paper invoices once I have scanned them?
Invoices may be kept on paper or electronically, as long as the chosen medium guarantees the authenticity of their origin, the integrity of their content and their readability (article 20 of Royal Decree 1619/2012). A simple scan does not by itself prove that all those guarantees are met; do not destroy the original before validating the procedure that applies.
How long must a freelancer who closes their business keep invoices?
Exactly the same periods as if they were still trading. Article 30 of the Commercial Code expressly states that ceasing activity does not release the business owner from the retention duty (6 years from the last book entry), and if they die the obligation passes to their heirs. The 4-year tax limitation period of article 66 LGT also keeps running as normal.
What happens if the AEAT asks for an invoice I no longer have?
Two separate consequences. First, the administration may question the expense or input VAT deduction if you cannot establish its requirements with the available evidence. Second: where the conduct fits article 200 LGT, failing to keep the accounting books and records required by tax law is a serious infringement (1% of the year's turnover, minimum 600 euros); not every missing invoice triggers that provision automatically.
When does the 4-year limitation period start counting?
It depends on the right that is time-barred. For the tax authority’s right to assess, article 67 LGT starts the count the day after the regulatory deadline for filing the return or self-assessment ends. Article 68 lists the acts that interrupt the period; calculate each tax and period separately.
Does VeriFactu change how long invoices must be kept?
Royal Decree 1007/2023 requires systems within its scope to generate and preserve billing records; it does not replace the separate retention duties for invoices and supporting documents. According to the consolidated BOE text as of 24-10-2026, taxpayers covered by article 3.1.a) of the Regulation (Corporate Income Tax payers) must have compliant systems before 1 January 2027 and the other taxpayers in article 3.1 before 1 July 2027 (Royal Decree-law 15/2025), with exclusions and special cases. Software compliance is evidenced through the producer's responsible declaration, not an official certificate.
