TicketBAI or Verifactu: which one applies to you, and from when

If you run an appointment-based business in Spain, someone has told you at some point that you "have to change your invoicing program". What makes it confusing is that there is not one rule but several, and the one that applies to you does not depend on your sector or your size: it depends on where you are registered for tax.

Straight to it.

The rule, in one line

Your tax address decides the system:

• Álava, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia → TicketBAI, from your provincial tax office.
• Common territory, Canary Islands included → Verifactu, from the Spanish Tax Agency.

There is nothing to choose. Neither is better than the other. It is whichever one belongs to the place where you are registered. (Navarre, with its own regional regime, runs to its own calendar.)

What each one is, without the jargon

Both are after the same thing: that an issued invoice cannot be deleted or edited afterwards. And both do it the same way: each document is chained to the previous one by a digital fingerprint, so that removing one shows, and it carries a QR code that lets anyone check it.

Verifactu is the Spanish Tax Agency's system. Your program generates the record for each invoice and, in "Veri*Factu" mode, sends it to the tax authority at the moment it is issued.

TicketBAI is the system of the three Basque provincial tax offices. The idea is the same, but the file, the signature and the code are theirs, and the filing goes to their office, not to the state one. A program adapted to Verifactu does not comply with TicketBAI on its own: they are two different implementations.

That is the trap in corridor conversations: "my program is already adapted" is an incomplete sentence. The question is "adapted to which one?".

From when

TicketBAI is already in force. It was rolled out in phases, by province and by type of activity, and by now it covers practically everyone invoicing in Álava, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia. If you are there and you are not yet issuing under TicketBAI, that is the urgent conversation, not Verifactu.

Verifactu arrives in 2027, with two dates:

• 1 January 2027 for companies.
• 1 July 2027 for the self-employed.

What is left of 2026 is a voluntary period. If you read somewhere that Verifactu is already mandatory, that information is out of date: the dates have moved more than once.

The Canary Islands: Verifactu, but with IGIC

If your business is in the Canary Islands, Verifactu does apply to you, but your tax is not VAT: it is IGIC, with its own rates. The program has to know how to issue with IGIC and itemise it properly; a system that only handles VAT is no use to you even if it is adapted to Verifactu. It is one of the questions that saves the most money to ask before signing.

What actually changes at your front desk

Not much, if you prepare in time. None of this changes how you work:

• You still take payment the same way. Cash, card, instant transfer, whatever you already do.
• You still hand over the same document. In a salon or a clinic the usual one is a simplified invoice: the same as always, now with your tax number, the tax itemised and its QR code.
• What changes is what happens underneath. The record is chained and cannot be edited. That has one practical consequence worth taking on board: an issued invoice is no longer edited. If you got it wrong, you issue a corrective one. It is a change of habit, not of software.

What to ask before signing anything

Four questions any serious supplier answers in a minute:

1. Do you comply with Verifactu, TicketBAI or both? And if they say both, have them explain how they pick which one applies.
2. What happens if I refund or make a mistake? The right answer is "a corrective invoice is issued", not "the receipt is corrected".
3. Is it included or an extra? And in which plan.
4. And if I am in the Canary Islands? If they do not know what IGIC is, you have your answer.

How ClaudIA handles it

ClaudIA's till issues under both systems and picks the one that applies to you from your tax address, so it is not a decision you have to make and there is nothing extra to contract. Each appointment's receipt comes out as a simplified invoice with your tax number and the tax itemised — VAT, or IGIC if you are in the Canary Islands — a corrective invoice on refunds and a full invoice on request, with its chained record and its QR code, filed with the Spanish Tax Agency or your provincial tax office through an authorised filing partner.

And it is available now: you can start issuing today and reach the legal date with months of practice behind you, instead of breaking in a new system with the tax office breathing down your neck.

And because the till lives inside the schedule, there is no second program to reconcile at closing: you charge from the appointment itself, the cash count flags any discrepancy, and the month downloads for your accountant with one row per payment. If you would rather keep your already-adapted POS, there is no choice to make either: ClaudIA sits alongside it.

If you want the detail on Verifactu's deadlines and steps, we go into it in Verifactu in your salon.

One last thing, because it saves the most time: before changing programs, check where you are registered for tax. Half an hour on that check saves you from buying the wrong adaptation.