Spain ViDA Implementation: Cabinet Approves First Stage of EU Directive
Madrid, 29 June 2026 – Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved a bill for the first stage of the Spain ViDA implementation, the national transposition of the EU’s “VAT in the Digital Age” directive. The bill focuses on clarifications to the One Stop Shop (OSS) system and VAT refunds for non-EU businesses, with intended entry into force on 1 January 2027. Spain follows Lithuania and Italy, which have also taken steps in their ViDA transposition this summer.
What Spain’s bill actually changes
The bill amends Spain’s VAT law (Ley 37/1992) on a limited but concrete set of points:
- Tighter clarification of the €10,000 OSS threshold for intra-EU distance sales and certain electronic services.
- Broadening of the Non-Union OSS scheme, allowing non-EU suppliers to apply it more widely to services supplied to EU consumers.
- A representative requirement for certain non-EU businesses seeking VAT refunds in Spain via OSS/IOSS.
- Targeted technical adjustments, including cash-accounting exclusions for transactions reported under OSS regimes.
Spanish officials have been notably explicit about what this bill does not cover: the major, structural ViDA changes scheduled for 2028 and 2030 are not part of this first transposition step.
Why this is only the first of three stages
The ViDA directive follows a phased EU-wide rollout through 2035, with three milestones that go well beyond Spain’s current bill:
- 1 July 2028: deemed-supplier platform rules (including short-term rental and passenger transport) and the introduction of a single EU VAT registration.
- 1 July 2030: mandatory Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) for cross-border B2B transactions, including shorter invoicing timelines and standardised structured data.
- 1 January 2035: existing national real-time reporting systems, such as Spain’s own SII, must align with the EU-wide standard.
For e-invoicing stakeholders, that last point is the real signal: the structural shift toward mandatory cross-border e-invoicing and digital reporting only arrives from 2030 onward. Spain has explicitly framed the current bill as a first, limited step, not the core of the ViDA transformation.
Relevance for Dutch and Belgian businesses
For businesses in the Netherlands or Belgium trading with Spanish customers, or selling cross-border through OSS, little changes operationally from 1 January 2027: the amendments mostly concern thresholds and administrative clarifications, not a new invoicing obligation. The real relevance lies in the timeline: this is the first visible proof that EU member states are actually beginning ViDA transposition, reinforcing the expectation that the major 2030 change (mandatory cross-border e-invoicing and digital reporting) remains on track. Businesses invoicing internationally are well advised to align their Peppol setup with that trajectory now, rather than reacting only in 2029.
Compare Peppol service providers ready for the ViDA timeline using the Peppol.nu comparison tool, and read more about the Spanish e-invoicing reform in our earlier article Spanish E-Invoicing 2026: VeriFactu & B2B Mandate Explained.
