La Ley Crea y Crece, aprobada en septiembre de 2022, enfocada en ser una ley 14 2013 emprendedores, presents a series of advantages for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Spain. The main advantages that this law can offer are the following:
- Facilitates the creation of companies: By reducing economic costs and simplifying the procedures for creating new companies, the Create and Grow Law provides a more favorable environment for entrepreneurship. This means entrepreneurs can spend less time and resources navigating red tape and more building and growing their business.
- Fight against late payment: This law seeks to reduce late payment by making electronic invoices mandatory in operations between businessmen and professionals. By digitizing this process, it is hoped to improve efficiency and transparency, which can help prevent payment delays and improve cash flow for businesses.
- Improves access to financing: The Create and Grow Law also seeks to facilitate access to alternative forms of financing to banking, such as crowdfunding, venture capital or collective investment. This can be particularly beneficial for startups and SMEs, which often have difficulty obtaining financing through traditional channels.
- Promotes the growth and competitiveness of SMEs: By encouraging business creation and improving access to financing, the law can also help boost the growth and competitiveness of SMEs in Spain. Furthermore, by placing SMEs at the center of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, this law signals a clear commitment to supporting the business sector in general.
- Digitalization and innovation: With measures such as the mandatory electronic invoice and the Digital Kit, the Crea y Crece law also encourages the digitalization and innovation of SMEs, an essential factor in an increasingly globalized and digital world.
Anti-Fraud Law
The Anti-Fraud Law, published on July 10, 2021, constitutes a comprehensive reform with the aim of combating and preventing tax fraud in Spain. This new legal framework focuses mainly on improving the effectiveness of companies' internal procedures, as well as their billing and accounting programs.
The Anti-Fraud Law provides a series of changes and updates to the General Tax Law, affecting various aspects of business operations. It is a law on prevention and fight against tax fraud. This includes everything from cryptocurrency management and cash payments to inheritance rules and non-cooperative jurisdictions.
One of the key features of this law is that it requires billing or management programs to ensure the “integrity, conservation, legibility, traceability, accessibility and unalterability of records” at all times. This is intended to prevent the manipulation and modification of accounting and management data.
The consequences for non-compliance are serious. Companies that do not adhere to the requirements of the Anti-Fraud Law could face significant penalties, with fines of up to €150,000 for software companies and €50,000 for each anomaly detected per fiscal year. Additionally, if violations are identified over multiple fiscal years, fines will accumulate, which could have a significant impact on the company's accounting.
The Anti-Fraud Law came into force on October 11, 2021, but specific requirements for software programs are still being defined, with entry into force scheduled for July 1, 2024.
To comply with the Anti-Fraud Law, companies must have billing and accounting software that ensures complete and up-to-date accounting. The use of B accounting to evade taxes will not be tolerated. Likewise, it is crucial to have a reliable management software provider that demonstrates its commitment to legality and allows all operational needs to be met.
This law affects all companies or self-employed workers that issue invoices and are based in the national territory, as well as manufacturers, producers and sellers of accounting, billing or management software.
Among the advantages of the Anti-Fraud Law, its commitment to the fight against tax fraud stands out. With measures such as limiting cash payments to €1,000 and ending tax amnesties, the law seeks to promote transparency and trust for all taxpayers.
Another notable aspect of the Anti-Fraud Law is the introduction of a system for issuing verifiable invoices or VeriFactu system. This system requires companies to generate a record for each invoice issued and send the invoices to the Treasury as soon as they are issued. All companies that issue invoices will be required to have Verifactu software, regardless of whether or not they send the records to the Tax Agency.
Para adaptarse a la Ley Antifraude, las empresas deberán contar con un software certificado que cumpla con los requisitos de integridad, conservación, accesibilidad, legibilidad, trazabilidad e inalterabilidad de los registros a partir del 1 de julio de 2024, fecha en la que está previsto que comience el periodo sancionador. Además, será ilegal poseer software que permita llevar una doble contabilidad, incluso si no se utiliza.
