When an entrepreneur has a customer with unpaid invoices, the first question he usually asks himself is: will the customer never pay, how much money has been lost, and what resources and efforts will it take to try to collect the debt. Once the answers have been considered then one has to act accordingly. The good news is that it is possible to recover the VAT on unpaid invoices and, of course, to pursue recovery in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

The Spanish Tax Agency facilitates the recovery of VAT on unpaid invoices that any entrepreneur or self-employed person has outstanding.

In order to be able to recover the amount of VAT it is necessary for:

1. The defaulting customer to be a company or self-employed person.

2. The business owner has registered the transaction in his or her accounts and has paid the VAT.

3. At least 6 months have passed since the invoice was issued, which is when it is officially considered unpaid.

In order to prove this non-payment and proceed to recovering the VAT on unpaid invoices, the Tax Agency will also ask for the following:

1. To have claimed payment of the debt through an official channel, either through a notary or through the courts.

2. Cancel the unpaid invoice.

3. Issue another corrective invoice within three months of the official declaration of non-payment, or within one year in the case of a large company.

THE PROBLEM OF AN UNPAID INVOICE

Our firm, which has extensive knowledge on this issue for two reasons: being used to the commercial field due to its own activity and the mere fact that it is also a company, knows that the non-payment of an invoice, no matter how small the amount, causes a great deal of damage for the affected company.

The proof is that non-payment means:

– loss of hours, work and resources allocated to providing the service to the defaulting customer and the cost of materials in the case of a product.

– Damage to the relationship with the customer.

– Fear that our brand may lose out because of what the defaulter may pass on to third parties.

– Economic loss due to the profit not received.

– Amount paid for the VAT on unpaid invoices.

– Investment of new time and money to pursue recovery.

However, pursuing the collection of each invoice does not have to be as difficult as it might seem, nor does it have to involve tension with the client, damage to the brand or the assumption of new efforts to pursue collection, and the proof is in solutions such as CobroSolutio, which have proven to be effective for large companies, SMEs and freelancers.