Two things are landing in autónomo inboxes at the same time. One is the fuss about VeriFactu, the new rules for invoicing software. The other is a steady stream of offers for AI that "handles your invoicing." Put them together and you get a fair, slightly nervous question: if an AI agent chases my unpaid invoices, am I breaking the new rules?
Short answer: not if it stays in its lane. The rest of this piece is about where the lane is.
The deadline moved, and not everyone noticed
VeriFactu was first meant to bite in 2026. Real Decreto-ley 15/2025, published in the BOE on 3 December 2025, pushed the dates back. The new ones are 1 January 2027 for businesses that pay Corporate Income Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades) and 1 July 2027 for everyone else obliged, which includes most autónomos. The tax agency's own FAQ page says the same, and adds that before those dates, using the system is voluntary.
I mention it because a few forum threads we came across this autumn still quote the old dates, and some of them sit next to a product being sold on that panic. If someone is selling you urgency, check the date first.
What the rule actually asks of your software
VeriFactu is not about you. It is about the program that issues your invoices. That program has to create a record for every invoice in a standard format, protect it so it cannot be quietly changed afterwards, and put a QR code on the invoice. There are two ways to do it. In VERI*FACTU mode, the program sends each record to the tax agency the moment the invoice is issued. In the other mode, the records stay with you, but they carry the same protections. The agency also offers a free invoicing application.
Notice what that means in plain terms: the invoice record is now the official one, and the invoicing program is the only thing that should be writing it.
So where does an AI agent fit?
An agent that chases unpaid invoices only needs to read. Which invoices are open, who owes them, how late they are, how to reach the client. From that it drafts a reminder. It never has to create, edit or delete an invoice.
That separation is the whole answer. Picture Pau, a plumber with two employees. A boiler repair is 40 days overdue. The agent sees it is still open, drafts a polite but firm reminder with the invoice number, and Pau taps approve. If the client replies that the amount is wrong, the agent does nothing clever. Pau decides what the correction is, and makes it in the invoicing program, where it leaves a trace.
Now picture the other version: an agent with full access "to tidy things up" that fixes the wrong amount by itself. In a system built so that changes cannot be quietly made, that is exactly what you do not want a machine doing unwatched. If you want the longer case for starting with collections, I wrote it up in Why Your First AI Agent Should Chase Invoices. And the question of what an agent may do without your tap has its own piece: Do I Really Have to Check Everything My AI Does?
About those letters
In September, the tax technicians' union Gestha said that autónomos not on VeriFactu are more likely to receive information requests in the autumn review campaign, because the agency has less direct data about their invoicing. The same spokesperson was careful to add that this does not necessarily mean more inspections.
So treat it as a nudge, not a siren. And notice what it does not say: nothing there suggests an AI agent protects you from those letters. Being in order is the job of your invoicing software.
Honest limits
- An AI agent is not a VeriFactu solution, and nobody should sell it to you as one. Compliance lives in the invoicing software, and its maker has legal duties of its own.
- I am not your gestor. The rules have special cases I have not covered here, so confirm your own situation with your gestoría.
- If your invoices are still Word files or spreadsheets, "not yet" is the right answer for an agent. The first step is invoicing software, not AI.
One thing to do this week
Send your invoicing software provider (or your gestoría) two questions in writing. First: "Will you be VeriFactu-ready before July 2027, and in which mode?" Second: "Can I give a tool a read-only view of unpaid invoices, with no permission to change anything?" Keep the answers. They will tell you more than any sales page about whether an invoice agent can sit safely on top of what you already use.