Invoicing Information
1. INVOICING DETAILS
Okodia SLU (VAT No.: ES-B65659963)
C/ Núria 57
08191 Rubí, Spain
2. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR INVOICE
- If possible (preferable for us), please create your invoice directly in your Plunet area (see Creating invoices in Plunet), since it contains all the jobs requested by us.
- If not possible, you can also send your PDF invoice by email to invoices@okodia.com (make sure that we acknowledge receipt). In any case, please create collective invoices, once monthly with all the jobs carried out during each month. If the invoice is sent out in PDF by email, please indicate the PO number with each job.
3. PAYMENT METHODS & TERMS
Unless specifically agreed otherwise:
- Methods:
- Payments within the EU are always carried out via wire (SEPA) transfer.
- Payments overseas are carried out via wire transfer or Paypal, unless specifically agreed otherwise.
- Terms:
- All payments shall be carried out during the last week of each month regardless of your invoice date, except for invoices received after the day 20 of each month, which will be processed and paid the following month.
- IMPORTANT: If you will be paid by wire transfer, it is compulsory that you send us a bank account holder certificate.
4. IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION
In order to pay the invoice it is absolutely necessary that you send us along with the first invoice of the year:
- Spain tax residents: “Certificado de contratistas”
- EU and Overseas tax residents: “Certificate of fiscal residence”
5. FAQS
5.1 Spain tax residents
El certificado de contratistas y subcontratistas es una garantía para todas aquellas personas que decidan contratar o subcontratar a un trabajador, profesional o empresario para la ejecución de obras o prestación de servicios siempre que estos estén relacionados con su actividad.
La Ley General Tributaria establece que quien contrata (o subcontrata) un determinado servicio es responsable subsidiario de la deuda que pudiera derivarse si el contratado no cumple con su obligación de pagar a Hacienda el impuesto correspondiente que ha generado la actividad que ha realizado.
El certificado se puede solicitar de forma gratuita y online en: https://www.agenciatributaria.gob.es/AEAT.sede/procedimientoini/G303.shtml (La propia página web de la AEAT proporciona información sobre este certificado). Si se dispone de certificado de usuario, se obtiene al momento. En caso contrario la AEAT lo envía al domicilio en un plazo de una semana, aproximadamente.
5.2 EU and Overseas tax residents
The Spanish tax authority, to which we are subject to, considers that translators provide their services locally (i.e., in Spain), and thus they are considered to be subject to Spanish taxation, unless they provide a proof of being fiscally resident of any other country with which there is a DTA (Double Tax Agreement).
Until mid-2019 we were only requesting «anything» as a proof of fiscal residence (incomes certificate, VAT number in the VIES system, etc.). It seemed this was fine for our tax authority, because they required it, but never requested that we supply these files to them. It was required for our records, just in case we were asked to show it to them. In mid-2019 we were subject to an inspection/audit by the tax authority and we showed the proofs that translators had sent to us. However, they said that these proofs were not valid. They accepted our efforts in getting these files, but they explicitly said that we are obliged to request the official “Certificate of Fiscal Residence”, which is something most countries issue upon request. This is the only reason why we cannot accept any kind of proof, but the official “Certificate of Fiscal Residence” issued by your tax authority.
Civil residence and fiscal residence is not the same (check https://www.internations.org/guide/global/fiscal-residency-16198). While these documents may be used to show your civil residence, they do not show evidence of your fiscal residence, that might differ. For example, it may happen that you are a US citizen (ID/Passport from USA) but that you live (and pay taxes in another different country).
Even though it seems logical for us as well, it seems our tax authority doesn’t completely agree with the fact that this means that you are fiscally resident of such an EU country. For this reason they explicitly said that they would only accept the Fiscal Residence Certificate issued by your corresponding tax authority.
We are completely aware that some agencies (even agencies in Spain) do not require this, but Spanish tax authorities are very strict regarding this matter, that we were only aware of after their last inspection/audit for previous tax years. In 2019 some Spanish translation agencies (Okodia among them) were under inspection for tax year 2016 and our tax authority required all certificates from all our translators. We showed proof of the files we had by then. Off-the-record, we knew that some Spanish agencies were fined because they didn’t get any kind of information from their translators.
As said, other agencies in Spain or other agencies in some other countries, as we used to do in the past, might not require this document, maybe because other country’s tax authority is not so strict, or maybe because they have been working the same way we did until mid-2019. However, due to the inspection/audit we were subject to, the Spain tax authority explicitly said that this official “Certificate of Fiscal Residence” will be the only one that they would accept. Since they said this explicitly, we are already warned by them and thus we have to behave that way.
Requesting and getting this official “Certificate of fiscal residence” is usually not complicated, as many other translators from your country already did this. In a matter of helping you, we have been asking different resources from different countries that already sent it to us how this document can be obtained in your country, and we are sharing this piece of information below (sorry we are not aware yet of all countries). As you can see, it is not complicated to request it, as other translators from your country already did this. See detailed table below for your country.
We, as a Spanish company, are subject to our tax authority. Their regulations say that we must deduct taxes from any invoice we receive, unless the provider is fiscally resident in a country with which there is a double tax agreement. That would be your case. In order to do so, we must show proof of that (otherwise, the tax authority doesn’t know if or where the provider is resident).
The reason behind this is that most countries, like yours and Spain (and many other countries) have signed a DTA (Double Tax Agreement), which means that you don’t have to charge VAT due to the reverse tax system thanks to this tax agreement. However, in order to avoid this double tax (that is, paying taxes in both countries) you must show evidence of fiscal residence in your country. The only way to show evidence of fiscal residence in your country, according to our tax authorities (which are the ones that are requiring this in order to not apply any tax) is the official “Certificate of fiscal residence”.
In case of not supplying it, we are obligated to deduct taxes (24%) from the invoice (that you can afterwards claim to your country tax authority, provided there exists a DTA between Spain and your country. We send proof of deductions once every year to the provider). This is, of course, another possibility, if you prefer. In this case, we wouldn’t need any fiscal document from you (just let us know that you prefer this option). However, we know this is not usually preferable by translators, and this is why we always try to get the document before.
