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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

TicketBAI — Basque Country (Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba)

The three Basque foral territories pre-empted Spain on invoice anti-fraud traceability: TicketBAI (TBAI) has imposed since 2022-2024, depending on territory, an SHA-256 hash chain signed with XAdES and a public-verification QR code on every invoice, transmitted in real time to the Hacienda Foral.

Origin: 3 foral territories, 1 converging system

Under the Concierto Economico of 1981, the Basque Country holds its own fiscal autonomy: the Diputaciones of Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba collect every direct and indirect tax in their territory and remit a partial "cupo" to the Spanish State. This autonomy let each territory pre-empt national legislation on tax digitalisation.

text ticketbai-territories.txt 
# Three foral territories of the Basque Country
# Each diputacion runs its own service but the TBAI XML format is shared

Bizkaia (Biscay, BFA / Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia)
  - Application: BATUZ (TicketBAI + LROE Libro Registro de Operaciones Economicas)
  - Service URL: www.batuz.eus
  - Universal go-live: 1 January 2024 (after gradual rollout since 2022)
  - Specific feature: integrated LROE, two-way tracking (emission AND reception)

Gipuzkoa (Guipuzcoa, GFA / Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia)
  - Application: TicketBAI Gipuzkoa
  - Service URL: www.gipuzkoa.eus/tbai
  - Universal go-live: 1 January 2024
  - Specific feature: two modes — direct send or nightly batch

Araba (Alava, AFA / Arabako Foru Aldundia)
  - Application: TicketBAI Araba
  - Service URL: web.araba.eus/es/tbai
  - Universal go-live: 1 January 2024
  - Specific feature: consolidated portal with cross-links to Bizkaia/Gipuzkoa
            for taxpayers active in multiple territories

The three territories rolled out TicketBAI at slightly different paces (Bizkaia leading the way in 2022 as BATUZ), but with a common XML format and identical cryptographic rules. This convergence was sealed by the joint Orden Foral of the three diputaciones in 2020.

The TBAI chain: SHA-256 and XAdES

The TicketBAI XML follows its own XSD schema — distinct from the Spanish Facturae and EN 16931 — designed for technical traceability of the invoice rather than its commercial content. Each XML carries:

  1. Issuer taxpayer identification (NIF, legal name).
  2. Invoice data (series, number, date, total amount — without line-level detail, which is carried by the accompanying commercial format).
  3. Encadenamiento (chaining) with the previous invoice: series, number, date and SignatureValue of the previous invoice.
  4. Software identification (TBAI licence number issued by the Hacienda Foral, developer NIF, name, version).
  5. A XAdES-EPES signature (XML Advanced Electronic Signature - Explicit Policy Electronic Signature) backed by a qualified eIDAS certificate of the taxpayer with qualified timestamp.
xml ticketbai-emision.xml 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<T:TicketBai xmlns:T="urn:ticketbai:emision"
             xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#">
  <Cabecera>
    <IDVersionTBAI>1.2</IDVersionTBAI>
  </Cabecera>
  <Sujetos>
    <Emisor>
      <NIF>B12345678</NIF>
      <ApellidosNombreRazonSocial>Atelier Donostia SL</ApellidosNombreRazonSocial>
    </Emisor>
    <Destinatarios>
      <IDDestinatario>
        <NIF>B87654321</NIF>
        <ApellidosNombreRazonSocial>Cooperativa Vitoria SCoop</ApellidosNombreRazonSocial>
      </IDDestinatario>
    </Destinatarios>
  </Sujetos>
  <Factura>
    <CabeceraFactura>
      <SerieFactura>T-2026</SerieFactura>
      <NumFactura>00042</NumFactura>
      <FechaExpedicionFactura>20-04-2026</FechaExpedicionFactura>
    </CabeceraFactura>
    <DatosFactura>
      <ImporteTotalFactura>1210.00</ImporteTotalFactura>
    </DatosFactura>
  </Factura>
  <HuellaTBAI>
    <EncadenamientoFacturaAnterior>
      <SerieFacturaAnterior>T-2026</SerieFacturaAnterior>
      <NumFacturaAnterior>00041</NumFacturaAnterior>
      <FechaExpedicionFacturaAnterior>19-04-2026</FechaExpedicionFacturaAnterior>
      <SignatureValueFirmaFacturaAnterior>9C1185...</SignatureValueFirmaFacturaAnterior>
    </EncadenamientoFacturaAnterior>
    <Software>
      <LicenciaTBAI>BI-X-99999-2025</LicenciaTBAI>
      <EntidadDesarrolladora>
        <NIF>A99999999</NIF>
      </EntidadDesarrolladora>
      <Nombre>Atelier ERP</Nombre>
      <Version>4.7.2</Version>
    </Software>
  </HuellaTBAI>
  <ds:Signature>
    <!-- XAdES-EPES signature with timestamp -->
  </ds:Signature>
</T:TicketBai>

The TicketBAI QR: public verification

Every TicketBAI-compliant invoice must carry a visible QR code encoding the public verification URL of the competent diputacion. The specification is highly prescriptive: minimum size, error correction, "TBAI" caption visible beneath the QR.

text ticketbai-qr-spec.txt 
# TicketBAI QR specification (Hacienda Foral)
# Encoded URL format depending on the territory:

# Bizkaia
https://batuz.eus/QRTBAI?id=TBAI-B12345678-200426-000042-9C1185&cr=07

# Gipuzkoa
https://tbai.prep.gipuzkoa.eus/qr/?id=TBAI-B12345678-200426-000042-9C1185&cr=07

# Araba (Alava)
https://ticketbai.araba.eus/tbai/qrcode/?id=TBAI-B12345678-200426-000042-9C1185&cr=07

# TBAI ID format:
#   TBAI-<issuer-NIF>-<DDMMYY>-<invoice-number>-<5-char-prefix-of-XAdES-hash>
# cr (control redundancy) format:
#   2 Luhn modulo 16 digits, validated server-side

The QR points to three distinct URLs depending on the territory — each diputacion runs its own verification service — but the format of the TBAI identifier is common: TBAI-NIF-date-number-hash5. For cross-territory taxpayers, scanning the QR redirects to the competent diputacion.

Reception by the Hacienda Foral

Two transmission modes are available depending on taxpayer size:

  • Online mode (real-time) — the signed XML is transmitted to the diputacion within minutes of invoice emission, through a SOAP web service authenticated by qualified certificate. Mandatory above a turnover threshold.
  • Offline mode (daily batch) — XMLs are accumulated locally and transmitted as a batch within 24 hours of emission. Reserved for activities without permanent connectivity (taxis, market stalls, certain itinerant activities).

The SOAP API returns immediately an acknowledgement (AcuseRecibo) containing:

  • The definitive TBAI identifier
  • The reception timestamp on the Hacienda side
  • The status: Correcto, Anulado, or rejection with an error code

BATUZ and LROE integration in Bizkaia

The Diputacion of Bizkaia went further than its neighbours by creating the BATUZ regime: the combination of TicketBAI (emission) and the Libro Registro de Operaciones Economicas (LROE) — the quarterly detailed bookkeeping register of economic operations.

BATUZ therefore adds:

  • LROE Modelo 140 — for autonomos (self-employed): quarterly declaration of own-account operations.
  • LROE Modelo 240 — for companies: more detailed quarterly declaration, including sales, purchases, intracommunity operations and operations with tax havens.

The combination TicketBAI + LROE lets the Hacienda Foral of Bizkaia fully pre-fill quarterly VAT returns (modelo 303 and 390) for BATUZ-enrolled taxable persons. This regime does not (yet) exist in Gipuzkoa and Araba, which stick to TicketBAI alone.

Basque-specific penalties

The TicketBAI penalty regime is carried by each territory's Normas Forales (Bizkaia: NF 5/2020, Gipuzkoa: NF 1/2020, Araba: NF 11/2020). It is stricter than the national regime:

  • Software without TBAI licence: 2% of the vendor's annual turnover in the Basque Country, capped at EUR 20,000 per product, repeated each year.
  • Issuance without QR or with broken chain: 1% of the taxpayer's annual turnover, with a floor of EUR 3,000 and a cap of EUR 20,000 per fiscal year.
  • Cryptographic chain tampering: 150% of the altered invoice amounts, plus criminal action (forgery, tax fraud) under article 305 of the Spanish Penal Code.