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Voiding an electronic invoice: when a credit note applies and when it does not

A valid electronic invoice is not deleted. It is corrected with another document. And there is one very common case where the credit note is entirely out of place.

6 min readTicuenta
The short rule: if the tax authority accepted the invoice, it is voided or corrected with a credit note. If the tax authority rejected it, no credit note is made: you issue a new invoice. The original document stays unalterable either way, and its number is never reused.

The three cases, so they do not get mixed up

What happenedCredit note?What to do
The tax authority rejected itNoIssue a new invoice referencing it
The customer rejected itYesCredit note, then a new invoice
It simply came out wrongYesReturn, amount or wording corrected

Who rejected it determines which document applies.

Case 1 · The tax authority rejected it

Here there is nothing to void, because the document never had any validity. The regulation is explicit: when the Ministry of Finance's confirmation message is a rejection, for tax purposes the corresponding credit or debit note must not be made. What applies is issuing a new document immediately, stating which one it replaces. What a rejection means.

It is the most repeated error. Because the system already generated the number, the natural reaction is “void it”. But voiding something the tax authority never accepted leaves two phantom documents in your accounts instead of one.

Case 2 · The customer rejected it

If the recipient rejects the invoice, wholly or partly, and the tax authority approves that rejection, the recipient returns the message to the issuer. From there the issuer has two obligations, in this order:

  • Issue the credit note

    To modify or void, wholly or partly, the accounting effect of the invoice. It has to reference the original document by its key.

  • Then issue the corrected invoice

    With the next number in the series, and the correction actually made — otherwise the recipient rejects it again.

Case 3 · It simply came out wrong

A return, a later discount, a wrong amount, a mistyped description. The invoice was accepted and is valid, so it is corrected with a credit note — partial if only part of it is affected, total if the whole thing is.

And the reference has limits. The credit note's reference has to be a valid numeric key, and it cannot point to a document more than ten years old.

What never happens

  • The number is not reused. Not after a rejection, not after a credit note. The sequence moves forward and never goes back.
  • The original is not modified. An electronic document is unalterable by design: that is what the signature is for.
  • Nothing is deleted. Voided documents are kept for five years too.
From Ticuenta

The right document for what happened

A rejected document offers a replacement, not a credit note. An accepted one offers the note, with the reference already filled in.

See how it works

About this article. The prohibition on issuing a credit note over a rejected document, and the obligations after a customer's rejection, come from the Electronic Documents Regulation; the reference requirements, from the version 4.4 annex.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Tax rules change. This is information, not tax advice.

Sources: Ministry of Finance Current legal texts (Sinalevi)

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