Every Spanish business / sole trader has to be registered for VAT,
the threshold for Spain is 0 - zero,
whereas ours in the UK is £85,000
when entered into etsy, it has to have the ES prefix, and etsy checks it, the format is
ESX9999999X
..
The change was the EU countries, and other countries, passed laws which made market places jointly liable for VAT, unless they made the sellers supply a VAT number, when they were close to the threshold - Spains threshold is zero
It didn't change the fact sellers should have been registered, only that sellers had to supply the number to etsy
(.... I also think that Spain charges quite a lot for social security payments, when you are registered, even if you don't sell anything)
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360058652054-Am-I-Required-To-Add-a-VAT-ID-to-my-Account-?se...
