Contractors: Invoices and VAT Registration

Our community has lucrative contracts with a 'company' for gardening and other services. These have an agreed VAT element. I have discovered in the community files that the company has not produced invoices for the three years during which we have used them. Someone turns up at the administration offices each month and is given a 'bearers' (portador) cheque. Included in the payment is the agreed amount for VAT, although there is no record on the receipt the collector signs that this is included, and there are no invoices, as I have indicated. The 'company' is now an 'SL' (for two months). I assume that if they had been self-employed before two months ago, they would still need to have been VAT registered if they added VAT to their charges.

How can I find out if they were VAT registered prior to becoming an SL?

Thanks

Dear Madam,

They should have invoiced the 16% VAT even prior to incorporating an S.L.

"Autónomos" or self-employed are under the fiscal obligation of handing over invoices with the associated VAT for the professional services performed.

Yours sincerely,
Raymundo LarraÃ*n Nesbitt