From 1st January 2022, e-invoices will be the preferred method for submitting invoices to Government organisations. It will still be possible to send invoices by post- but these must be sent to a specific address- SPW Finances – Centre de scanning – Avenue du Gouverneur Bovesse 29 – 5100 Jambes. Sending an invoice in PDF or Word format by email will no longer be permitted.
There will also be several new mandatory references on the invoices.
Compliance Category: Información de la normativa
We have previously written about the voluntary phase of the e-invoicing mandate in Poland, which is scheduled to start in January 2022. It is on course to become mandatory in January 2023.
The Polish Ministry of Finance has now started a pilot of the KSef, the Polish e-invoicing platform, and has invited any entities that develop invoicing software to test it. There is no official application process for this. All invoices issued during this pilot will be regarded as tests and have no legal effect.
Access to this trial version can be found via this link.
Poland has passed a law regarding structured invoices.
This means that from 1st January 2022 the use of structured invoices will be voluntary. This may potentially become mandatory from January 2023.
The e-invoicing demo environment is now live and can be found via the following link on the government website.
In Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance has issued Circular 78/2021 on 17 September 2021 to guide the implementation of several articles of the Law on Tax Administration and the Government’s Decree 123 on invoices and documents.
The following are some noteworthy points from the circular:
- For business using e-invoice without verification code, the e-invoice data must be transmitted to the tax authority within the date the e-invoice is sent to the buyer at the latest, except for certain sectors such as telecommunication, insurance, banking, air transportation, securities, etc.
- If an enterprise uses e-invoices without verification code and would like to switch to e-invoices with verification code, they should follow the guidelines outlined in Article 15 of Decree 123/2020.
- When an e-invoice has errors that must be corrected or replaced, buyer can choose to notify the amendment for each e-invoice with errors or for multiple e-invoices with errors using a prescribed form. This form must be submitted to the tax authorities by the last day of the VAT declaration period.
Mandatory e-invoicing in Egypt is rolling out in phases as planned, currently the e-invoice project is at the 4th phase where it’s mandatory for large Egyptian taxpayers to use e-invoicing. Note that from January 2022, the mandate will be effective for ALL taxpayers operating in Egypt and VAT can no longer be deducted from paper invoices.
Egypt operates this e-invoice mandate with a so called “clearance model”, meaning that each e-invoice must be validated and approved by ETA (Egyptian Tax Authority) before it is sent to the customer. Taxpayers are obliged to acquire a HSM (Hardware Security Model) device or a USB token to digitally sign the e-invoice. In addition, Product codes must be added on the e-invoice according to the GPC (Global Product Classification) classification of the GS1 (Global Standards 1) standard.
The implementation of the ‘Carta Porte’ was due to go ahead on 1st October 2021. All Mexican taxpayers that transport goods and merchandise in Mexican territory via sea, air, rail or federal highways are required to include this in the Mexican legal invoice artefact (the CFDI).
This requirement to include the Carta Porte has now been delayed until 1st January 2022.
Romania is making some strides with e-invoicing. The Romanian Ministry of Public Finance announced on 14 September 2021 that the pilot-programme “E-factura” will become operational starting September 2021.
For now, this programme will address only the uploading, storing and downloading of invoices for B2G transactions.
The Romanian Ministry of Public Finance mentioned that such a pilot program will lead to further developments and also provide some further insight into how B2B e-invoicing can be developed.
The French e-invoicing mandate has been delayed, in line with the following:
- General obligation to receive e-invoices: July 2024
- Obligation for large enterprises to send e-invoices: July 2024
- Obligation to send e-invoices for mid-sized suppliers: January 2025
- SME obligation: January 2026
Cyprus is looking to implement some changes around e-invoicing in the sphere of public procurement. The current framework is covered by the scope of Public Procurement Law (89(I)/2019).
There are some proposals under review from the Cypriot Ministry of Finance, including making e-invoicing mandatory for transactions in the public sector. These proposals have been published for public consultation.
It is intended that the proposed amendments to the law will come into force from 1 January 2022, although it is slightly uncertain at the moment whether this will go ahead, due to the legal and administrative procedures which need to be followed.
The relevant provisions of the law cover central governmental entities and the remaining public agencies as defined in the legislation. Certain sectors will be exempt from the obligation to use e-invoicing.
The original deadline for electronic issuers to report any software solutions relating to their e-invoicing and archiving of e-invoices was July 2021, by virtue of Resolution 168/021. This has been delayed until 30 September 2021.
Resolution No. 1.174/021, published in the Official Gazette of 2 August 2021, confirmed the new deadline, and has been in force since then.
The Bolivian Tax Authorities (BTA) were making some advances in the e-invoicing landscape- however, their progress was curbed due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
On 11 August 2021, the BTA issued Resolution Number 102100000011, with an effective date of 1st December 2021. This overturns the current billing regime provided by Resolution Number 10-0021-16. Taxpayers will therefore need to refer to this new resolution to see if this affects their billing process.
The BTA have also issued Resolution Number 102100000012, which states that certain taxpayers:
- Must adapt and implement their billing systems so that from 1 December 2021, these issue Digital Tax Documents through online billing modalities;
- Taxpayers who use the Virtual Office billing modality and have not been classified for the use of these online building modalities, must use the Online Web Portal billing modality from 1 December 2021.
The French Council of Ministers announced on September 15th, 2021 that the introduction of the e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate has been postponed by 18 months. Please click here for the official announcement. While France was making good progress with the preparation for the mandate, the implementation time was deemed to be too short given the significant impact of the new obligations on businesses (originally the first phase of the mandate would have kicked in on January 1, 2023).
Greece is looking to implement a phased roll-out of its upcoming e-invoicing MyData changes, starting on 1st September 2021. As a reminder, e-invoicing in this context refers to the connection of a certified e-invoicing certified service provider to the MyData platform. Tungsten does not meet the requirements for a certified provider, so we are requesting that suppliers attach their legal invoice to our Tungsten solution as we won’t be able to create the legal artefact for suppliers once the changes take effect.
Here are some key dates to watch out for:
- 1 September 2021: Companies will proceed on a phased basis from this date around the electronic transmission to MyData and the interconnection specifically of cash registers with Greek electronic system. This will be based on the type of their accounting books and annual revenues;
- 1 October 2021: The mandatory transmission of business documents to the MyData platform becomes mandatory;
- From 1 October 2021 onwards, the following businesses must send their accounts receivable documents (i.e. invoices) which they issue:
- Businesses with double-entry accounting books with a turnover of over € 50.000.
- Businesses with single-entry accounting books with a turnover of over € 100.000.
- 1 November 2021: all other companies must submit their invoices.
The Greek MyData changes have been delayed multiple times already. So far we have not heard anything to indicate that these changes will not be going ahead on 1 September 2021. We will keep you updated.
With the voluntary phase of the mandate fast approaching in January 2022, the Polish Ministry of Finance has published some new documentation.
This includes the draft version of the e-invoicing structure and a sample invoice, which can be found on the Polish Ministry of Finance website: https://www.gov.pl/web/kas/krajowy-system-e-faktur
The voluntary phase of the Polish national e-invoicing mandate has been delayed until January 2022. It was originally scheduled to be implemented in October 2021.