Servicios de cumplimiento

A new government took place in Colombia from August 2022 and perhaps inevitably, taxation will feature heavily in the proposed new agenda. 

The new government has already touted several new fiscal-related proposals.  

In 2021, Colombians were able to enjoy a ‘three-day holiday’ from VAT, where certain products were exempt from VAT. However, a repeat appears to be under threat from the new government as it looks to abolish the three-day reprieve. 

Amongst others, more social fiscal measures are proposed, including establishing a new tax for sugary drinks and certain processed foods; an increase in carbon tax emissions and the establishment of new environmental taxes, serving a distinctly new societal agenda. 

Tungsten Network is monitoring developments in Latin America and is committed to cascading meaningful e-invoicing developments in the country. 

In July, we communicated on Bolivia’s swift acceleration of its e-invoicing mandate.  

The Bolivian Tax Authorities have now published what will certainly be welcome news for taxpayers- the easing of some its compliance regulations, further to Law No. 1448, dated 25 July 2022 in the Official Gazette.  

Significant changes include:  

• An extension of the time limit to pay outstanding tax amounts without a penalty from 10 days to 20 days 

• The penalty for unpaid tax obligations will be reduced to from 100% of the unpaid tax to 60% of the unpaid tax. 

Information about Bolivia’s e-invoicing mandate can be found here. 

The Revenue Agency in Italy has announced a new version of the Technical Specifications (1.7.1) for electronic e-invoicing in Italy. 

These are applicable from 1st October 2022.  

The Technical Specifications are regularly updated with a view to improving the e-invoicing process, as well as highlighting changes to the invoice layout, amongst other modifications. 

Changes to the Technical Specifications include the introduction of a new document type (TD28), relevant for purchases from San Marino, as well as the completion of a new field for certain transactions exempt from stamp duty. 

Tungsten Network is analysing the changes to ensure we are compliant with version 1.7.1 of the new technical specifications from 1st October 2022. 

Poland introduced the anti-inflation package to reduce the VAT burden on taxpayers. We communicated last month these measures had been extended until 31st October 2022. 

The Council of Minister has now extended the measures to the end of the year. 

Countries are continually reviewing their fiscal structures for multiple reasons. This can be in response to the specific current economic climates, such as rising inflation, or for other commercial or cost-effective reasons.  

Various countries are increasing the VAT threshold, reducing the scope of taxpayers obligated to register for VAT. We saw this in Bulgaria last month.  

Sweden has become the latest country to increase the VAT registration, in line with the following from 1st July 2022: 

• 30,000 SEK to 80,000 SEK 

Increasing the VAT registration threshold will remove the need to charge VAT and submit regular tax returns for several taxpayers.  

The busy fiscal trajectory continues this year in Romania.  

The Romanian Tax Administration, ANAF (Agentia Nationala de Administrare Fiscala), is proposing a VAT rate increase in line with the following: 

• Soft drinks: an increase from 9 to 19% 
• In the hotel industry: the delivery of food and non-alcoholic beverages would increase from 5% to 9% 

Tungsten Network continually reviews its solution in Romania and supports all current valid VAT rates in Romania.  

Tungsten Network has recently published an overview of the key characteristics of the e-Transport system in Romania. The system was developed to monitor the transport of goods specifically with high fiscal risk, with the underlying aim of preventing tax fraud. On 1st October 2022, importers and experts will need to oblige with the e-Transport system requirements, should they wish to avoid incurring any financial penalties.  

The obligation to declare the goods commenced earlier, on 1st July 2022, although sanctions and fines because of non-compliance will only come into effect from 1 October 2022. 

Belgium has shifted the timeframes for B2B implementation in line with the following: 

• 1 July 2024: mandatory e-invoicing for businesses with an annual turnover of more than 9 million 
• 1 January 2025: mandatory e-invoicing for small and medium businesses  
• 1 July 2025: all other taxpayers 

Member States require approval from the European Union to mandate e-invoicing. This is currently pending.  

As previously stated, it is expected that Belgium will favour the PEPPOL e-invoicing model, in sharp contrast to recent mandates in Poland and Italy.  

2022 has seen multiple countries adopting fiscal measures with a distinctly ‘green’ agenda. Such initiatives demonstrate that the VAT framework is intrinsically linked to broader social programmes.  

Belgium is following the lead of its European neighbours in engineering markedly ‘green’ measures.  

To this effect, the Green Party in Belgium has put forward a proposal to remove VAT on fruits and greens, citing, among other arguments, the spiralling cost of living fuelled by inflation.  

As announced by the Chinese State Tax Administration (STA), the scope of recipients for fully digitized e-fapiao will be extended to 15 more provinces from 28 August 2022. In other words, all taxpayers in China are now able to receive fully digitized e-fapiao issued by pilot taxpayers from Guangdong, Shanghai, and Inner Mongolia.  

Additionally, a new feature has been added to the national e-portal, which enables pilot taxpayers to issue the fully digitized e-fapiao in batches by uploading the invoice data in a standardized Excel file. 

Fully digitized e-fapiao has the same legal effect as paper fapiao and standard e-fapiao, with the originals required to be stored in China for 30 years.