A plan to introduce the National e-Invoice System
On February 5, 2021, a draft amendment to the VAT Act and certain other acts prepared by the Ministry of Finance appeared on the website of the Governmental Legislation Centre. The draft provides for the possibility of issuing structured invoices, which are to constitute one of the forms of documenting transactions, in addition to the currently allowed paper and electronic invoices.
The structured invoice has been defined as an electronic invoice issued through the National e-Invoice System (KSeF). The rules currently in force under the VAT Act will mainly apply to the issuance of invoices within the KSeF system.
According to the draft, the KseF will be an ICT system used by taxpayers or eligible entities for issuing, receiving and storing structured invoices, marking structured invoices with an identification number assigned by the system, verifying compliance of structured invoices with the template, as well as analysing and monitoring the correctness of data.
Each taxpayer or an eligible entity will be able to issue an invoice through an individual identification account on the e-invoicing system, using the template provided. Invoices can also be prepared in the taxpayer’s accounting-finance system and then sent to KSeF, where the system will assign an invoice identification number along with the date and time stamp. On the date the structured invoice is assigned an identification number, it will be deemed to have been issued and received. The issuance of structured invoices will be possible after prior acceptance of this specific form of documenting the transaction by the recipient of the invoice
The draft provides that structured invoices will be stored in the KSeF for a period of 10 years, and as a result, taxpayers using this form of documenting transactions will not be required to store and archive invoices.
The amendment to the VAT Act will introduce preferences for taxpayers using the KSeF system in the form of a shorter VAT refund deadline from 60 to 40 days, provided that the following conditions are met jointly:
- the taxpayer issued only structured invoices in a given settlement period,
- the amount of input tax or the amount of tax difference not accounted for in previous settlement periods and disclosed in the return for reimbursement in the period under review does not exceed PLN 3000,
- the taxpayer, for the consecutive 12 months immediately preceding the period for which the tax difference to be refunded was indicated :
- was registered as an active VAT taxpayer ,
- submitted VAT returns for each settlement period,
- had an account listed on the white list.
The proposed effective date of the Act is October 1, 2021.
Magdalena Walczyńska, Tax Consultant, ATA Tax Sp. z o.o.
Interested in the topic?