Collective invoice - is it compliant with the regulations?

The entrepreneur is obliged to issue an invoice when the service is provided or the goods are sold to a business partner. If there are several deliveries of goods or services for the same contractor within one month, is it necessary to issue separate invoices for each transaction? Can a collective invoice apply in this case! We answer in the article!

What is a collective invoice?

A collective sales invoice is characterized by the fact that one invoice contains several items concerning the supply of goods or services rendered within one month for one customer. There are no specific conditions in the regulations as to what it should contain and how it should be accounted for. When issuing a collective invoice, the taxpayer should follow the general principles of issuing invoices and settling VAT and income tax.

What should a collective invoice contain?

The collective invoice should contain the same elements as the regular invoice. These elements are listed in Art. 106e paragraph. 1 of the VAT Act, including:

• date of issue;

• sequential number from one or more series that uniquely identifies the invoice;

• names and surnames or names of the seller and buyer of goods or services and their addresses;

• NIP of the seller and the buyer,

• the date of the delivery or completion of the delivery of goods or the performance of the service or the date of receipt of payment, if such date is specified and differs from the invoice issue date,

• name of the service or product,

• unit price excluding tax,

• the net value;

• tax rate and amount;

• gross value.

In accordance with the above-mentioned the provisions of the VAT Act, the invoice should include the date of delivery or completion of the delivery. In a situation where the taxpayer issues a collective invoice, he is obliged to put on it all the dates of the delivery of goods or the provision of services performed during the month for a given contractor.

A collective invoice and the rules for issuing invoices

The rules for issuing invoices are discussed in detail in the VAT Act. Pursuant to Art. 106i, the invoice must be issued by the 15th day of the month following the month in which the delivery of goods or services took place. If the payment of all or part of the amount due was earlier, the invoice should be issued by the 15th day of the month following the month in which the payment was received.

The legislator also distinguished special cases of issuing invoices. Namely, the taxpayer should issue an invoice:

• On the 30th day from the date of performance of services in the case of construction and construction-assembly services;

• 60th day from the date of issue of goods for the delivery of printed books - excluding maps and leaflets as well as newspapers, magazines and printed magazines;

• 90th day from the day of performing the activities consisting in printing books - with the exception of maps and leaflets, newspapers, magazines and magazines and the import of services in accordance with art. 28b;

• upon the expiry of the payment deadline - in the case of e.g.electricity supply, telecommunications services or permanent legal and office services.

The regulations stipulate that when delivering goods or providing services, the taxpayer is obliged to issue an invoice no later than on the 15th day of the month following the month in which the sale took place. If in a given month several deliveries of goods or several services were made to the same contractor, it is possible to issue a collective invoice by the 15th day of the following month, including all dates of sale of goods or services rendered within that month. The rules for issuing collective invoices also apply to invoices issued to natural persons who do not conduct business activity. Example 1.

Company X performed three separate services for Company ABC: March 1, 12 and 30. In such a case, is it possible to issue one collective invoice for all services provided in a given month?

Yes, the entrepreneur may include on one collective invoice all services performed within one month for the same contractor. Company X must remember, however, that each of the services provided should be separated as a separate item on the invoice and that the description should contain information about the date of sale of the services. Start a free 30-day trial period with no strings attached!

Example 2.

Mr. Stefan received four deliveries of goods within a month from the same supplier. On the 15th day of the following month, he received one invoice documenting the deliveries for the previous month. Can Mr. Stefan consider such an invoice to be correct?

Yes, if the invoice specifies all deliveries of goods made in a given month for Mr. Stefan, it can be considered correct.

Collective invoice and VAT

On the basis of VAT, pursuant to Art. 19a of the VAT Act, the tax obligation arises at the time of delivery of goods or performance of a service, unless part or all of the payment has been previously received. However, in the case of certain supplies of goods or services listed in Art. 19a paragraph. 5 points 3 and 4 of the Act, the moment of the income arises at the time of issuing the invoice. Such transactions include, among others:

• provision of construction or construction and assembly services,

• electricity supply,

• provision of telecommunications services.

Considering the above, when the transaction does not concern exceptional cases, VAT should be settled on the date of actual delivery of goods or services rendered, i.e. for each item separately.

Example 3.

In March, Mrs. Jolanta commissioned 5 deliveries of goods to the contractor. Each of them was a separate transaction. At the end of the month, it issued to the recipient one collective invoice for deliveries, with separate deliveries and their dates. On what date should she settle VAT?

If Ms Jolanta made 5 transactions regarding the sale of goods within a month, she should settle VAT separately for each of these transactions.

Summing up, if a taxpayer makes several deliveries of goods or sells services within one month to the same entity, he has the option of issuing a collective invoice, nevertheless such an invoice should contain the elements required by law.