What address do we put on the sales invoice?

At the beginning of 2014, an amendment to the Act on tax on goods and services entered into force, which changed several key issues. Among them, it is worth mentioning the inclusion of precise regulations on the content of an invoice directly in the act, and not in a separate regulation (as it was so far). The changes are primarily aimed at precisely specifying a few unclear rules. Do the new regulations answer one of the most frequently asked questions by taxpayers - what address should be included on sales invoices?

What elements should the invoice contain?

Art. 106e sec. 1 of the VAT Act specifies the essential elements of the invoice. As is clear from point 3 this type of document should contain the names and surnames of the taxpayer and the purchaser of the goods or services and their addresses. With regard to companies with a permanent address, the form of the subscription should not raise any doubts - as a rule, it differs from the residence address of the partners. In the case of self-employed natural persons without legal personality, ambiguities may arise. Especially if the company's address is located outside the taxpayer's place of residence, and in addition, his company also has branches located at other addresses. Which of them should therefore be taken into account: home address or company's registered office address?

As it turns out, the amended VAT Act still does not clarify this issue. It was clearly stated that invoicing is mandatory, but it is still unknown which ones are required. How, then, to precisely define this doubt? The best solution will be to use tax interpretations.

CEIDG or VAT-R binding for the entrepreneur?

When setting up a business, each entrepreneur must complete the required formalities. Among them is the need to submit an application for entry in the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity - CEIDG-1. In this document, the taxpayer must enter such information as the address of residence, the registered address, the main place of business and additional places of business (branches) and the address for service, as well as the storage of accounting records - so in this case it would be difficult to determine, which of the addresses should be obligatorily included in the invoice.

The situation is slightly simpler in the case of the VAT registration form - VAT-R. For this form, only one address needs to be completed, namely the business address in the case of a legal entity or the residence address if the registration is made by a natural person.

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Therefore, in both cases (CEIDG and VAT-7) there is a residence address, therefore in the case of invoices issued by natural persons it would seem correct to include it on the invoice. It turns out, however, that this solution is not entirely correct. All because of changes that came into force from the beginning of 2013, when it was possible to issue invoices to taxpayers exempt from VAT as part of their activities. This means that submitting the VAT-R form with a declaration of exemption is practically not obligatory, so entrepreneurs do not have to fulfill this obligation. So how to consider the problematic address selection on the invoice?

The discussed problem was addressed by the Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw (individual interpretation ref. IPPP2 / 443-717 / 13-2 / MM of 12 September 2013), indicating that " of goods and services, the address of a given place of business, which has been shown in the new form of entry in the business register, should be considered correct ". In his speech, he referred to the position represented by the Ministry of Finance.

In the light of the above explanations, a taxpayer who is a natural person who, in addition to his place of residence, also includes the address of his main place of business, may include the address of his main place of business in the place of residence in the invoices issued (if the taxpayer does not will indicate the address of the main place of business in the tax identification application, should indicate the address of residence in the invoice). At the same time, there are no obstacles for the invoice to also include other places of business, in particular those where a given delivery of goods or services is made, provided that this does not interfere with the legibility of the invoice. " (...) it would be sufficient to indicate the place of business in the procedural letter. At this address, it is possible to effectively serve the entrepreneur with a pleading. It would also be sufficient to correctly define the jurisdiction of the court. This is confirmed by the resolution of the Supreme Court of January 4, 1995, file ref. III CZP 148/94, from which the thesis shows that an action for a property claim against a natural person running a registered business activity related to this activity may be brought before the court in whose district the place of business is located.

Based on the above statement, the problem could be considered solved, but on March 5, 2014, a new interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Łódź (IPTPP1 / 443-943 / 13-2 / MG) appeared. In her opinion, an entrepreneur running a sole proprietorship should take into account the address of residence in the first place. As the authority explains, this address is analogous to the company's registered office address for a legal person:

(...) it should be stated that despite the lack of a precise wording in the regulations what address the taxpayer should indicate on the invoice (place of residence or place of business), it should be assumed that it will be the address consistent with the registration application for VAT -R, i.e. in the case of natural persons it should be the address of residence. It should be noted that the address of residence for a taxpayer who is a natural person is the same as the address of the registered office for a taxpayer who is a legal person or an organizational unit without legal personality, i.e. information identifying him as a taxpayer. (...) inclusion on the invoice, in addition to the address of residence, also the address of business (provided that such address also appears on the certificate of entry in the business register) will not be a mistake. In light of the above, in the case of a natural person running a business, the VAT invoices issued by the Applicant as well as the VAT invoices documenting the purchase of goods and services should indicate the address of residence, which was reported on the VAT-R form submitted to the competent tax office for the Applicant. Taking into account the above-mentioned provisions and the circumstances of the case, the address provided in the VAT-R registration application, i.e. the applicant's residence address, should be indicated on the VAT invoices relating to the purchase and sale of goods and services.

Therefore, as it results from the above provision, there is still a problem of what address should be included in the invoice in the case of entrepreneurs running sole proprietorships. For certainty, it can be assumed that a "better" solution will be to enter the address of residence, which usually changes less frequently than the company address. In practice, however, especially in the case of residential and business addresses that are distant from each other, logistical problems may arise. It is the entrepreneur who should ultimately decide which address he will include in the invoice - the most important thing to remember is consistency - if we decide to enter the address of residence, then this address should be followed in the case of other invoices. It is possible, however, that more precise regulations in this matter will appear soon.