Service-Tax

Possibility of issuing and sending in electronic form a correcting invoice or a duplicate in the pap.rtf.doc format

INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION of November 7, 2011, reference number ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11-6 / EWW, Tax Chamber in Poznań

Based on Article. 14b § 1 and § 6 of the Act of August 29, 1997 - Tax Ordinance (consolidated text Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 8, item 60, as amended) and § 2 and § 6 of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of June 20, 2007 on the authorization to issue interpretations of tax law (Journal of Laws No. 112, item 770, as amended). Director of the Tax Chamber in Poznań, acting on behalf of the Minister of Finance, states that the position of the limited liability company , presented in the application of July 20, 2011 (date of receipt on July 26, 2011) supplemented by a letter of October 20, 2011 (date of receipt on October 24, 2011) for a written interpretation of tax law provisions concerning tax on goods and services regarding the possibility of issuing and / or sending a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued and sent in paper form - is correct. .

JUSTIFICATION

On July 26, 2011, the above-mentioned application for a written interpretation of tax law in an individual case regarding value added tax in terms of the possibility of issuing and / or sending a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued and sent in paper form. The request was supplemented by a letter of 20 October 2011 (date of receipt: 24 October 2011) to clarify the description of the case.

The following future event is presented in the present application:

It is interested in a producer and distributor of food products on the Polish market. As part of its operations, it supplies products and goods to retail chains as well as to individual points of sale. Currently, the Company issues, sends and archives invoices and corrective invoices documenting the sale of products and goods, as well as their duplicates, only in paper form.

Due to the expectations expressed by contractors, the Applicant considers the possibility of introducing electronic data interchange (EDI), as well as other forms of electronic document exchange with contractors, regarding both invoices documenting its sale, as well as purchase invoices generated by suppliers selling goods and providing services on his thing. Additionally, the Company is considering introducing electronic invoice archiving in order to optimize the document archiving process.

At the same time, based on Art. 14b § 4 of the Tax Ordinance (Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 8, item 60), the Interested Party indicates that electronic data interchange (EDI) has already been the subject of inquiries to the Tax Chamber in previous years, for which he received individual interpretations.However, due to the change in the regulations being the basis for the tax interpretation, i.e. the introduction of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of 17 December 2010 on sending invoices in electronic form, the rules for their storage and the procedure for making available to the tax authority or tax inspection authority (Journal of Laws of 2010, No. . No. 249, item 1661), stating in § 10 that the quotation: "the regulation of the Minister of Finance of July 14, 2005 on issuing and sending invoices in electronic form, as well as storing and making available to the tax authority or authority, is repealed. tax inspection of these invoices (Journal of Laws of 2010, No. 133, item 1119) ", previously issued tax interpretations have expired.

In addition to the application, the Applicant clarified the description of the case, informing that, due to the expectations of some customers (buyers of its products), he intends to introduce an electronic data exchange system - EDI, enabling these customers to send invoices, corrective invoices, duplicate invoices and correction invoices, as well as correction notes, in electronic form. The message of the above-mentioned documents will be carried out using the ECOD system provided by the company C. customer acceptance of this form of document transmission.

Due to the specific nature of the business, consisting in the production and sale of bread, there is a significant number of invoices and corrective invoices in the turnover with customers, which results on the one hand from the short shelf life of fresh bread, meaning a large number of deliveries per month and, consequently, a large amount of sales invoices, and on the other hand, it results from the right to return expired products, which in turn means a large number of correction invoices.

Considering that the electronic form of data exchange takes place within a specific time frame, this means that at the beginning of the functioning of this form of exchange, it will be necessary for the interested party to issue invoice corrections, e.g. for returns or duplicate invoices in electronic form, to invoices and / or corrective invoices issued before this period, still in paper form. A similar situation will take place in the case of resignation from electronic data exchange - then it will be necessary to issue correcting invoices and / or duplicate invoices in paper form for invoices and / or corrective invoices in electronic form.

The following question was therefore asked:

Will it be correct to issue and / or send a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form (also in EDI) to an invoice issued and sent in paper form.

request of the Applicant, from the justification of the draft regulation of the Minister of Finance, quoted: "The regulation proposes to depart from the current requirement that corrections to invoices issued in electronic form should also be issued in the same form (...)" (which is confirmed in the text Regulation of 17 December 2010, which does not contain provisions on the need to issue corrective invoices and duplicates to invoices issued in electronic form in the same form), it is clear that the issuer can choose the form in which it is to be issued and sent. The previous ordinance of 14 July 2005 explicitly required the same form, ie electronic form, to be maintained through § 5 para. 1 of the regulation, quotation: "Correcting invoices and duplicate invoices for invoices issued and sent in electronic form shall be sent in the same form".

To sum up, in the opinion of the Company, it will be correct to issue and send a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form (also in EDI) to the invoice issued and sent in paper form.

In the light of the applicable legal status, the position of the Applicant regarding the legal assessment of the presented future event is considered correct.

Pursuant to Art. 15 sec. 1 of the Act of March 11, 2004 on tax on goods and services (consolidated text Journal of Laws of 2011 No. 177, item 1054), hereinafter referred to as the Act, taxpayers are legal persons, organizational units without legal personality and natural persons who independently carry out the economic activity referred to in para. 2, regardless of the purpose or result of such activity.

Under Art. 15 sec. 2 of the Act, economic activity covers all activities of producers, traders or service providers, including entities acquiring natural resources and farmers, as well as the activities of freelancers, also when the activity was performed once in circumstances indicating the intention to perform the activity repeatedly. Economic activity also includes activities consisting in the use of goods or intangible assets on a continuous basis for commercial purposes.

The description of the case shows that the Applicant is a producer and distributor of food products on the Polish market. As part of its operations, it supplies products and goods to retail chains as well as to individual points of sale. Currently, the Company issues, sends and archives invoices and corrective invoices documenting the sale of products and goods, as well as their duplicates, only in paper form.

Pursuant to Art. 106 sec. 1 of the Act, the taxpayers referred to in Art. 15, are required to issue an invoice stating, in particular, the sale, date of sale, unit price without tax, tax base, tax rate and amount, the amount of the duty and the data of the taxpayer and the buyer, subject to paragraph 2. 1a, 2, 4 and 5 and article. 119 paragraph. 10 and art. 120 paragraph 16.

Based on art. 106 sec. 8 of the act, the minister responsible for public finances, by way of a regulation:

determine the detailed rules for issuing invoices, the data they should contain, as well as the manner and period of their storage;
may define sample invoices for all or some types of activities;
may determine the cases in which invoices may be issued by entities other than those mentioned in paragraph 1 and 2, as well as detailed rules and conditions for issuing invoices in such cases.

Based on Article. 106 sec. 10 of the Act, the minister responsible for public finances, in consultation with the minister responsible for computerization, may specify, by way of a regulation, the method and conditions for issuing and sending invoices in electronic form, taking into account:

the need to properly document sales and identify activities performed by groups of taxpayers;
the need to ensure the control of the correctness of tax settlement;
the need to ensure unambiguous identification of the issuer of the invoice and the need to ensure security, reliability, non-repudiation and integrity of issued and sent invoices;
techniques used in the field of issuing and sending documents in electronic form and data encoding in these documents.

The minister responsible for public finances, in consultation with the minister responsible for computerization, may determine, by way of a regulation, the rules for storing and providing the tax authority or the fiscal control authority with electronic invoices, taking into account the provisions of European Union law, the need to ensure the control of the correctness of accounting tax and techniques used in the field of electronic data transmission and encoding of this data - art. 106 sec. 11 of the Act.

On the basis of delegations contained in the above-mentioned provisions, the Minister of Finance issued an ordinance of 28 March 2011 on tax refunds to certain taxpayers, issuing invoices, their storage and the list of goods and services to which the VAT exemption does not apply. (Journal of Laws No. 68, item 360, as amended. No. 249, item 1661).

It should be noted that pursuant to § 19 para. 1 of the regulation on tax refund to certain taxpayers, issuing invoices, their storage and the list of goods and services to which the VAT exemption does not apply, invoices and corrective invoices are issued at least in two copies, the original being received the buyer and the seller retains the copy. The above provision does not apply to invoices and corrective invoices sent in electronic form. In the case of these invoices, the seller sends them, including making them available, to the buyer, while keeping them in his documentation (§ 19 (2) of the quoted regulation)., / P>

However, pursuant to § 20 par. 1 above of the regulation, if the original invoice or correcting invoice is damaged or lost, the seller, at the request of the buyer, re-issues the invoice or correcting invoice in accordance with the data contained in the copy of the invoice or correcting invoice.

The provision of paragraph 1 shall apply accordingly to invoices and corrective invoices issued and sent in electronic form - § 20 sec. 2 of this regulation.

The invoice and the correcting invoice issued again must additionally contain the word "DUPLICATE" and the date of its issue (§ 20 (3) of the quotation of the regulation)

The duplicate of the invoice and the correcting invoice is issued in two copies, the original is received by the buyer and the copy is kept by the seller (§ 20 (4) of the above-mentioned regulation).

In the case of invoices and correction invoices sent in electronic form, the seller sends a duplicate of the invoice and the correction invoice to the buyer, while keeping them in his documentation (§ 20 (5) of this regulation).

In the case of submitting invoices by electronic means, the provisions of the regulation on sending invoices in electronic form, the rules for their storage and the procedure for making them available to the tax authority or the fiscal control authority, hereinafter referred to as the regulation, which entered into force on 1 January 2011, shall apply.

Pursuant to the provisions of § 3 sec. 1-3 of the Regulation, invoices may be sent, including made available, in electronic form in any electronic format, provided that this method of sending invoices has been previously approved by the recipient of the invoice. Acceptance or its withdrawal may be expressed in writing or in electronic form. If the recipient withdraws the acceptance of the invoice, the invoice issuer loses the right to send invoices to that recipient in electronic form from the day following the day on which he received the recipient's notification about the withdrawal of acceptance, unless the parties agree on a different date for the issuer to lose the right to send invoices in the form of electronic, but not longer than 30 days.

The use of electronic transmission of invoices requires prior approval by the recipient for this method of transmission of this document. Therefore, the parties to the transaction must agree on the method of sending invoices in electronic form due to the need to meet technical requirements (e.g. appropriate software or electronic accounting) and organizational requirements, both on the part of the supplier and the recipient, so as to ensure the correct storage of invoices.

Pursuant to § 4 of the Regulation, invoices may be sent in electronic form provided that the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the invoice content are ensured.

The provision of § 2 sec. 2 of the regulation states that whenever the regulation refers to:

authenticity of the origin of the invoice - it means certainty as to the identity of the supplier of goods or service provider or the issuer of the invoice;
integrity of the content of the invoice - it means that the data that should be included in the invoice has not been changed in the invoice.

Moreover, pursuant to § 2 sec. 2 of the Regulation, the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the content of the invoice are preserved, in particular when using:

a secure electronic signature within the meaning of Art. 3 point 2 of the Act of September 18, 2001 on electronic signature (Journal of Laws No. 130, item 1450, as amended), verified with a valid qualified certificate, or
electronic data interchange (EDI) in accordance with the contract on the European Electronic Data Exchange Model, where the concluded contract relating to this exchange provides for the application of procedures guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin of the invoice and the integrity of its data.

Therefore, the above-mentioned provisions of the regulation define the method and conditions for sending invoices in electronic form. Currently, the taxpayer is not required to use only the predefined technologies for sending invoices in electronic form - a secure electronic signature and electronic data interchange (EDI) system. The provisions of the regulation introduce the freedom of the electronic format in which an electronic invoice may be sent. It should also be indicated that invoices may be sent in electronic form provided that the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the invoice content is ensured. The authenticity of origin means certainty as to the identity of the supplier of goods or the service provider or issuer of the invoice, while the integrity of the content means that the data that should be included in the invoice has not been changed in the invoice. At the same time, it was indicated that the subject features of invoices will be retained in relation to invoices sent in electronic form in the case of using a secure electronic signature, verified by means of a valid qualified certificate or electronic data interchange (EDI). The indicated methods of ensuring the invoice features in question are only an example calculation, which means that the taxpayer may use any other means of ensuring the authenticity and integrity of the invoice.

The interested party informed that due to the reported expectations from contractors, he was considering the possibility of introducing electronic data interchange (EDI), as well as other forms of electronic exchange of documents with contractors, regarding both invoices documenting his sale, as well as purchase invoices generated by suppliers selling goods and performing services on his behalf. The electronic data exchange system - EDI, which the Company is planning to implement, enables the sending of invoices, correction invoices, duplicate invoices and correction invoices, as well as correction notes, in electronic form. The message of the above-mentioned documents will be carried out using the ECOD system provided by the company C. Sending the indicated documents in electronic form will be based on contractual provisions between the Applicant and his clients, customer acceptance of this form of document transmission. The subject matter of the present case is the issue of the possibility of issuing and / or sending a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued and sent in paper form, e.g.at the beginning of this form of document exchange.

It should be noted that pursuant to Art. 218 of the current Council Directive 2006/112 / EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (Journal of Laws UE L. 06.347.1, as amended), Member States recognize documents or notes as invoices in paper or electronic form that meet certain conditions. One should also pay attention to the provision of art. 219 of Directive 2006/112 / EC, stating that any document or note modifying the original invoice and referring to it clearly and unambiguously is considered an invoice. It follows from the above that electronic invoices and paper invoices have the same legal force.

In other words, according to the above regulation, the credit note itself is an independent and separate invoice. Therefore, to issue it, unless specific regulations provide otherwise, the general rules for issuing invoices and electronic invoices should be applied.

It should be noted that in the above-mentioned provisions, the legislator does not indicate circumstances that would make it impossible to issue and / or send a corrective invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued in paper form.

Taking into account the above-mentioned provisions and the description of the case, it should be stated that the current legal regulations allow the interested party to issue and send a corrective invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued in paper form, provided that the other sent provisions resulting from the above-mentioned provisions are met.

Regarding the issue of issuing a duplicate invoice in electronic form to an invoice issued in paper form, it should be emphasized once again that the applicable legal regulations allow for the possibility of issuing and sending invoices in any form. As a consequence, there are currently no obstacles for issuing electronic duplicates to invoices issued in paper form.

Thus, the Company will be able to issue a duplicate invoice in paper form to the invoice issued in electronic form.

The interpretation concerns the future event presented by the Applicant and the legal status in force on the date of issuing the interpretation.

Tut. The authority informs that the issued interpretation concerns only the matter which is the subject of the application (inquiry) of the Interested Party. Other issues arising from the description of the case, which were not covered by the question, cannot be - pursuant to Art. 14b § 1 and art. 14f § 2 of the Tax Code - considered

This application has been considered in terms of the possibility of issuing and / or sending a corrective invoice or a duplicate invoice in electronic form to the invoice issued and sent in paper form. On the other hand, on 7 November 2011, separate individual rulings were issued on November 7, 2011, no. ILPP4 / 443 519 / 11-4 / EWW, no. ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11-5 / EWW, no. ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11- 7 / ECW, no. ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11 8 / EWW, no. ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11-9 / EWW, no. ILPP4 / 443-519 / 11-10 / EWW.

The party has the right to lodge a complaint against this interpretation of tax law due to its inconsistency with the law. The complaint is lodged with the Provincial Administrative Court in Poznań, ul. Ratajczaka 10/12, 61-815 Poznań, after a prior written request from the authority which issued the interpretation within 14 days from the date on which the complainant learned or could learn about its issuance - until the violation of the law is remedied (Article 52 § 3 of the Act of August 30, 2002 - Law on proceedings before administrative courts - Journal of Laws No. 153, item 1270, as amended). A complaint to the Voivodship Administrative Court (in two copies - Art. 47 of the above-mentioned Act) shall be lodged within thirty days from the date of delivery of the authority's response to the summons to remedy the infringement of the law, and if the authority did not reply to the summons, within sixty days from the date of submitting the complaint. summons (Art. 53 § 2 of the above-mentioned Act).

The complaint is submitted through the body whose action or inaction is the subject of the complaint (Article 54 § 1 of the above-mentioned Act) to the following address: Tax Chamber in Poznań, National Tax Information Office in Leszno, ul. Dekana 6, 64-100 Leszno.