Store e-invoices in PDF format

Individual ruling of April 20, 2011, file ref. IPPP2 / 443-211 / 11-3 / MM, Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw

Can the Company keep electronic copies of paper invoices by choosing one of the following methods: 1. an archive of PDF files protected against changes offered by an external printing house kept on the same terms as for e-invoices, 2. the Company's archives, i.e. data stored in two places: a DVD, cataloged according to the procedure, received from the printing house with PDF files and data from the disc recorded in a designated place on the server belonging to the Company, according to the established procedure attached to the Company's accounting policy.

Based on Article. 14b § 1 and § 6 of the Tax Ordinance of August 29, 1997 (i.e. Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 8, item 60, as amended) and § 7 of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of June 20, 2007 in on authorization to issue interpretations of tax law (Journal of Laws of 2007, No. 112, item 770, as amended), the Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw, acting on behalf of the Minister of Finance, states that the position of the Company, presented in the application of 15.02. 2011 (date of receipt on February 17, 2011), supplemented by a letter of March 16, 2011. (date of receipt on March 18, 2011) for a written interpretation of the tax law regarding value added tax in the field of storing electronic copies of paper invoices - is correct.

JUSTIFICATION

On February 17, 2011 received the above-mentioned application for a written interpretation of the tax law in an individual case regarding tax on goods and services in the field of storing copies of paper invoices in an electronic version. The application in question contained formal shortcomings. Therefore, the hereby Tax Authority in a letter of March 11, 2011 sign IPPP2 / 443-211 / 11-2 / MM called the Applicant to supplement the application with the above-mentioned deficiencies.

The following future event is presented in the present application.

The company issues approximately 40,000 VAT invoices per month. Over 35,000 items are printed and distributed in paper form to the Company's customers by an external printing house. Copies of invoices are printed by the printing house and delivered to the Company. The company would like to resign from paper copies of invoices in favor of electronic copies - PDF files protected against changes. In such a situation, the Printing House may provide the Company with copies of invoices in the form of PDF files on a DVD - then the Company will store copies of invoices in two safe places in a manner clearly defined by the procedure attached to the accounting policy. The second possible method of storing copies of invoices are PDF files stored in the archive kept by the printing house for e-invoices. Copies in the printing house's archives may have an electronic qualified or non-qualified signature.

Launching the archive service for the Company in the printing house will take place on the basis of the agreement between the Company and the printing house upon the completion of the e-invoice implementation project carried out by the Company.

Although in the case of paper invoices it is still necessary to issue them in two copies, the copy of which is kept by the seller, but with regard to storage, the provision of section 21 sec. 2 of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of November 28, 2008 regarding, inter alia, the issue of invoices and the method of their storage in the current wording indicates: Taxpayers store invoices, correction invoices, and duplicates of these documents, broken down into accounting periods in any way. Any method may mean storing paper copies in electronic form, and certainly this term does not mean the requirement to store copies of invoices in paper form.

At the same time, it should be ensured that invoices are stored broken down into settlement periods, in a way that guarantees:

• the authenticity of the origin, integrity of the content and legibility of these invoices from the moment they are issued until the tax liability expires,
• easy to find them,
• immediate access to the invoice for the tax authority or the fiscal control authority, and in the case of invoices stored in electronic form, access enabling these authorities to also process the data contained therein.

The above three conditions will be ensured by the procedure of storing electronic copies of invoices attached to the Company's accounting policy.

Already under the provisions in force before 1 January 2011, a number of administrative judgments were passed, in which it was indicated that it is possible for the issuer to store in electronic form copies of invoices issued and sent to the buyer in paper form. Here are a few of them:

• the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 3 November 2009. (I FSK 1169/08);
• judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Wrocław of 27 July 2010. (I SA / Wr 592/10);
• judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Opole of August 18, 2010. (I SA / Op 215/10) and September 22, 2010. (I SA / Op 217/10);
• judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Poznań of November 16, 2010. (I SA / Po 655/10) and on October 8, 2010. (I SA / Po 547/10);
• judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Bydgoszcz of October 21, 2010. (I Sa / Bd 816/10);
• judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw of April B, 2010. (III SA / Wa 396/10).

The following question was therefore asked:

Can the Company keep electronic copies of paper invoices by choosing one of the following methods:

• an archive of PDF files protected against changes, offered by an external printing house, kept on the same terms as for e-invoices,
• the Company's archives, i.e. data stored in two places: a DVD, cataloged according to the procedure, received from the printing house with PDF files and data from the disc recorded in a designated place on the server belonging to the Company, according to the established procedure attached to the Company's accounting policy.

According to the Company, in the current legal state it is possible to store in electronic form copies of paper invoices issued and sent to buyers.

The company's position is that both the storage methods presented in the question (external archive, internal archive) will guarantee:

• authenticity of origin, integrity of content and legibility of copies of invoices within the required period,
• easy to find,
• immediate access to documents at the request of tax authorities or tax inspection authorities.

The applicant kindly asks for confirmation of the position presented by the Company.

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. 106 sec. 1 of the Act of March 11, 2004 on tax on goods and services (Journal of Laws No. 54, item 535, as amended), hereinafter referred to as the VAT Act, 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 6.

Moreover, in Art. 106 sec. 8 of the VAT Act, the legislator entrusted the Minister of Finance with a delegation to define the rules for issuing and storing invoices. The Minister of Finance, performing the indicated delegation, on March 28, 2011. issued a regulation on tax refunds to certain taxpayers, issuing invoices, their storage and the list of goods and services to which VAT exemptions do not apply (Journal of Laws 2011, No. 68, item 360).

Pursuant to the instruction contained in § 19 of the Regulation, invoices and correction invoices are issued at least in two copies, the original being received by the buyer and the copy kept by the seller.

Pursuant to § 21 (in the wording in force from April 1, 2011), taxpayers are required to store invoices and correction invoices, as well as duplicates of these documents, until the tax liability expires. Taxpayers keep invoices, correction invoices, and duplicates of these documents, broken down into accounting periods, in any way that ensures:

• the authenticity of the origin, integrity of the content and legibility of these invoices from the time of their issuance until the expiry of the tax liability limitation period;
• easy to find them;
• the tax authority or the tax inspection authority upon request, in accordance with separate regulations, immediate access to invoices, and in the case of invoices stored in electronic form, enabling these authorities also to process the data contained therein.

Wherein paragraph 3 of the same paragraph explains that the authenticity of origin referred to in sec. 2 point 1, it means certainty as to the identity of the person supplying the goods or the service provider or the issuer of the invoice, and sec. 4 states that the integrity of the content referred to in para. 2, point 1, means that the data that should be included in the invoice have not been changed in the invoice.

It should be noted that the above changes were introduced in connection with the adoption of Council Directive 2010/45 / EU of July 13, 2010. amending Directive 2006/112 / EC on the common system of value added tax as regards the rules on invoicing (OJ EU L of 22 July 2010), which was aimed at, inter alia, liberalizing the current standards for sending and storing electronic invoices so that paper invoices and electronic invoices are treated in the same way.

The presented circumstances of the case show that the Company issues approximately 40,000 VAT invoices per month. Over 35,000 items are printed and distributed in paper form to the Company's customers by an external printing house. Copies of invoices are printed by the printing house and delivered to the Company. The company would like to resign from paper copies of invoices in favor of electronic copies - PDF files protected against changes. In such a situation, the Printing House may provide the Company with copies of invoices in the form of PDF files on a DVD - then the Company will store copies of invoices in two safe places in a manner clearly defined by the procedure attached to the accounting policy. The second possible method of storing copies of invoices are PDF files stored in the archive kept by the printing house for e-invoices. Copies in the printing house's archives may have an electronic qualified or non-qualified signature.

Taking into account the above-mentioned provisions, it should be stated that it is possible to store copies of the issued VAT invoices only in electronic form (without printing them), provided that the conditions set out in the above-mentioned are met. regulations.

The invoice stored by the issuer and received by the buyer is to be identical in terms of the content, i.e. the information contained in the invoice, and the Applicant must ensure the authenticity of the origin, integrity of the content and legibility of these invoices from the moment of their issuance until the expiry of the tax limitation period and easy to find them , also at the request of the tax authority. The description of the case shows that the Company plans to store copies of invoices in the form of an archive of PDF files protected against changes offered by an external printing house operated on the same terms as for e-invoices, or on DVDs received from the printing house with PDF files and then the data from the disc will be in a designated place on the server belonging to the Company according to the established procedure attached to the accounting policy of the Company. Both storage methods (external archive and internal archive) meet the conditions allowing the Company to store copies of invoices in a manner consistent with the above-mentioned legal provisions.

Therefore, the position of the Applicant with regard to the future event presented in this way should be considered correct.

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

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 to be lodged with the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, ul. Jasna 2/4, 00-013 Warsaw, 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 was remedied (Article 52 § 3 of the Act on on August 30, 2002, Law on proceedings before administrative courts, Journal of Laws No. 153, item 1270, as amended). A complaint to the Provincial Administrative Court shall be lodged (in two copies of Art. 47 of the above-mentioned Act) within thirty days from the date of delivery of the authority's response to the summons to remedy the infringement of law, and if the authority did not respond to the summons, within sixty days from the date of filing the summons. (art. 53 § 2 of the above-mentioned act).

The complaint is lodged 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 Warsaw, National Tax Information Office in Płock, ul. 1-go Maja 10, 09-402 Płock.

Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw