Settlement of VAT and income tax from a duplicate invoice

A duplicate invoice is issued by the seller at the buyer's request, when the original confirming the purchase is damaged or lost. It is a document treated as the original invoice, as it contains the same data as the original invoice, however, it bears the annotation "DUPLICATE" and the date of its issue.

The rules for settling the duplicate differ depending on whether the original invoice was credited to the buyer and then lost or damaged, or did not arrive at all, or was lost before it was booked.

VAT settlements

If the buyer of the goods or services received the original invoice and deducted the input VAT, and then the document was damaged or lost, the duplicate received will only be a confirmation of the recorded operation and should be attached to the documentation in place of the lost invoice. The moment of deduction of input VAT does not change in this case, and the duplicate itself does not require additional recording.

However, if the buyer did not receive the original invoice at all - this document did not reach him, the issued duplicate is treated as the original invoice, therefore it is included in the purchase register on the same terms as the original would have been included, but on the date of issuing the duplicate . Thus, the date of VAT deduction falls on the period in which the duplicate was received, or one of the two consecutive accounting periods.

The situation is different when the issued duplicate of the lost invoice concerns the purchase of media. Pursuant to Art. 86 sec. 10 point 3 of the VAT Act, if the invoice contains information about the period it relates to, the right to deduct VAT arises in the settlement for the period in which the payment date falls. This means that in the case of duplicate utility invoices, VAT settlements should be made on the payment date specified in the invoice, or one of the two consecutive accounting periods, and not in the period in which the duplicate was received. If the settlement period has already expired, a correction should be made to the declaration.

Income tax settlements

As in the case of VAT settlements, also when settling the duplicate for income tax purposes, it is important whether the original invoice has reached the buyer and has been recorded, and then it has been lost or not reached the buyer at all.

In a situation where the costs resulting from the original invoice have been classified as tax deductible costs, and only after that the original has been lost, the procedure is the same as in the case of VAT settlement. The received duplicate is a confirmation of the settlement made on the basis of the original and does not require additional recording, but only archiving it together with the remaining documentation in place of a lost / damaged invoice. On the other hand, if the invoice was lost or damaged before it reached the buyer, and thus the costs resulting from it have not been settled, the issued duplicate is treated as the original invoice being the basis for settlement, but in this case it is also important whether the costs resulting from the duplicate they relate to the current tax year or previous years.

A duplicate invoice that relates to the previous year's costs

In the tax book of revenues and expenses, the tax deductible costs are deducted in the tax year to which they relate, and the moment of incurring the cost is the moment of issuing the invoice, bill or other document entitling the buyer to book the cost. Accordingly, the duplicate should be included on the date of issue of the original invoice, and thus the income should be recalculated, and if the return has already been submitted, it should be corrected.

The situation is different in the case of accounting books. If they have not been closed yet and the financial statements have not been approved, then the cost specified in the duplicate should be included in the year to which it relates. If the books have been closed and the report has been approved, the importance of qualifying the cost is whether it is valuable or not. If not, it should be included in the current year (the year of receiving the duplicate), and if the value of this cost is significant, the financial result of the approved statement should be adjusted accordingly in the next statement by the items “profit / loss from previous years”.

A duplicate invoice that relates to the costs of the current year

If the duplicate invoice concerns the costs of the current year, it should be recognized in the current period, i.e. at the time of its receipt, because the delay in recognizing the costs resulting from the duplicate received as tax costs does not result in lowering the tax base in previous periods.