Introduction of the National System of e-Invoices is getting closer

Whoever decides to issue and send structured electronic invoices via the ministerial platform may hope for tax benefits.

We will find an interview on the introduction of the National System of e-invoices with Wojciech Śliż, tax advisor and GWW partner, in today's issue of Gazeta Prawna.

How do you find the plan to introduce an ICT system that would allow businesses to issue and send structured invoices to their contractors?

Introduction of such a possibility is a clear signal that the Ministry of Finance has decided to use the Italian model, in which this solution was effective in years 2017–2018. As of 2019, structured electronic invoices are essentially the only form of issuing VAT invoices in Italy. An assumption should be made that the Ministry of Finance’s intention is to have this solution as the target one also in Poland. The Italian example showed that the widespread introduction of structured invoices significantly limited the possibility of committing  invoice-related offenses and resulting VAT fraud. However, it should be remembered that the closing of loopholes took place in Italy only with the introduction of the obligatory, not voluntary, form of a structured invoice. The period of operation of the voluntary system is the time of testing the ICT system. Therefore, the benefits included in the Polish assumptions and published in the government's catalogue seem not to be fully thought out.

Why do you think so?

It is about exemption from the obligation to store and archive structured invoices. I must admit that I do not quite understand the essence of this incentive. Maybe it is rather that structured invoices will be stored and archived for a company in the ICT system of the Ministry of Finance? The proposal that taxpayers issuing only structured invoices could receive refunds of the excess of input tax over the output tax at an accelerated pace is even more surprising. It is obvious that the specified time limit for the refund of the excess VAT is used by the tax authorities to verify purchase invoices and the input tax they contain. But how would the issuing of sales invoices by companies in a structured form affect this verification? I truly hope that the Ministry of Finance will be able to explain this in the justification to the draft amendment.

Could obligatory structured invoices replace single audit files (JPK files) in the future?

I think that both these solutions could and should coexist in the future. Existence of structured invoices without JPK reporting would deprive the tax administration of information about which invoices were finally included in the VAT return. It would therefore not allow automatic analysis of the correctness of returns or the planned preparation by the tax administration of pre-filled VAT returns.

Link to the whole interview: https://podatki.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/1498314,krajowy-system-e-faktur-coraz-blizej-do-wprowadzenia.html