Shops found a way to handle the issue of receipts. The Ministry of Finance still claims they are invoices

The confusion that lasted for over 9 months made some retail chains decide to take matters into their own hands and add a warning on receipts from the cash register: “this document is not a simplified invoice”. This is however a risky solution.

COMMENTARY by Zdzisław Modzelewski, VAT expert, supervisor of VAT practice at GWW

Solely the Ministry of Finance is to be blamed for all this chaos. Instead of solving the problem, it generates more and more doubts. And the more doubts, the more risks. The solution used by some sellers who do not recognize receipts with tax identification number NIP (up to PLN 450) as an invoice within the meaning of VAT is risky, not to mention that it is wrong. If such a seller issues a standard invoice in addition to a receipt with NIP (up to PLN 450), there is a risk of considering this invoice as an empty invoice (because the receipt with the NIP number was the invoice documenting the transaction). This means that the seller has to pay VAT again and the buyer has no right to deduct VAT (as there is no real invoice, namely a receipt with NIP).

Personally, I believe that a receipt with NIP (up to PLN 450) is an invoice because it gives the buyer the right to deduct. Doubts about numbering, corrections or duplicates do not change anything as they can be easily explained.

However, since there are so many doubts related to the application of these regulations, it is obvious that the Ministry of Finance should issue an interpretation in which it would say something like this: a receipt with NIP (up to PLN 450) is an invoice, but if the parties decide that they want to issue a usual invoice for this particular sale transaction (and a receipt with NIP is returned, destroyed, etc.), then the latter document is an invoice within the meaning of VAT regulations. If the buyer deducts VAT from both these documents (a receipt and a usual invoice), it will still be disclosed in JPK. 

The article appeared in today's issue of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna: https://podatki.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/1493159,sklepy-znalazly-sposob-na-paragony-mf-nadal-twierdzi-ze-to-faktury.html