Poland has been moving towards introducing the CTC framework and the system, the Krajowy System e-Faktur (KSeF), since early 2021. As of 1 January 2022, the platform has been available for taxpayers who opt to issue structured invoices through KSeF and to benefit from the introduced incentives.
As the taxpayers have been using KSeF for a while, let’s take a closer look at what has been happening and will happen in the future regarding Poland’s CTC reform.
Publication of regulation on the use of KSeF
Initially presented as a draft act by the Ministry of Finance in November 2021, the regulation on the use of KSEF was finally adopted and published in the Official Gazette on 30 December 2021 after several reiterations.
The regulation covers mainly the categories of authorisations, methods of authentication, and information required to access the structured invoices.
According to the regulation, taxpayers using KSEF are required to authenticate using one of the following methods: Qualified Electronic Signature, Qualified Electronic Seal, Trusted Signature, or Token.
A trusted signature confirms the identity assigned to a specific Polish Identification (PESEL) number. The token method can be used to grant authorisations in the KSeF once the taxpayer has been authenticated.
New information and documentation published by the Polish tax authority
The Polish tax authority has published new information on its website about KSeF features including FAQs and further documentation.
The FAQs include information regarding the scope and operational side of the system, whereas the sample XML files and the information brochure shed light on the logical structure of e-invoices and mapping requirements.
What will happen next?
Although the tax authority continues to make every effort to clarify the many aspects of the new CTC system in Poland, we still have a long way to go regarding the full implementation of KSeF.
For instance, during the public consultation of the draft act the Ministry of Finance stated taxpayers would be able to download structured invoices via API in XML or PDF format. As of today, there is no technical information available regarding the PDF generation within the system using the API. The tax authority has published the technical documentation related to the outbound process but there is still no documentation available on the inbound side.
More importantly, a decision authorising Poland to introduce special measures derogating from Articles of the EU VAT Directive is yet to be obtained from the EU Council for roll-out of the e-invoicing mandate for all B2B transactions. The current Polish VAT Act requires the buyer’s acceptance to receive structured invoices. As the Polish authorities aim to make the KSeF mandatory in 2023 an amendment of this provision is expected once the special measures have been authorized by the EU Council.
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