During the last decade, the Vietnamese government has been developing a feasible solution to reduce VAT fraud in the country by adopting an e-invoice requirement for companies carrying out economic activities in Vietnam. Finally, on 1 July 2022, a mandatory e-invoicing requirement is scheduled to enter into force nationwide.
2020 e-invoicing mandate postponement
Despite the postponement of the original starting date for the mandatory nationwide e-invoicing obligation, which was first intended to enter into force in July 2020, the Vietnamese government quickly established a new deadline.
Later that year, in October 2020, the new timeline was communicated through Decree 123, delaying the e-invoicing mandate until 1 July 2022. This new deadline is also in line with the implementation dates for the rules concerning the e-invoicing system envisaged in the Law on Tax Administration.
Ongoing regional readiness plan
Vietnam’s General Taxation Department (GTD) announced its plan to work first with the local tax administrations of six provinces and cities: Ho Chi Minh City Hanoi, Binh Dinh, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and Phu Tho to start implementing technical solutions for the new e-invoice requirements and the construction of an information technology system that allows the connection, data transmission, reception, and storage of data. According to the GTD’s action plan, by March 2022, these six cities and provinces should be ready for the e-invoice system’s activation.
The GTD announced that, from April 2022, the new e-invoicing system will continue to be deployed in the remaining provinces and cities.
Finally, under this local implementation plan, by July 2022, all cities and provinces in Vietnam must deploy the e-invoicing system based on the rules established in Decree 123 and the Circular that provides guidance and clarification to certain aspects of the new e-invoicing system.
Next steps for businesses
Taxable persons operating in Vietnam will be required to issue e-invoices for their transactions from 1 July 2022 and must be ready to comply with the new legal framework. Enterprises, economic organisations, other organisations, business households and individuals must register with the local tax administration to start using e-invoices according to the rules established in the mentioned Decree 123.
Vietnam is finally moving forward to adopt mandatory e-invoicing. However, there is plenty of work related to the necessary technical documentation and local implementation of the new e-invoicing system. We will continue to monitor the latest developments to determine whether the GTD can meet all the requirements in time for the mandatory e-invoicing roll-out.
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The Tax Bureaus of Shanghai, Guangdong Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have all issued announcements stating they intend to carry out a new pilot program for selected taxpayers based in some areas of the provinces. The pilot program will involve adopting a new e-invoice type, known as a fully digitized e-invoice.
Introduction of a new e-invoice type
Many regions in China are currently part of a pilot program that enables newly registered taxpayers operating in China to voluntarily issue VAT special electronic invoices to claim input VAT, mostly for B2B purposes.
The new fully digitized e-invoice is a simplified and upgraded version of current electronic invoices in China. The issuance and characteristics of the fully digitized invoice are different from other e-invoices previously used in the country.
Characteristics of the fully digitized e-invoice
The fully digitized invoice is supervised by the local Taxation Bureaus as part of the pilot program
The legal effect and basic purpose are the same as those of existing paper invoices
Fully digitized invoices can be delivered in the form of data messages, which eliminates specific format requirements such as PDF or OFD
The basic content includes dynamic QR code, invoice number, invoice date, buyer information, seller information, quantity, unit price, amount, tax rate, tax amount, total, total price, and tax
After the pilot program taxpayer has passed a “real-name verification” they can immediately use the electronic invoice service platform to issue invoices without the need to use special equipment for tax control (e.g., UKey device)
Pilot taxpayers can automatically deliver fully digitized invoices through the tax digital account of the electronic invoice service platform and can also deliver fully electronic invoices themselves via email or other means
Verification of fully digitized e-invoices
Relying on the national unified electronic invoice service platform, tax authorities will provide selected taxpayers for this pilot program with services such as issuance, delivery, and inspection of fully digitized e-invoices 24 hours a day. Taxpayers will be able to verify the information of all electronic invoices through the electronic invoice service platform or the national VAT invoice inspection platform.
What’s next for e-invoicing in China?
This new pilot program has been effective in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Foshan, Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone, and Hohhot since 1 December 2021. Despite the lack of an official timeline for implementation, it’s expected that the scope of this pilot program will be extended in 2022 to cover new taxpayers and regions in China, paving the way for nationwide adoption of the fully digitized e-invoice.
Many tax authorities are increasing their focus on the insurance industry in an effort to close tax revenue gaps, with many introducing Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) and other indirect taxes for insurance. Globally, IPT is fragmented across over 200+ countries and achieving compliance can be a complex process requiring specialist knowledge.
Insurers, especially those operating across multiple territories, can find keeping up to date with the latest IPT rates, rules and regulations to ensure compliance challenging.
This guide provides a helpful snapshot of the indirect tax rules that apply to insurance premiums across Europe.
The guide provides a useful reference of indirect rules across Europe including:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaca, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Insurance Premium Tax compliance
The digitization of tax is a trend that will undoubtedly continue. Organisations need to prepare for any changes to reporting as this will impact compliance obligations for the countries they operate in.
Tax authorities have increased their focus on the insurance industry to ensure IPT and parafiscal taxes are collected correctly, accurately, and on time.
Operating in multiple countries inevitably means also having to comply with many local regulations in line with IPT statutory and parafiscal filing. Compliance regimes can be simple or complex, but the difficulty is that they’re varied.
Welcome to the 13th edition of Sovos’ annual Trends report where we put a spotlight on current and near-term legal requirements across regions and VAT compliance domains.
This report provides a comprehensive look at the regulatory landscape as governments across the globe are enacting complex new policies to enforce VAT mandates. It examines the demanding and unprecedented insight now required into your economic data so that regulatory authorities enforce standards and close revenue gaps.
This year’s report examines the evolution of law and practice around the four emerging megatrends that Sovos experts identified in the 12th edition. These trends, many of which revolve around tax compliance and controls being ‘always on’, have the potential to drive change in the way organizations approach regulatory reporting and manage compliance.
Authored by a team of international tax compliance experts, we provide extensive recommendations on how companies can prepare for and thrive through these changes.
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The four mega-trends that we examine are:
Continuous Transaction Controls (CTCs) – Countries with existing CTC regimes are seeing improvements in revenue collection and economic transparency. Now, other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are moving away from post-audit regulation to adoption of these CTC-inspired approaches. The report highlights how countries like France and Hungary have accelerated their transition to CTCs, and how many jurisdictions are combining invoice controls with CTC transport documents, thereby expanding their real-time reach from financial to physical supply chains.
A shift toward destination taxability for certain cross-border transactions – Cross-border services have historically often escaped VAT collection in the country of the consumer. Due to a large increase of cross-border trade in low-value goods and digital services over the past decade, administrations are taking significant measures to tax such supplies in the country of consumption or destination.
Aggregator liability – With the increase of tax reporting or e-invoicing obligations across different taxpayer categories, tax administrations are increasingly looking for ways to concentrate tax reporting liability in platforms that naturally aggregate large numbers of transactions already. Ecommerce marketplaces and business transaction management cloud vendors will increasingly be on the hook for sending data from companies on their networks to the government, potentially even inheriting liability for paying their taxes. The report notes how the July 2021 introduction of sweeping changes in e-commerce VAT legislation via OSS and IOSS are confirming this trend.
E-accounting and e-assessment – Combining CTCs with obligations to synchronize entire accounting ledgers makes onsite audit necessary only in cases showing major anomalies across these rich data sources. Over time, the objective is for VAT returns and other tax reports to be prefilled by the tax administration based on taxpayers’ own, strongly authenticated source system data. A brief deep-dive into the origins and potential future of SAF‑T shows how this trend is evolving to become a solid companion to CTCs globally.
CTCs have emerged as the primary concern for multinational companies looking to ensure compliance despite growing diversity in VAT enforcement approaches. Tax authorities are steadfast in their commitment to closing the VAT gap and will use all tools at their disposal to collect revenue owed. This holds especially true in the aftermath of COVID-19, when governments are expected to face unprecedented budget shortfalls.
The potential costs and risks associated with the trends highlighted in the report cannot be effectively mitigated with a reactive or opportunistic approach. The digital transformation of tax administration can – if approached as just an evolution of the legacy ‘post audit’ VAT world – significantly contract the digital transformation of businesses. This report suggests an analysis framework that companies can use to ensure ongoing VAT compliance whilst maximizing the opportunities of modern information and communication technologies for their own benefit.
In addition, Trends includes a major review of the country and regional requirement profiles. These profiles provide a snapshot of current and near-term planned legal requirements across the different VAT compliance domains.
Saudi Arabia - E-Invoicing
Saudi Arabia leads the way to continuous transaction controls in the Gulf
Saudi Arabia e-invoicing from December 2021
Saudi Arabia introduced an e-invoicing regime with a phased approach in December 2021. Having only introduced VAT on 1 January 2018, the country is already leading the way in digitizing tax compliance in the Gulf Region.
According to the finalised rules published by Saudi Arabia’s tax authority, Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) the go-live date of the second phase is 1 January 2023.
In addition to other requirements, Phase 2 also introduced integration with a digital ZATCA platform for continuous transaction controls (CTCs), requiring taxpayers to clear invoices ahead of transmission to buyers.
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Mandate Quick Facts
Phase 1 – Mandatory e-invoicing generation with post audit controls: Started on 4 December 2021
Applies to all resident taxable persons in Saudi Arabia.
Requires taxpayers to generate, amend and store e-invoices and electronic notes (credit and debit notes) across B2B, B2C and B2G transactions, including exports.
Businesses must generate e-invoices and their associated notes in a structured electronic format.
Electronic invoices and notes must contain all necessary information.
Any structured electronic format permitted.
B2C invoices must include a QR code.
All invoices must contain a time stamp.
Integrity of e-invoices is explicitly required.
Storage requirements same in both Phases 1 and 2. Documents can be stored on Cloud, a direct link to the online data must be available. In case the storage is outsourced, documents must be kept by a third party established within the territory of Saudi Arabia.
Suppliers must store e-invoices in a structured format regardless of how they’re exchanged with buyers.
Certain prohibited functionalities for e-invoicing solutions.
Phase 2 – CTC regime: Started on 1 January 2023, requiring taxpayers to transmit e-invoices in addition to electronic notes to tax authority ZATCA for clearance
A phased implementation approach based on taxpayers’ revenue.
Voluntary participation in Phase 2 before the taxpayer’s enforcement date arrives.
B2B invoices operate under a clearance regime, while B2C invoices must be reported on ZATCA’s platform within 24 hours of issuance.
All e-invoices must be issued in the mandatory XML format.
Tax invoices can be sent in XML or PDF/A-3 (with embedded XML) to buyers. B2C invoices must be presented in paper form. However, based on mutual agreement by the parties, B2C invoices can be shared electronically or through any other way where the buyer can read it.
A compliant e-invoicing solution must have the following features:
Generation of a universally unique identified (UUID) plus invoice sequential number.
Tamper-resistant invoice counter.
Some ability to save and archive e-invoices and electronic notes.
Generation of a cryptographic stamp for B2C invoices, a hash, and a QR code for each e-invoice and electronic note.
Important dates for e-invoicing in Saudi Arabia
Phase 1: 4 December 2021 – All resident taxable persons in the Kingdom to generate, amend and store e-invoices and electronic notes (credit and debit notes).
Phase 2: 1 January 2023 – Additional requirements for taxable persons to transmit e-invoices and electronic notes to the ZATCA. It will be a phased adoption starting with larger companies, with more gradually coming into the scope of the mandate. Companies can expect six months’ notice before the deadline by which they must comply.
INFOGRAPHIC
Saudi Arabia CTC Requirements
Understand more about Saudi Arabia’s continuous transaction controls including when businesses need to comply, phase one and two compliance and how Sovos can help.
Need help to ensure your business is VAT compliant in Saudi Arabia? Sovos serves as a true one-stop-shop for managing all e-invoicing compliance obligations in Saudi Arabia and across the globe. Sovos uniquely combines local expertise with a seamless, global customer experience.
Under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) framework, the Indian e-invoicing system falls under the category of continuous transaction controls (CTCs). The invoice data reporting obligation to the governmental portal is a mandatory step before an invoice can be issued.
The legal validity of the invoice is conditional on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) digitally signing the invoice and providing an Invoice Registration Number (IRN). If the IRN is not included in an invoice, the invoice will not be legally valid.
The scope covers both domestic and cross-border transactions. The IRP process is mandatory for B2B, B2G and export transactions. So, taxpayers in scope must issue their invoices (as well as other documents that need an IRN e.g. associated eWaybills) according to the new system for all B2B, B2G or export transactions. India has made multiple changes to the initial regulation and future changes are inevitable.
Have questions? Get in touch with a Sovos India e-invoicing expert.
India’s e-invoicing mandate
Invoice data should be transmitted to the IRP in JSON format.
The IRN obtained from the IRP is a validity requirement for invoices.
Invoices can be exchanged in JSON or PDF format as well as in paper form between the supplier and buyer.
Archiving is mandated (storage period of eight years).
Mandate Rollout Dates
1 January 2020: Voluntary period for businesses with a turnover of Rs.500 Crore or more.
1 February 2020: Voluntary period for businesses with a turnover of Rs.100 Crore or more.
1 October 2020: Beginning of the mandatory period for businesses with a turnover of Rs.500 Crore or more (six months later than previously intended). For the first 30 days, there was a grace period during which invoices could be reported after they had been issued.
1 January 2021: Beginning of the mandatory period for businesses with a turnover of Rs.100 Crore or more.
1 April 2021: Threshold for mandatory e-invoicing lowered to taxpayers with turnover between Rs. 100 Crore to Rs. 50 Crore.
1 April 2022: Threshold lowered from Rs. 50 Crore to Rs. 20 Crore. Taxpayers above Rs. 20 Crore must implement e-invoicing.
1 October 2022: Threshold lowered to taxpayers with an annual threshold of Rs. 10 Crore.
1 August 2023: Threshold lowered to taxpayers with an annual threshold of Rs. 5 Crore.
Penalties
If an invoice is not registered on the IRP, it will be considered unissued and will result in penalties of at least 10,000 Rupees for each instance of noncompliance. Penalties under various sections of GST will be levied with interest.
Sovos Helps Companies Stay Compliant with India E-invoicing
By February 2021 the initial specifications published by the Indian tax authority in December 2019 had already been revised three times. Future changes are inevitable.
Our experts continually monitor, interpret, and codify these changes into our software, reducing the compliance burden on your tax and IT teams.
Find out how Sovos can help you to meet your clearance e-invoicing obligations in India.
South Korea introduced its Electronic Tax Invoice System i.e. e-Tax in 2010. Since 2011, this has become a mandatory e-invoicing requirement alongside the obligation to report e-tax invoices shortly after issuance. This requirement means South Korea has a continuous transaction controls (CTCs) reporting obligation. The scope of the mandate has been expanded to cover more taxpayers, however the initial workflows and requirements of the mandate have remained relatively stable.
E-invoicing in South Korea has been mandatory for all corporations since 2011 and for individual taxable persons when exceeding a certain turnover threshold.
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Mandate quick facts
Mandatory e-invoicing with CTC reporting model: An issued e-tax invoice must be transmitted to the National Tax Service (NTS) within one day of the invoice being issued
Invoice data is reported to the NTS in XML format
Invoices and amended invoices (credit and debit notes) are in scope
E-invoicing in South Korea applies to domestic transactions only. Cross border transactions are out of scope
Mandate rollout dates
January 2011: The electronic issuance of VAT invoices and next day reporting became mandatory for all Korean corporate taxpayers
January 2012: : In addition to the first category, sole proprietors with a supply value of 1 billion KRW and above must issue e-tax invoices
July 2014: The threshold changed from 1 billion KRW to 0.3 billion KRW and above
July 2019: Introduction of the tax-free portion of the income to be included when calculating the threshold of 0.3 billion KRW
July 2022: The threshold was updated from 0.3 billion KRW to 0.2 billon KRW and above
July 2023: The threshold will be updated from 0.2 billion KRW to 0.1 billon KRW and above
Penalties
Penalties vary between 0.3-1% of the supply price based on the failure type e.g. non-issuance, issuance form, delayed issuance, non-transmission, late transmission.
INFOGRAPHIC
South Korea CTC Requirements
Understand more about South Korea’s continuous transaction controls including when businesses need to comply and how Sovos can help.
As countries around the globe digitize their tax systems to close VAT gaps, our experts continually monitor, interpret and codify these changes into our software, reducing the compliance burden on your tax and IT teams.
Discover how the Sovos solution is tailored to manage all e-invoicing and related VAT obligations in South Korea.
For companies operating in Turkey, 2019 was an eventful year for tax regulatory change and in particular, e-invoicing reform. Since it was first introduced in 2012, the e-invoicing mandate has grown, and companies are having to adapt in order to comply with requirements in 2020 and beyond. Turkey’s digital transformation and e-invoicing landscape continues to evolve.
According to the General Communique on the Tax Procedure Law (General Communique), more taxpayers now need to comply with the mandatory e-invoicing framework. The General Communique published on 19 October 2019 covers other e-documents such as e-arşiv, e-delivery note, e-self-employment receipts, e-producer receipts, e-tickets, e-note of expenses, e-Insurance Commission Expense Documents, e-Insurance Policies, eDocument of Currency Exchange, and e-Bank Receipts.
The scope of e-invoicing
From 1 July 2020, taxpayers with a gross sales revenue of TL 5 million or above in fiscal years 2018 or 2019 must switch to the e-invoice system. Taxpayers who meet these requirements in 2020 or later, should switch to the e-invoice system at the beginning of the seventh month of the following accounting year.
Mandatory e-invoicing is not only based on the threshold
Turkey’s tax authority has set some sector-based parameters for businesses operating in Turkey. Companies licensed by the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority, middlemen or fruits or vegetable traders, online service providers facilitating online trade, importers and dealers are some of the taxpayers also required to switch to e-invoices, irrespective of their turnover.
The scope of E-Arşiv invoice
E-arsiv fatura documents B2C transactions. But also in case the transacting counterparty is not registered with the TRA for e-invoicing. Similar to e-invoice, the e-arşiv invoice, became mandatory for intermediary service providers; online advertisers; and intermediary online advertisers who switched to the system from 1 January 2020.
Taxpayers not in scope for e-invoice and e-arşiv must issue e-arşiv invoices through the Turkish Revenue Administration´s portal. That is if the total amount of an invoice issued, including taxes, exceeds:
TL 5.000 for B2B
TL 30.000 for B2C transactions.
Turkey’s Government continues to tackle its VAT gap through digital transformation. By taking greater control of reporting and requiring more granular tax detail. So, businesses operating in Turkey need powerful e-invoicing strategies to comply with the growing demands for digital tax transformation.
With two weeks to go until the first mandatory phase of the Indian e-invoicing reform go live, the GST Council slammed the breaks. Or at least, bring it to a significant temporary standstill of 6 months. As a result, the India e-invoicing reform is now postponed until 1 October 2020
Following a long list of complaints — both from the private sector toward the GST Council, as well as from the GST Council vis-á-vis the IT infrastructure provider that powers the GST Network, Infosys — the council decided to revisit the 1 April go-live in a recent meeting held today, Saturday 14 March.
Delaying the first mandatory go-live of the e-invoicing reform with six months, from 1 April 2020 until 1 October 2020
Delaying the obligation for B2C invoices. Those issued by the largest taxpayers in India, with a threshold above Rs.500 Crore. This is to include a QR code, from 1 April 2020 until 1 October 2020
Excluding certain types of taxable persons from the scope of the e-invoicing reform
The obligation to generate QR codes. For example, insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions. Also non-banking financial institutions, and passenger transportation services
Postponing the entry into force of the new GST returns until 1 October 2020
Calling the chairman of Infosys to attend the next three GST Council meetings. This is for the purpose of reporting status updates of technical and infrastructure improvements to the underlying IT platforms that are the foundation of the on-going GST control reforms
The decisions made in the 39th meeting of the GST Council will require either that the legislative framework (Notifications) published in early December be amended or entirely replaced with new ones to reflect the new reality. However, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect even further delays to the roll out of this reform. This given to the recent economic volatility triggered by the ongoing pandemic. Only once both global markets as well as the underlying technical platforms of the GST control reform seem to stabilize will the post-October timeline of the roll out be fully certain.
In Turkey, the Revenue Administration (TRA) published the long-awaited e-Delivery Note Application Manual. The manual clarifies how the electronic delivery process will work in addition to answering frequently asked questions. It addresses the application as well as its scope and structure, outlines important scenarios and provides clarity for companies who are unclear about the adoption of e-delivery notes.
What is the e-delivery note application?
The e-delivery note is the electronic version of the “delivery note,” currently printed on paper. As a result, it allows the TRA to regularly monitor the movements of delivered merchandise in the electronic environment.
Electronic delivery has the same legal qualifications as the delivery note but is issued, forwarded, retained, and submitted digitally.
Who does the e-delivery note mandate affect?
According to the circular published by the TRA at the end of February, taxpayers in scope of the e-delivery note application are;
E-invoice taxpayers with a gross sales turnover of 25 million TL and above
Companies with an Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) license (including dealers) -PCT I
Motor vehicles (production, import, dealers) – PCT III
Mining license owners in addition to producers of mine based on their contracts with these people
Sugar manufacturers
Iron and steel manufacturers / HS Code72 / HS Code73
Users registered in the fertilizer tracking system
Taxpayers engaged in fruit and vegetable trade as brokers or merchants
Also, those who are found to be risky or at low levels of tax compliance as a result of the Administrative analysis
Taxpayers engaged in fruit and vegetable trade as brokers or merchants completed their transitions of January 1, 2020. Other taxpayers covered by the mandate must be ready by July 1, 2020.
Taxpayers deemed to be risky or at low levels of tax compliance by the TRA must complete their transition to the e-delivery note application within three months after being notified.
Other topics included in the e-delivery note application manual
Besides explaining the basic concepts, the manual also details the previously announced scenarios providing answers to many areas that were confusing for taxpayers.
The main scenarios are:
Delivery notes to be issued for the buyers not registered in the e-delivery note application
Export and logistic scenarios
Successive delivery
Issuing a printed delivery note
Various customers
In addition, other topics covered include:
Market registry system
Fuel oil sector
Transportation by pipelines
Sample and contract manufacturing processes
Full details on the Turkey E-Delivery Application Manual are available in Turkish from the TRA e-Document website.
Is India postponing the mandatory implementation deadline for e-invoicing? For more than a year, India has been on the path to digitizing tax controls, with the first mandatory go-live for transmission of invoice data to a governmental portal scheduled for 1 April 2020. The very high pace of the roll-out of this reform made many taxpayers concerned that they might not realistically be able to meet the implementation deadline. As a result, leading many to hope that the Indian authorities might instead chose to postpone the go live date.
The latest news from India is that it looks as if these authorities may indeed consider a delay. Or at least discuss the possibility of – a delay to the go-live date. According to The Economic Times, the Indian government is going to discuss whether there is a need to defer the implementation deadline in the next meeting of GST Council, which is scheduled for the 14th of March. So far, a 3-month deferral is an option. This means that should the GST Council grant a delay, the first go-live would take place in July 2020.
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Get in touch to find out how Sovos can help your business meet the e-invoicing deadline in India.
For those following the ongoing tax control reform in India, 2019 has been a very eventful year for Indian e-invoicing. Starting last spring, a group of government and public administration bodies have convened regularly with the mission of proposing a new way of controlling GST compliance through the introduction of mandatory e-invoicing. Given the vast impact such a reform would have on not just the Indian but the global economy, these discussions, often carried out behind closed doors, have triggered a large number of rumours, sometimes leading to misinformation on the market.
Navigating the information deficit
So far, not much information of a formal or binding nature has been published or made available to the public. After the public consultation held earlier this autumn, a high-level whitepaper describing the envisaged e-invoicing process was published; however, since then nothing formal or binding has been released. A recent media note made available by the relevant authorities to the press indicated that the timeline envisaged by the government for the roll-out would be:
1 January 2020: voluntary for businesses with a turnover of Rs.500 Crore or more;
1 February 2020: voluntary for businesses with turnover of Rs.100 Crore or more;
1 April 2020: mandatory for both of the above categories and voluntary for businesses with a turnover of less than Rs. 100 Crore.
While the clarity was welcomed, this timeline was not yet binding, and as a result, taxpayers were left with little information on how to meet the requirements of the tax control reform, and no binding indication of when they need to comply. However, this situation is now currently being remedied, and we are seeing the first codification into law.
The first pieces of legislation make an entrance
On December 13, 2019, a set of Notifications (No. 67-72/2019) introducing amendments to the existing GST legislation framework were released and are currently awaiting publication in the Gazette of India. In a nutshell, these Notifications:
Introduce the principle that an invoice is only considered as valid if it contains an Invoice Reference Number (IRN), and failing to issue it according to the envisaged process means that it cannot be considered as an invoice;
Formalise the first mandatory part of the roll-out plan: introducing the obligation to comply with these requirements by 1 April 2020 for companies with a turnover of Rs.100 Crore or more;
Introduce an obligation for businesses with a turnover of Rs.500 Crore or more to include a QR code on B2C invoices as of 1 April 2020.
These Notifications issued on December 13 will be the first of many pieces of documentation that are needed to formally clarify the details of the upcoming e-invoicing reform. More important still, they serve as a clear indication that the relevant Indian authorities are nearing the end of what has been an analytical and consultative design period, and that they now instead are transitioning into a period of preparation for the first roll-out.
Following India’s recent public consultation looking at the proposed introduction of an e-invoicing regime, the GST council has now released a white paper on the architecture of the new framework and also provided answers to a number of outstanding questions.
From 1 January 2020, taxpayers in India can start to use the new e-invoicing framework, which relies on connectivity to the GST system for reporting of all B2B invoice data. The first part of the roll-out starting from this date will be voluntary for businesses. It will only become mandatory at a later stage, the timing of which is still to be communicated by the relevant authorities.
The new e-invoicing system, considered to be not only a tax reform but also a business reform, has two key aims:
To ease the process and format of standard reporting between taxpayers and the authorities.
To prevent tax evasion by monitoring all B2B invoices and taxes involved within the transactions.
Under the e-invoicing system, taxpayers will be obliged to create the e-invoice in the structured JSON format and transmit it to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). The IRP will then check the e-invoice according to the requirements of the schema and determine if a duplicate record is already registered on the GST system.
After this check, the IRP will digitally sign the e-invoice, assign a unique number – the invoice registration number (IRN) – to the invoice and create a QR code, before submitting the invoice to the GST system. The QR code will help to authenticate the e-invoice by the seller and buyer and to confirm that the invoice is successfully registered in the GST system. Connection to the portal is needed to see all the e-invoice data and to view all the details online. A digital signature by the taxpayer is not mandatory, but it is permitted before submission to the IRP.
An IRN can also be generated by the seller with the required parameters, which would then be validated by the IRP and transmitted to the GST System if it meets the predefined criteria.
Once the e-invoice has been cleared by the IRP, it will be transmitted to both the seller and the buyer by email.
Taxpayers can use several methods to connect to the IRP including web, API, SMS, mobile app, offline tool or GSP based.
The IRP keeps the e-invoices for just 24 hours as its main function is to validate and assign the IRN. Invoices submitted to the GST system will be archived for the whole financial year by the GST system and taxpayers must keep the IRN for each invoice to ensure compliance.
The new system will simplify the preparation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns by auto-populating the returns with the data from the e-invoices. The GST System will update the ANX-1 of the seller (sales registers) and ANX-2 of the buyer (purchase register).
Data from the e-invoice will also be used as a basis to populate the current e-waybill (auto-generation of Part-A), where only the vehicle registration number will need to be added in Part-B of the e-waybill.
Whilst the white paper has provided some guidance for businesses ahead of the introduction of this e-invoicing framework, there are still some grey areas to be addressed in the coming months, including the timeline for submitting e-invoices.
