4 Things You Need to Know about Portugal’s Billing SAF-T

Sovos
January 6, 2023

Changes are coming to Portugal’s Billing SAF-T reporting requirements for non-resident taxpayers that trade in the country.

The process may be stringent but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult for your company. Here are four things you need to be aware of about Portugal’s billing SAF-T obligations.

1: Non-resident taxpayers must file the first billing SAF-T report by 8 February 2023

Billing SAF-T is already compulsory for resident Portuguese companies but from January 2023, non-resident VAT registered companies are also obligated to submit a monthly billing SAF-T. The first report is due on 8 February 2023 and has particular requirements, which we discuss below.

The monthly deadline for submitting the Billing SAF-T is the eight day of the month following the reporting period.

2: You must use a certified billing software to generate the monthly report

A unique requirement to Portugal is that the Billing SAF-T file must be generated by ‘certified billing systems’ as designated by the tax authorities. Failure to comply with this requirement is subject to a fine.

Non-resident taxpayers need to ensure they are using a certified billing software to remain compliant.

Sovos’ SAF-T cloud solution is recognised as a certified billing software by Portugal’s tax authority. This makes staying on top of Portugal’s SAF-T Billing report obligations simple, with customised options available for customers needing to take a tailored approach.

3: You must submit SAF-T Billing in the correct format

Portugal’s SAF-T requirements include specific formatting for generation and submission. Based on the original OCED 1.0 schema, this includes a specified header, master files, and source documents.

  • Master files can include: customer and/or supplier tables, product tables, and tax tables.
  • Source documents can include: sales and purchase invoices, documentation on movements of goods, and payment information, as applicable.

For the most part, information in the schema is conditionally required, meaning most fields only need to be submitted if the relevant data exists in a taxpayer’s source system.

Taxpayers must be able to generate the required fields in their system and understand which data is required for submission.

4: Portugal’s SAF-T requirements continue to change

Portugal’s tax authority has continued to introduce new requirements and extend the scope of SAF-T in the country.  Changes include stricter integrity and authenticity requirements and reducing the time window for invoice reporting obligations.

The tax authority’s changing requirements and increased visibility put additional strain on taxpayers to submit compliantly and on time.

Sovos’ Managed Service can help ease tax compliance burden for companies operating in Portugal and beyond. Our team of tax experts combined with our tax technologies help companies with filing and reporting obligations. Speak to our team to learn more about how Sovos can help solve tax for good.

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Author

Sovos

Sovos was built to solve the complexities of the digital transformation of tax, with complete, connected offerings for tax determination, continuous transaction controls, tax reporting and more. Sovos customers include half the Fortune 500, as well as businesses of every size operating in more than 70 countries. The company’s SaaS products and proprietary Sovos S1 Platform integrate with a wide variety of business applications and government compliance processes. Sovos has employees throughout the Americas and Europe, and is owned by Hg and TA Associates.
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