Update: 22 March 2023 by Marta Sowińska
Poland: Changes to KSeF e-invoicing mandate
Poland published the second draft law amending the VAT Act and certain other laws on the Government Legislation Centre on 15 March 2023.
The presented amendments mainly confirm previously announced changes, though some additions are worth noting. The government heavily based the shape of the new draft law on the comments gathered by the Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) during the public consultation. The essential clarifications concern:
1. Scope of the KSeF mandate
Postponement of the KSeF mandate
The draft Act confirmed the mandate postponement to start from 1 July 2024 (half a year delay from the previous go-live date of 1 January 2024) with some exceptions:
- VAT-exempt taxpayers will be in scope from 1 January 2025.
- Additionally, from 1 January 2025, it will not be possible to issue invoices using cash registers and simplified invoices in the current form (including receipts from NIP considered as invoices).
B2C and OSS/IOSS transactions
The mandatory scope of the KSeF system will exclude invoices issued between businesses and non-business individuals (B2C transactions).
Accordingly, invoices issued and settled under the special procedures for OSS and IOSS will be consistently excluded from KSeF, as taxpayers under special procedures provide cross-border supplies and services primarily to non-business consumers (B2C transactions).
Foreign taxpayers
Foreign taxpayers with a fixed establishment on the territory of Poland – performing activities that are required to be invoiced according to Polish VAT law – will be obliged to issue their invoices via KSeF to the extent that this permanent place of business relates to the supply of goods or services which are invoiced.
2. Corrective notes excluded from KSeF
The draft law entirely withdraws the possibility for buyers to issue corrective notes. Buyers cannot propose corrections to the original invoices through or outside KSeF, which the previous draft law presented. Accordingly, changes in the issued invoice can be made only by issuing a corrective invoice.
3. Issuing invoices outside KSeF in case of failure – offline mode
In line with the previous draft proposal, the current draft law specifies the possibility of issuing e-invoices in offline mode, i.e. outside of KSeF in a structured format and delivering to KSeF on the next business day, in case of a failure on the taxpayer side.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance will communicate relevant information to the public regarding any maintenance work conducted in KSeF or any system failure. During this time, taxpayers can issue invoices outside of KSeF and deliver them to the buyers in the agreed format.
Such invoices must follow the structured format, be assigned with a QR code and, after the failure ends, be delivered to KSeF within seven days. The date of issuance will be the date stated in the P_1 field, while the buyer’s receipt date will be the date when KSeF assigned the unique ID.
4. QR code
The government has added a new requirement for including a QR code on the invoices issued during a failure of the KSeF system. As previously announced, the QR code must also be included in the invoices issued outside of KSeF, for example, to foreign buyers and on the VAT RR invoices and corrections to them.
5. Self-billing process under KSeF
The Ministry of Finance responded to feedback about the lack of a self-billing process for cross-border transactions. Therefore, a method of authentication in KSeF for foreign buyers will be included in KSeF, allowing foreign buyers to issue structured invoices on behalf of the suppliers.
6. Exchange rate
The exchange rate used for converting foreign currencies into PLN currency can be maintained from the day preceding the date indicated in the P_1 (date of invoice issuance).
The exchange rate will be calculated based on the date when an e-invoice was issued (stated in the P_1 field), provided that an e-invoice is sent to KSeF no later than the day after the date indicated in the P_1 field.
7. Penalties
Sanctions will apply from 1 January 2025 (previously 1 July 2024) up to 100% of the amount of VAT indicated on the invoice or up to 18.7% of the total amount due shown on the invoice. However, no minimum penalty amount will apply – previously, it was 1000 PLN – approx. 200 EUR.
Next steps for Poland’s KSEF e-invoicing mandate
The draft law is expected to be published in Q3 of 2023, with most provisions applying from 1 July 2024.
Accordingly, the associated final schema FA (2) and FA (RR) are also planned to be published at the end of June or beginning of July, as announced by the Ministry of Finance during a conference on 16 February 2023. Therefore, we are still waiting for the legislative process to be completed for the e-invoicing mandate to take effect.
Speak with our team if you need more information on the upcoming e-invoicing changes in Poland.
Update: 3 February 2023 by Marta Sowińska
Poland: e-invoicing mandate postponement to 1 July 2024
According to an official announcement published by the Ministry of Finance on 2 February 2023, the go-live date of Poland’s mandatory e-invoicing system is now 1 July 2024 – delayed six months from the previous date.
More than a year since the roll-out of the voluntary phase and following extensive testing of the KSeF system by taxpayers, the Ministry of Finance responded to the feedback submitted by businesses and entrepreneurs in the public consultation by announcing the delay of the mandate and relaxing certain requirements.
The expected changes are:
- The e-invoicing mandate will be postponed from 1 January 2024 to 1 July 2024.
- VAT-exempted taxpayers must comply with the e-invoicing requirements and issue invoices via KSeF from 1 January 2025.
- The KSeF system will exclude B2C transactions.
- Invoices issued through cash registers and simplified invoices can be issued in their current form until 31 December 2024, meaning such invoices will be in the scope of KSeF from 1 January 2025.
- In the case of a technical failure on behalf of the taxpayer, they will be able to issue invoices outside of KSeF and transmit them to the system the next day. It’s likely an additional API will be published concerning that contingency procedure.
- Penalties will be postponed until 1 January 2025 and imposed on taxpayers on a case-by-case basis.
Taxpayers should not treat the postponement of the e-invoicing mandate as a reason to pause the implementation process. Instead, taxpayers should treat the delay as an incentive to implement complex legislative and technical requirements before the go-live date and adapt their accounting and invoicing processes considering any errors that may appear.
The proposed changes will need to be adopted by law to become effective. Such legislation, considering the often-lengthy legislative process, is expected to be published just in time for the mandate roll-out in July.
Looking for more information on e-invoicing in Poland? Speak with our expert team.
Update: 15 December 2022 by Marta Sowińska
Poland publishes draft law on mandatory e-invoicing via KSEF
On 1 December 2022 the Ministry of Finance in Poland published the draft legislation amending the VAT Act regarding the introduction of mandatory e-invoicing in the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF). It is the second stage of the implementation of mandatory CTC e-invoicing in Poland, which will take effect from 1 January 2024.
Due to the Council Implementing Decision (EU) No 2022/1003 of 17 June 2022 authorising Poland to apply a special derogatory measure from Articles 218 and 232 of Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax (OJ. UE L 168/81), Poland is now able to propose amendments to the VAT Act that leads to full implementation of mandatory e-invoicing in the country.
What is KSeF and who is in scope?
KSeF is the centralised e-invoicing platform for issuing, exchanging and archiving structured invoices. We are currently in the voluntary phase of issuing invoices through the KSeF system; the system has been available for transactions since 1 January 2022.
From 1 January 2024, with the implementation of the mandatory mandate, suppliers and buyers will be obliged to issue and receive their invoices through the KSeF.
Transactional KSeF scope:
The obligatory e-invoicing will cover activities that currently require documenting an invoice issued in accordance with the VAT Act. Therefore, the transactional scope will include the supplies of goods and services made between entrepreneurs (B2B), to public authorities (B2G), and to consumers (B2C).
Subjective KSeF scope:
- Mandatory: taxpayers performing activities subject to the invoicing requirements according to Polish VAT regulations, who have their registered office or permanent place of business in Poland and taxpayers registered to OSS/IOSS procedure in Poland.
- Voluntarily: foreign taxpayers who do not have their registered office or fixed establishment in the territory of Poland, VAT exempted taxpayers and flat-rate farmers.
- Outside of scope: taxpayers registered for the OSS/IOSS VAT procedure in another Member State and taxpayers issuing invoices under special procedures provided for in the VAT Act.
What amendments were introduced for KSeF?
Verification QR code
Taxpayers will need to mark structured invoices with the verification code (QR code) if issuing them outside of KSeF. The code will need to be displayed when visualising e-invoices in commercial programs or free tools provided by the Ministry of Finance (meaning in PDF or paper formats too).
KSeF will provide functionality enabling verification of the correctness of the invoice issued via KSeF. After scanning the QR code, the information contained in the code will be read, and data identifying this invoice will be displayed with information from KSeF about their correctness. The implementing regulation to the VAT Act will provide further information regarding the method of marking e-invoices.
Corrective process – new document introduced
Contrary to the previous position of the MoF, corrective invoices issued after the entry into force of the draft Act will be issued in KSeF if they are issued by a taxpayer with a registered office or permanent place of business in Poland, regardless of whether they were issued using KSeF or outside KSeF.
Also, buyers will be able to propose corrections to the original invoice (except to the NIP number). After seller acceptance it will become a corrective e-invoice (alternative corresponding to the corrective note, which can only be issued by the buyer and used when the invoice recipient finds a mistake in the delivered invoice).
Cash registers
From 1 January 2025 invoices issued via cash registers will be in scope of the KSeF system. Taxpayers keeping sales records using cash registers will be required to issue a fiscal receipt for each sale, but they should not issue an invoice from the cash register, as this document will not be considered an e-invoice.
Also, from 1 January 2024, a receipt with NIP number up to PLN 450 will not be considered an e-invoice.
Technical issues with the KSeF system
In case of KSeF system failure, taxpayers will have to issue e-invoices in accordance with the schema, but instead transfer them to the recipients outside the KSeF. The date of issue of such e-invoices will be the date specified in the P_1 field.
After the failure is over, taxpayers will have seven days to send invoices issued in this way to KSeF. Also, it is possible to issue e-invoices outside of KSeF in the event of a crisis.
KSeF penalties
According to the draft law, failure to comply with the obligations introduced in the amended VAT Act will lead to financial administrative penalties.
The head of tax office will be able to impose:
- A fine of up to 100% of the amount of VAT indicated on the invoice,
- Or a fine of up to 18.7% of the total amount due shown on the invoice.
Penalties can be imposed when the taxpayer:
- Didn’t issue an invoice using the KSeF – such a situation is treated as lack of invoice.
- Issued an e-invoice but in a non-compliant manner during a KSeF system failure.
- Didn’t send invoices issued during the system failure to KSeF, within the specified seven day timeline.
It’s vital to highlight that the introduction of the administrative penalties with the half year delay isn’t hindering the introduction of mandatory e-invoicing in Poland. This postponement should not be viewed as a delay to the introduction of the mandatory e-invoicing obligations. Invoices issued between 1 January 2024 and 30 June 2024 outside of KSeF will not be treated as structured invoices, and therefore penal and fiscal sanctions will apply.
Key KSeF dates highlighted by the draft regulation
- 1 January 2024: mandatory e-invoicing enters into force in Poland (without any phased roll-out).
- 1 July 2024: administrative penalties for non-compliance, as defined by the draft law, take effect.
- Second quarter of 2025: final legislation is expected to be published.
KseF public consultation deadline: 23 December 2022
With the draft regulation published, the Ministry of Finance also presented the new logical structures of FA(2) and FA_RR. The public consultation on the substantive and logical correctness of the schemas is open until 23 December 2022, coinciding with the public consultation regarding the draft regulation on the mandatory implementation of KSeF.
The draft regulation amending the VAT Act is available on the Government Legislation Centre website and the draft schemas can be found: FA (2) and FA_RR.
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