Postponement of deadlines

The Corona crisis has presented many countries with new challenges. The gradual introduction of electronic invoicing in many European countries is affected by this. As a result, several governments have only announced a postponement of certain deadlines and requirements in order to give companies more time to prepare for the coming conditions in the midst of the crisis.

As already explained in our previous news article, the update to XML version 2.0 for real-time invoice reporting in Hungary was actually scheduled for April 1, 2020. In view of the events, this deadline has been postponed to July 2020. all resident taxpayers must use XML version 2.0 in their online invoice reports. Affected companies must submit all their invoices to the Hungarian tax authority without exception, which makes the HUF 100,000 limit obsolete.

As of January 1, 2021, an update to XML version 3.0 will be introduced, which will also include the obligation to electronically report invoices from Community transactions, export transactions, and sales to private parties. Companies will be granted a 3-month transition period by the government without sanctions. In addition, as of the update, the XML Template 3.0 is also considered to be an electronic invoice, as some significant changes have been made to the schema. Companies in Hungary must therefore process all invoices electronically.

In Italy, new specifications for electronic invoicing have already been defined for the SDI interface to be used (Sistema de Interscambio). These will come into force on 1 October 2020. The old specifications can still be used until 31 November 2020.

In Frankfurt, the new Finance Act 2020 decided that the implementation of continuous transaction control through electronic invoicing will be mandatory by 2023-2025. Electronic invoicing is currently in force in the B2G sector for all federal levels. For the B2B sector a corresponding law is to be prepared for 2023. Further details will be announced by September 2020.

Electronic invoicing was due to come into force for B2G this year in April, in accordance with EU Directive 2014/55, but this deadline has been extended to 1 January 2021 for large companies and 1 July 2021 for SMEs. Micro-enterprises will have to adapt to electronic invoicing from 1 January 2022.

Poland had originally planned the next step towards electronic tax reporting from July 2020. Instead, a central e-invoicing system is to be introduced from 2022 to enable the digital exchange of B2G and B2B invoices.

For Greece, a new myDATA e-books mandate was announced by the Greek tax authorities. This will allow suppliers to enter invoice data for outgoing invoices and their classifications from June 1, 2020. From 1 October 2020, invoice data for buyers will be recorded for invoices not submitted by suppliers (e.g. foreign suppliers) and classifications will be recorded for incoming invoices. Finally, from 30 October – 31 December 2020, it should be possible for suppliers and buyers to retroactively report all data and their classifications from January 2020 until the introduction.

As already explained in our previous news article, electronic invoicing should become mandatory in Vietnam from 1 November 2020. This deadline has now been postponed to 1 July 2022. You can still find more details on the specifications in our article. This postponement can be explained by many local companies that would not have been able to implement a compliant e-invoicing solution in time.

The 2022 deadline is now in line with the original draft law on the electronic invoicing system (Law No 38/2019 / GH14). In 2019, another decree was announced for this purpose, which allowed less time for the system to be put into operation, namely until November 2020. This caused some confusion and led the private sector to question the actual deadline. The final draft regulation with the confirmed deadline for implementation is now July 2022.

Even if your company is currently at a difficult point, we would like to draw your attention once again to the advantages of e-invoicing and show you how you can benefit positively from an electronic invoicing solution, especially in times of crisis.

EDI can be used to optimize all interactions in the procurement process, including purchasing, sales, production, and all other stages of the supply chain. You can also save considerable costs by eliminating printing & postage costs. This can save up to 80% of the original costs. By converting to EDI, you will not only optimize your cash flow but also your business efficiency, as the data is transmitted more accurately along the supply chain, thus accelerating the speed of the processes.

On average, you can achieve the following cost savings:

• 1,53€ / invoice to the biller
• 4€ to 15€ / invoice at the invoice recipient
• Save 25 days processing time when converting to e-invoicing with EDI
• Sending invoices via EDI costs only a third of the paper version
• fast transactions that take up to 5 days

If you have any further questions regarding certain European deadlines or need more advice, please contact us! Our e-invoicing experts will be happy to answer all your questions!