e-Invoicing deadlines in 2020

In times of digitization, automated and digitized billing processes have become indispensable. The changeover to electronic invoicing enables costs to be saved by up to 80% compared to paper invoices. In addition, resources such as personnel, time and raw materials can be saved and errors minimized.

On 01.07.2011, the Federal Ministry of Finance decided that the electronic invoice will be put on an equal footing with the paper invoice. Since then, an e-invoice can also be sent by e-mail and does not necessarily have to be signed.

Every year there are new requirements in various countries regarding e-Invoicing, as more and more countries are switching to e-Invoicing in the public sector and digitising their invoicing processes.

In this overview you can see which countries are obliged to switch to e-invoicing in 2019. This year, Greece, Norway, Poland and France, as well as Great Britain and Hungary, are also moving towards e-Invoicing.

By 2020, taxpayers in Albania are obliged to submit real-time electronic invoices to the tax authorities as a measure to combat tax evasion.

The European e-invoicing standard will apply from April 2020, as the acceptance and processing of electronic invoices will become mandatory for the public sector and for all B2G transactions.

From 01.01.2020, Norway will introduce the obligation to dispense SAF-T for companies with a turnover of more than NOK 5 million. The SaF-T must only be made available if the tax authorities request it.

In January 2020, Poland will also introduce the rule that as soon as a taxpayer transfers payments to an account that is not on the provider’s white list, the recipient will be liable for the tax debt together with the provider if the amount transferred exceeds PLN 15,000. The eInvoicing platform PEF, consisting of PEPPOL access points, is used in Poland for B2G electronic invoices. In Poland the issuing of electronic invoices is voluntary, while recipients are obliged to be able to receive e-invoices.

Electronic invoicing will become mandatory in France for B2G from 2020, even for companies with fewer than 10 employees. The Chorus Pro portal is used for this purpose.

According to a new government timetable, it has been decided that electronic invoicing will be mandatory for companies with a turnover of Rs.100 crore or more from 1 April 2020. This new e-invoicing system will simplify standard reporting between taxpayers and authorities.

The ability to monitor B2B invoices and taxes will help prevent tax evasion. The creation of the e-invoice is the responsibility of the taxpayer, who must report it to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) of GST. This portal generates a unique invoice reference number (IRN) and digitally signs the e-bill and generates a QR code. The QR code contains important parameters of the e-bill and sends them back to the taxpayer who first created the document. The IRP also sends the signed e-bill to the recipient of the document in the e-mail specified on the e-bill.

In Hungary, real-time VAT reporting has been mandatory for domestic invoices since 2018. From April 2020, it is important to note that the XSD data format 1.1 with interface version 2.0 will be used in the production environment. Taxpayers with a VAT of at least HUF 100,000 are, however, obliged to transmit the data automatically and electronically to the Hungarian tax authority.

All companies with a gross annual turnover of TRY 5 million are obliged to digitise their invoices by 1 July 2020. For all intermediaries and merchants in the fruit and vegetable industry, this applies from 1 January 2020. Companies in the energy market, car manufacturers, online sellers and web advertisers have until 1 July 2020. The same applies to E-Waybill or E-Despach Note.

Read also our blog article about the e-Invoicing guidelines for Turkey 2020

The EU project PEPPOL enables international companies to handle their communication in the procurement process electronically – from the public sector to private companies. Meanwhile, more than 32 countries are connected to the PEPPOL network and more and more are following. In 2019, countries such as Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Australia will be certified as PEPPOL Access Points. However, electronic invoices can also be transmitted beyond Europe to Singapore, Canada, the USA and New Zealand.

INPOSIA as a PEPPOL access point connects you to the OpenPEPPOL network and exchanges data securely and without roaming charges via the recipient’s access point. INPOSIA is a PEPPOL access point and is authorised to connect customers to the PEPPOL network.