Compliance Services

The Portuguese State Budget, approved on 27 June 2022, introduced some changes for SAF-T reporting. SAF-T reporting refers to the Standard Audit File for Tax and Portugal pioneered the SAF-T format, being the first country to introduce it on 1^st January 2008. It was created with the underlying intention to orchestrate an efficient exchange of information between businesses and tax authorities.

All VAT-registered taxpayers in Portugal are subject to SAF-T reporting obligations. The State Budget has now extended this obligation to foreign businesses from 1^st January 2023.

This effectively brings the Portuguese SAF-T legislation in harmony with the requirement for non-established companies in Portugal to also use certified billing software, which came into effect in July 2021. This requirement ensures that taxpayers can only use billing systems authorised by the Portuguese Tax Authorities (PTA), thus reducing the scope for tax evasion and fraud.

A new version of the technical specifications and annexes on e-invoicing has been released by the French tax authorities.

The new version can be downloaded via the following link:

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/specifications-externes-b2b

The implementation of e-invoicing in the Philippines has now gone live as planned on 1st July 2022. Initially, the mandate will cover 100 large taxpayers selected by BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) including:  

1. Taxpayers engaged in the export of goods and services.  

1. Taxpayers engaged in electronic commerce (e-commerce);  

1. Taxpayers under the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS). 

As of 1st July 2022, selected taxpayers are legally required to issue e-invoices/e-receipts and transmit them to the EIS portal in real time, or within 3 days from the date of the transaction. The document must be transmitted in the format of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). In the event that sales data are delayed, late, or not transmitted to ElS, a penalty shall be imposed. 

To issue/transmit sales data, taxpayers must develop a Sales Data Transmission System and obtain certification from BIR. A Permit to Transmit (PTT) must also be applied by the taxpayer before the ElS can receive sales data. 

BIR expects to gradually roll out the mandate to all taxpayers in 2023. In the meantime, taxpayers who are not covered by the mandate yet may opt to use electronic receipts or sales/commercial invoices in lieu of manual receipts and invoices.  

With the recent issuance of Notification No.17 2022, the threshold for mandatory e-invoicing will be further lowered to ₹10 crore (from ₹20 crore) on October 1, 2022. From this date, GST registered businesses with annual turnover of ₹10 crore or more must issue e-invoices for B2B transactions.

Further, Vivek Johri, the Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), has made the following statement: “We started with a very high threshold and soon we are going to have all taxpayers with an annual turnover of more than ₹5 crore having to generate e-invoices for their B2B part of business.” According to Mr Johri, the ₹5 crore threshold will likely to be introduced in the course of 2023.

The India government has implemented e-invoicing in a phased manner ensuring minimum burden on the taxpayer community, the recent measures on threshold cuts will improve tax compliance and move closer to making e-invoicing mandatory for all GST taxpayers eventually. Tungsten has been supporting the e-invoicing mandate since its introduction in 2020 and is prepared to meet this new threshold requirement.

According to the 2023 Pre-Budget statement, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance intends to implement e-invoicing as a means of increasing tax revenue and digitalizing tax administration in the country.

The e-invoicing initiative will also support the use of the TIN (Tax Identification Number) in Malaysia, which will be implemented in 2022. The Statement points out that e-invoicing will be introduced in stages from 2023. However, no specific timeline has been mentioned.

We are closely monitoring the developments in Malaysia and will continue to keep our customers informed.

From 1st January 2023, Saudi Arabia will require that Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G) transactions be cleared with the Saudi government (ZATCA) before these can be sent to the buyer.

Tungsten Network is committed to supporting the upcoming e-invoicing mandate in Saudi Arabia and has produced this FAQ that provides insightful information on the requirements and how they would impact your invoice processing. It also presents how Tungsten’s services can assist you in ensuring a seamless transition.

Over the past 2 years, we have seen many countries reduce VAT rates in the tourism sector. As we transition globally to a post-covid era, many countries are continuing to deploy such reduced rates.

Uruguay will continue deploying the reduced rate of 9% for certain tourist activities from 30 April 2022 to 30 September 2022, further to Decree No. 140/022.

A Peruvian draft resolution has made changes to the guías de remisión electronica (GRE). The draft resolution should further regulate the issuance of the e- transport document.

Regarding a high-level overview of the changes:

• The GRE can no longer be issued from SEE-OSE (Sistema de Emisión Operador de Servicios Electrónicos), but should exclusively be issued through the taxpayer’s invoice issuance system (SEE del contribuyente) or the Sunat Portal (SEE-SOL).
• A QR code can be used electronically or on paper as one of the support forms for the transport of goods.
• A new e-transport document has been introduced (the guía de remisión por evento), which has to be issued through the Sunat Portal.

Taxpayers can voluntarily start using the QR code as the support for transportation from 13 July 2022.

Further to Emergency Decree 112-2021, the Peruvian government will postpone the deadline of 4 days concerning the remittance of an e-invoice and fee voucher until 30 June 2022.

Previous regulations had the postponement set to 2 days.

The Decree effectively means that Peruvian taxpayers have an additional 2 days to submit their e-invoice and debit and credit notes until 30 June 2022. After this deadline, the old deadline of a 2-day postponement applies.

Tungsten Network has steadily been following the progress of e-invoicing in Latin America. In November 2021, we communicated around the first wave of taxpayers who were obligated to comply with the mandate.

The phased implementation of e-invoicing has been progressing swiftly since then- the second wave of taxpayers were obligated to comply in April 2022. Bolivia’s National Tax Service (SIN) published Resolution N 102200000010, which identifies the additional group of taxpayers who will be required to comply with the mandate from this date.

The third group of taxpayers, comprising of 3,897 taxpayers who are listed in the annex of the Resolution, is due to comply from 1^st October 2022 and all indications suggest that the roll-out of the Bolivian e-invoicing mandate is on schedule.