In December, China’s State Taxation Administration (STA) announced further expansion of the trial programme (Pilot) to 38 regions in the country. The pilot enables specific Chinese taxpayers to issue VAT special electronic invoices on voluntary basis. The pilot project started in September 2020.
The Polish Ministry of Finance published draft tax legislation on 12th February, under which UK and Norwegian based companies will not be obliged to appoint fiscal representation in Poland.
This important decision is mainly due to adequate agreements for mutual assistance being in place between countries. These agreements arrange administrative cooperation and collaboration to fight against VAT fraud. The legislation comes into force retrospectively with an effective date of January 1, 2021.
For some time now, Poland has been stating that it would implement their continuous tax controls regulation ahead of France. They seem to be making good progress.
The Polish Government Legislation Centre has published a draft law amending the VAT Act, introducing a model of ‘structured invoices’ to the local VAT system. The draft law is available for public consultation for a very short period in February. The expectation is that the law will come into force by October 1, 2021. It should be noted that, initially, invoice issuance and reception via the national e-invoicing platform (Krajowy System e-Faktur (KSeF) or National e-Invoicing System (NeIS)), will be voluntary and businesses can continue to use current formats, including paper, PDF and other e-invoicing formats. However, the government will reward early adapted with faster VAT returns. The system is expected to become mandatory by 2023.
NOTE: The Polish KSeF system strongly resembles the Italian Sistema di Interscambio – invoice issuance and reception will take place in the platform and an archiving function is available from the system.
Note that the draft law leaves room for more detailed regulation to be added by ministerial decree.
As we reported before, Saudi Arabia is well on its way to mandatory electronic invoicing, only 4 years after the introduction of VAT in the Kingdom.
In autumn of 2020, KSA completed their public consultation regarding the planned e-invoicing regulation, followed by the approval of the GAZT board of directors of the final version of the regulations. This final version has been published in the official Saudi gazette on 4 December 2020 and entered into force immediately on the same day it was published. The regulations contain the framework of the e-invoicing mechanism GAZT is anticipating to apply and the expectation is that businesses in scope of the regulation will be able to comply by 4 December 2021.
While the timeline is very tight, not all details are clear, and it is expected that further details will follow prior to the effective date to help taxpayers comply with the new rules.
This is a tight timeline and businesses in the Kingdom should begin their implementations early in 2021. We see this as a unique opportunity for organisations to leverage digital technology and benefit from more streamlined tax operations.
On 1 January 2021, the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) entered into force in Uganda. Businesses use EFRIS to their issuance of receipts and invoices for tax purposes.
As of 1 January 2021, a person who conducts business and is registered for VAT purposes is required to issue an e-invoice or receipt for any sales transaction regardless of whether the sales transaction is subject to VAT at a standard rate, zero rate or VAT exempt.