Compliance Services

The National Forum for Electronic Invoicing and Electronic Public Procurement (FNFE-MPE) and the Forum Elektronische Rechnung Deutschland (FeRD) have published an updated version of the Factur-X 1.0.06/ZuGFeRD 2.2.

Technically, these are identical hybrid formats (PDF invoices with embedded XML). Therefore, the technical specifications are now combined in one uniform document, and are available in English, German and French.

The links can be found as follows:

https://fnfe-mpe.org/factur-x/factur-x-et-zugferd-2-2/
https://fnfe-mpe.org/factur-x

Several countries have adopted EU legislations into their own respective domestic tax codes and regulations. Such integrations serve a dual purpose: not only are domestic tax regulations aligned with EU regulations, but these allow the opportunity to provide greater harmonisation with the wider EU community.

The French Senate has adopted a draft bill 559 to this effect.

Amongst the provisions in this bill include the proposal for additional consumption taxes on electricity and energy.

Crucially, France also intends to implement the requirements relating to the EU’s shared VAT system into its own domestic tax legislation.

The French Tax Authorities have published an updated version of the external specifications on their website.

These specifications include new use cases and the service mode of the public billing portal is developed.

It is expected that further work will be undertaken on the specifications, to be completed in the summer.

Further information can be found here.

It is proposed that the French tax authorities will offer a free archiving service to all taxable persons using the French National Portal (PPF) for the issuance / receipt of invoices following the first-phase introduction of the e-invoicing and e-reporting obligations in July 2024.

It is expected that the Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery will provide a definitive steer on this in due course.

Romania had previously exempted all imports of goods required to combat Covid-19 from the obligation to charge VAT. This was due to expire last year.

However, Romania has sought permission from the European Commission to extend this facility, which has now been granted.

As such, the draft order prepared by the Ministry of Finance extends the VAT exemption of imports for goods required to combat Covid-19 until 30 June 2022.

Globally, we have seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has overhauled the way countries have assessed and deployed fiscal measures considering growing inflation and hardship. We can expect to see a direct impact on fiscal measures countries deploy considering recent events in Ukraine.

Donations of goods and services to persons affected by the armed conflict in Ukraine are to be free of VAT in Romania. We can expect to see bordering countries deploy similar measures.

Romania is further extending the scope of taxpayers subject to fiscal obligations as we approach the deadline of 1st July 2022 for mandatory reporting of ‘high risk fiscal products’ through the national e-invoicing system. In line with other government mandates, a primary objective of this is for tax authorities to have greater visibility over transactions and thus reduce the VAT gap.

Romania has now honed in on tax owed to the state budget for the transport of goods specifically with a high fiscal risk; this has been identified as an area of potential exploitation, and the Romanian government is keen to reduce the tax gap in relation to this. To this effect, the Romanian government has published a draft Emergency Ordinance for the establishment of the National Transport Monitoring System of goods with high fiscal risk.

If this proposal is adopted, it will become optional from 1 April 2022 and mandatory as of 1st July 2022- therefore following the same timeframes as the reporting of high risk fiscal products to the national e-invoicing system.

The following groups that trade goods with high risk are anticipated to be in scope:
· the consignee named on the import customs declaration or the consignor named on the export customs declaration, for import/export cases;
· the beneficiary from Romania in cases of local transactions or intra-Community supplies of high tax risk goods;
· the supplier from Romania in cases of local transactions or intra-Community supplies of high tax risk goods;
· the warehouse administrator in case of the high tax risk goods which are subject to intra-Community transactions in transit, both for the goods unloaded in Romania for storage purposes or for the purposes of forming a new transport of one or many batches of goods, or for the goods loaded after storage or after a new local transport of goods was formed for one or many batches of the goods.

Tungsten Network will monitor developments regarding when this draft emergency Ordinance will be approved.

Virtual Private Space (VPS) becomes mandatory for Romanian taxpayers to enrol as of 1st March 2022.
VPS is the electronic system which allows the exchange of documents between taxpayers and government administrations.

At the start of the year, we communicated that Romania would mandate e-invoicing for B2B transactions which related to ‘high risk fiscal products’. This obligation now extends to retail stores in Romania.
This means that if customers request invoices, these will now have to be issued through the RO e-Factura system, if the transaction involves a high-risk fiscal product.
The extension of taxpayers now subject to the mandatory e-invoicing requirement relating to high-risk fiscal products demonstrate Romania’s motivation to oversee more tax transactions and reduce tax fraud further in the country.

Poland has now received the derogation from the European Commission to mandate e-invoicing in the country.
The derogation is required by each EU Member State if they wish to mandate e-invoicing in their respective country, as formal permission is needed to deviate from the right to receive an invoice in paper format (as per the EU Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006).
This effectively means that Poland can now implement mandatory e-invoicing in the country.
E-invoicing in Poland is expected to be enforced from April 2023. A firm date has not yet been set.
Tungsten Network will communicate when a firmer date is communicated.