Compliance Services

Japan will introduce a new qualified invoice regime for Japanese Consumption Tax (JCT) with effect from 1 October 2023. This will bring the JCT regime more closely in line with European-style VAT regimes, and in order to claim input tax credit, the purchaser will be required to retain ‘qualified invoices’ issued by ‘qualified invoice issuers’. Only taxable persons are eligible to register as qualified invoice issuers, and cannot be JCT exempt enterprises (i.e. they cannot be exempt from the obligation to file a JCT return and remit JCT). Unlike the current system, this requirement applies even if the enterprise’s taxable sales for the base period are JPY 10 million or less. Registration to become a qualified invoice issuer opens on 1 October 2021.

As from 2023 new legal e-ordering requirements for public authorities and institutions will become applicable.

As a consequence suppliers will be required to be able to receive e-orders and have e-catalogs (which will comply with the new Peppol standard) on the covered purchasing categories. A report regarding these requirements is scheduled to be sent out for consultation before the Summer holidays.

The Tax Authorities have announced that a new VAT return will be introduced that will replace the current, manual VAT return, effective 1^st January 2022. The new VAT return will be based on the SAF-T codes and will include approximately 30 boxes as opposed to the 19 boxes in the current VAT return. The Norwegian Tax authorities aim for a direct transfer from the company’s accounting system to altinn. It will however still be possible to fill out and submit the VAT return manually as per the current process.

The Greek government have delayed mandatory invoice registration for ALL businesses through their myDATA platform. The new date floated for mandatory invoice registration through the myDATA platform is Autumn (anticipated October).

Decree No.125 of 2021 was published by the Egyptian Ministry of Finance. As a result of this decree, businesses will not be able to deduct VAT on a paper invoice, unless the supplier is not yet required to apply e-invoicing at the time of supply as from January 2022.

The introduction of Order 72/2021-XII of the State Secretary of Tax Affairs (SEAAF) dated 10 March 2021, has extended from 31 March to 30 June 2021 the term for acceptance for tax purposes of invoices in PDF format as electronic invoices.

Oman has introduced VAT from 16^th April 2021. VAT has been set at 5% on goods and services. Certain services will be taxed at zero-rated VAT, and others exempted.

The requirement for businesses to register for VAT will depend on business turnover, which has been outlined by the Sultanate of Oman.

To combat tax evasion and fraud, the Portuguese Tax Authorities have defined some rules that billing systems must fulfil to ensure the non-violation of billing data once it is registered.

This means that only billing systems that fulfil the requirements defined in law and which are certified by the PTA can be used.

This will be effective from 1^st July 2021. These new measures will also apply to non-resident businesses that are registered for VAT in Portugal with a turnover exceeding 50,000 Euros in the calendar year 2020. This means that these entities are required to use exclusively billing systems certified by the PTA for issuing invoices and other relevant tax documents.

There are a few options to business how to go about this- including choosing to have their own software certified, using third-party pre-certified software or outsourcing the process.

In light of the severity of the Covid-10 pandemic in India, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has introduced several compliance reliefs for taxpayers.

These include the following:

• There will be no late fees for delayed filing of GSTR-3B of March/April, up to 15 days and 30 days from the original due date for Taxpayers with turnover more than INR 5 Crores and up to INR 5 Crores respectively. In addition to this, for the quarter ending 31 March 2021, no late fees will be charged if GSTR-3B is filed within 30 days from the original due date.
• The due date to file GSTR-4 is extended to 31 May 2021.
• The due date to file ITC-04 is extended to 31 May 2021 (for the quarter: January-March 2021).
• The due date to file GSTR-1 for April 2021 is extended to 26 May 2021 and for IFF the due date is extended to 28 May 2021.
• Due date for all other proceedings, asset order, etc., whose last date of completion falls between 15 April to 30 May is extended to 31 May 2021.

Click here to learn more about the Indian mandate.

The VAT rate reduction from 8% to 1% for overnight accommodation services has been extended until 30 June 2021.