On 15 March this year, the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers gave its favourable opinion on a bill concerning amendments to the VAT Act and certain other acts in connection with the introduction of a mandatory National e-Invoicing System (KSeF). Work is currently underway in the legal committee of the Government Legislation Centre.
One of the most important changes in the new bill is the postponement of the entry into force of the amendment from 1 January 2024 to 1 July 2024. Similarly, the deadline for the implementation of the KSeF by taxpayers exempt from VAT based on their turnover or type of business activity has been extended by an additional six months – the KSeF will be obligatory for them from 1 January 2025.
The proposed changes are meant to introduce a general obligation to use the National e-Invoicing System, while also modifying certain solutions and adding other such as digitalisation of binding information (e-WIS).
List of the key tax solutions provided for in the bill
Cash register invoices and NIP (tax identification number) receipts
Cash register invoices will be allowed in their current form until 31 December 2024, as will receipts with NIP, which will be recognised as simplified invoices until then.
Penalties for non-compliance with KSeF obligations – deferred and mitigated
The new bill also provides for more lenient sanctions for taxable persons who fail to comply with their KSeF obligations. In accordance with the bill, taxable persons who:
- Fail to issue an invoice using KSeF
- Issue an invoice not in accordance with the template provided
- Fail to send an invoice to KSeF on time
– may be subject to a fine of up to 100 % of the amount of tax shown on the invoice issued outside the KSeF, and, in the case of an invoice without any tax shown, a fine of up to 18.7 % of the total amount due shown on such invoice issued outside the KSeF.
The new sanctions will apply from 1 January 2025.
Invoices excluded from the KSeF system
Not all invoices will fall under the KSeF regime. The obligation to issue structured invoices will not apply to:
- Invoices issued by foreign entities (not having a place of establishment of their business or a fixed establishment in Poland)
- Invoices issued by taxable persons without a place of establishment of business in Poland, who have a fixed place of business in Poland, with this fixed place of business not being involved in the supply of goods or services for which the invoice is issued
- Invoices documenting activities for the benefit of private individuals not engaged in business activity (B2C consumer invoices)
- Invoices issued under OSS and IOSS procedures
- Tickets serving as invoices (including toll motorway receipts)
Solutions in the event of a KSeF failure
The proposed changes provide new solutions to enable the issuing of invoices during problems of accessibility to KSeF on the side of the taxable person, or inaccessibility related to the system.
Taxable persons are required to send or make available invoices issued during this period to the recipient in a manner agreed with the recipient, which means delivering a paper or electronic invoice to the purchaser, as preferred by the purchaser (who may also choose to receive the invoice in the KSeF).
Taxable persons must send the invoices issued offline to the KSeF no later than the next business day after the date on which the invoices were issued, in order to be assigned a KSeF number. They must also mark such invoices so as to enable verification of the data contained therein.
For an invoice issued during a breakdown, the date indicated by the taxable person on the invoice is deemed to be the date of issue, while the date of the actual receipt of such invoice by the purchaser is deemed to be the date of receipt.
Verification of invoices by QR code
Taxable persons will be required to mark each e-invoice with a QR verification code. By means of this code, the KSeF will provide a functionality to verify whether an invoice has been issued in the KSeF and whether the data it contains is correct.
E-invoices should be marked with a QR verification code every time they are visualised.
Having scanned the QR code, taxable persons will be able to quickly and easily verify invoices against their original KSeF data.
Faster VAT refunds
The proposed solution provides for the elimination of the 60-day time limit for VAT refunds, to be replaced by a shorter 40-day standard time limit for the refund of the excess of input VAT over output VAT.
Digitalisation of binding information (e-WIS)
WIS, i.e. binding rate information, will become completely digitalised. WIS is issued by the Director of the National Revenue Information (KIS) in respect of determining the appropriate VAT rate according to the CN (Combined Nomenclature) classification for goods or PKWiU (Polish Classification of Goods and Services, Polska Klasyfikacja Wyrobów i Usług) for services, and obliges tax offices to respect it for 5 years from its issuance.
The bill also provides for the implementation of exclusively electronic handling of binding information such as: WIT (binding tariff information), WIP (binding origin information), WIA (binding excise information), and WIS (binding rate information) – through the expansion and adjustment of the IT systems of the National Revenue Administration – KAS already in place (such as e-Urząd Skarbowy (e-Tax Office), PUESC (Fiscal and Customs Electronic Services Platform, Platforma Usług Elektronicznych Skarbowo-Celnych)).
The proposed solutions are based on extending the potential of the KAS tools already in operation and do not require any technological implementation for taxpayers.
New deadlines
The deadline for the mandatory implementation of KSeF for businesses has been postponed. The Ministry of Finance has postponed the effective date for mandatory electronic invoicing to 1 July 2024, while for taxable persons exempt from VAT– to 1 January 2025.
Other changes
Adjustment notes (issued against structured invoices and in other forms) will be abolished.
The obligation to issue structured invoices and the rules for issuing such invoices introduced by the VAT Act for suppliers or service providers, will also apply to invoices issued in the name and on behalf of such taxable persons. This applies to so-called self-invoicing and contractual invoicing, e.g. under a contract for the provision of invoicing services. The possibility of self-invoicing should however still be confirmed in a contract concluded between the two entities.
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