Electronic invoice

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This article mainly presents the situation in Germany and Austria . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

An electronic invoice is an electronic document that has the same content and legal consequences as a paper invoice; or a means to simplify accounting processes.

Legal framework

European Union requirements

The guideline 2010/45 / EU provides basic requirements for invoicing to public clients . With regard to electronic invoices, it is supplemented by Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU adopted by the European Parliament on March 11, 2014 . This specifies the member states to oblige contracting authorities and contracting authorities to accept and process electronic invoices. A new European standard for electronic invoicing will then be introduced in Europe: 36 months after the directive has come into force, a semantic data model for electronic invoicing is to be available that harmonizes the various national standards. Implementation will be mandatory after a further 18 months.

The aim is not only to create, send, transmit and receive, but also to fully automate the processing of an invoice. This means that the recipients have to process the invoices automatically and digitally based on structured data.

An electronic invoice must meet the following requirements for input tax deduction :

  1. the invoice recipient must agree to the electronic invoice
  2. it must be issued, sent, received and processed in an electronic format (e.g. .pdf)
  3. human readability must be given
  4. The authenticity of the origin must be guaranteed (e.g. digital signature or internal control procedure)
  5. the integrity of the invoice must be guaranteed
  6. All other invoice features / mandatory information for the VAT deduction must be available

The invoice recipient and the invoice issuer must ensure this independently of one another in their area of ​​disposal.

According to plans by the European Commission, electronic invoicing ("e-invoicing") should become the standard in Europe by 2020.

Germany

Since July 1, 2011, in accordance with the Tax Simplification Act 2011, which implemented Directive 2010/45 / EU, electronic invoices and classic paper invoices have been treated equally in Germany by amending Section 14 of the Sales Tax Act in order to make business processes simpler and more efficient. As a national implementation of Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU, the new § 4a of the E-Government Act came into force in May 2017 , which authorizes the Federal Government to issue regulations on the design of electronic invoices by means of statutory instruments. It made use of this with the E-Invoicing Ordinance (ERechV), which mainly came into force in November 2018 ( § 11 ERechV) and has been applicable to invoicing public clients since it came into force. By referring to the recently announced data exchange standard XRechnung, the ordinance makes detailed specifications on the technical design of electronic invoices.

The implementation deadline for receiving electronic invoices in the XRechnung standard is

  • November 27, 2018 (for the highest federal authorities and the federal constitutional organs),
  • November 27, 2019 (for all other federal authorities, i.e. sub-central public clients, sector clients and concession givers ) and
  • April 18, 2020 for the federal states.

From November 27, 2020, the creation of invoices to these clients in electronic form is mandatory ( Section 3 Paragraph 1 in conjunction with Section 11 Paragraph 3 ERechV).

Austria

In Austria, the regulations have been in effect since January 1, 2013 and were regulated by the Tax Amendment Act 2012. Since January 1, 2014, electronic invoicing at federal agencies has been mandatory in Austria , with the entry into force of the Information and Communication Technology Consolidation Act (IKTKonG), the transmission of e-invoices for goods and services is mandatory from January 1, 2014. This affects all 3300 federal agencies, such as ministries, federal social welfare offices, tax and customs offices, police inspections and all other federal authorities and offices. For the time being, the offices and authorities of the federal states and municipalities as well as federal properties that have been outsourced, such as ÖBB or ASFINAG, are not affected .

Switzerland

In Switzerland, the federal administration has requested e-bills from its suppliers since January 1, 2016.

Companies can send e-bills to private individuals or corporate customers; Customers can then use their online banking account to see an overview of all invoices and approve open invoices for payment.

Hungary

In Hungary , the National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) has defined a format for electronic invoices. It is used in the online invoice (Online Számla). From July 1, 2018, all Hungarian companies must send all invoices with a tax amount of 100,000 forints or more to NAV immediately after completion in computer systems using a web service. Invoices issued by hand must be entered in a web portal within 5 days and transmitted in this way.

Consent Requirement

The consent is not tied to any particular form. So z. For example, the use of e-bills can be included in the terms and conditions, but “tacit approval through actual practice” or “ implied consent” is sufficient .

Electronic format

It is irrelevant whether it is z. B. is a portable document format or the e-bill is available as an image (.jpg, .gif, .bmp, ...). It is also irrelevant whether the invoice was sent by e-mail or as a download from a server. It only needs to be issued and transmitted or received electronically. The statutory retention periods must be adhered to (in Germany according to § 14b UStG 10 years, in Austria 7 years).

In Germany, invoices received by standard fax are considered paper invoices, while invoices received by computer fax or fax server are considered electronic invoices.

In Austria, invoices sent by fax are considered electronic invoices, regardless of the fax technology used.

Electronic invoices can be sent to the federal government in different ways; the standard specification is a form to be filled out manually via the entrepreneur service portal (USP). In addition, it is possible to upload structured invoices in the ebInterface, the use of web service interfaces and the use of external service providers are permitted.

Human readability

For people, readability means comprehensible and understandable content.

Authenticity of origin and integrity

The authenticity of the origin and the integrity of the content can be guaranteed by:

  • a qualified electronic signature i. S. d. Signature law
  • by means of electronic data exchange (e.g. EDI process)
  • using PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) procedure
  • an in-house control procedure with which one can trace every entry back to its source in order to check its accuracy.

Invoice features / mandatory information

As with the paper invoice, all mandatory information on an invoice must be complied with.

Associations and Organizations

Association electronic invoice

In Germany, those interested in the introduction of electronic invoices have joined forces in the Electronic Invoice Association (VeR). Members are mainly software providers, consulting firms and other companies. Its goals include a. the increase in acceptance, market transparency and security of electronic invoices and the definition of quality standards for participating companies (technical, content, legal, operation) and compliance with these standards. The association's aim is for up to 70% of all invoices to be exchanged electronically between companies by 2020.

Forum electronic invoice Germany (FeRD)

FeRD is the national platform of associations, ministries and companies for the promotion of electronic invoices in Germany. The forum was held on March 31, 2010 in Berlin with the participation of various federal and state ministries, the Federal Chancellery (Secretariat of the National Regulatory Control Council, Bureau Reduction Office) as well as the leading associations of the economy, some professional associations under the umbrella of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Decision of the German Bundestag sponsored AWV - Working Group for Economic Administration e. V. founded. In a development partnership with the Federal Office of Administration , MACH AG is currently piloting the e-bill. Both partners work closely with FeRD, which finally specified a uniform data format for Germany in June 2014 ( ZUGFeRD format).

Austriapro

In Austria, which promotes Commerce the eBilling over AUSTRIAPRO, the Association for the promotion of electronic data transmission in commercial transactions. The standards for the ebInterface are defined here. The aim is to use electronic invoices not only for the federal government, but also between companies. Up to now, a large number of current invoice software packages can output invoices in the defined XML format; the import of these files into the system is not yet widely possible.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Council Directive 2010/45 / EU of July 13, 2010 amending Directive 2006/112 / EC on the common VAT system with regard to invoicing regulations
  2. ↑ Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 16, 2014 on electronic invoicing for public contracts
  3. ↑ EU Protocol. In: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ . EU Parliament, accessed on March 30, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Markus Hornburg: E-bill: Germany is not keeping up with the pace. In: computerwoche.de. April 24, 2018, accessed December 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Text and amendments to the Tax Simplification Act 2011
  6. ↑ Directive 2010/45 / EU
  7. ↑ Law implementing Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement. In: Federal Law Gazette 2017 Part I No. 19, published in Bonn on April 10, 2017. Accessed on December 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ E-Invoicing Ordinance - ERechV
  9. ↑ BAnz AT 10.10.2017 B1
  10. ↑ DIRECTIVE 2014/55 / ​​EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 16, 2014 on electronic invoicing for public contracts. Official Journal of the European Union, accessed on June 10, 2019 . On April 17, 2020, the 30 month period after the publication of the European standard ends.
  11. ↑ Entry into force of the E-Invoicing Ordinance (E-Rech-VO) for federal agencies: see § 11 E-Rech-VO, Ordinance on Electronic Invoicing in Federal Public Procurement (E-Invoicing Ordinance - E-Rech-VO ). (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior, accessed on March 23, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Provision for e-billing (PDF) IKTKonG (see section 2)
  13. ↑ Legal basis ERB. Federal / Austria e-bill
  14. ↑ List of federal agencies
  15. ↑ e-bill.admin.ch
  16. ↑ eBill - send and pay bills digitally. In: ebill.ch. Accessed December 1, 2019 .
  17. ^ Nicole Roos: E-Banking: E-Bill with teething problems. In: srf.ch. February 22, 2019, accessed December 1, 2019 .
  18. ↑ The system for online invoices , on the NAV homepage
  19. ↑ Amendment of the sales tax application decree, section 14.4, paragraph 2 (PDF) sales tax; Simplification of electronic invoicing as of July 1, 2011 through the Tax Simplification Act 2011
  20. ↑ UStR 2000 margin no. 1564c , Guideline of the BMF VAT guidelines 2000 margin number 1564c term electronic invoice
  21. ↑ E-bill form. Entrepreneur service portal Austria
  22. ↑ ebInterface WKO: wko.at ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wko.at
  23. ↑ E-bill - ERB-Bund ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Electronic billing - new regulation and billing in Austria @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.woax-it.com
  24. ^ Organization - Association of Electronic Invoices (VeR). In: verband-e-rechnung.org. Electronic Invoice Association (VeR), accessed on June 20, 2015 .
  25. ↑ website. In: ferd-net.de. AWV - Working Group for Economic Administration e. V., accessed on March 27, 2014 .
  26. ↑ Portrait. (PDF) In: mach.de. ZUGFeRD, BVA and MACH AG, accessed on March 27, 2014 .
  27. ↑ Homepage Austriapro
  28. ↑ Provider of software with an interface to ebInterface