Standard Audit File - Tax

The Standard Audit File - Tax ( SAF-T ) is a specification for a computer-readable file that transfers accounting data from the original accounting system into a predefined format derived from Extensible Markup Language (XML) and makes it available for tax authorities for field audits .

SAF-T was proposed in May 2005 under the leadership of the Tax Compliance Sub-Group in the Forum on Tax Administration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This first version (1.0) was based on entries that can be found in a general ledger together with the master data of the suppliers and customers of a commercial enterprise, the invoice details, orders, payments and other postings made. A revised version (2.0) was available in 2010 as an international standard for implementation by national bodies.

Data content

A SAF-T file contains the following information:

Ledger

Journals

requirements

Customer master data

bills

Payments (incoming and outgoing)

liabilities

Supplier master data

bills

Payments (incoming and outgoing)

Stocks (fixed assets)

Plant master

Depreciation and revaluation

Stocks (current assets)

Article master

Material movements

Implementation of the directive

This specification has been implemented in national law in the following countries, for example:

France French companies can already submit their documents electronically for checking in SAF-T format.
Luxembourg (December 19, 2008) Fichier d'Audit Informatisé AED (FAIA)
Norway (August 2016): Norway plans to introduce SAF-T for commercial organizations from January 1, 2017. This also includes a chart of accounts that cannot be deviated from.
Austria (March 20, 2009): The Standard Audit File - Tax is permitted as a format for the electronic transfer of data. The name is Standard Audit File-Tax_AT . Compared to the OECD format, the format has even been expanded to include its own facts, such as asset accounting fields .
Portugal :
Singapore recommends companies to use the SAF-T standards such as the chart of accounts.

The introduction of SAF-T is being discussed in Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

In other countries, flat file procedures are used instead of the voluminous SAF-T procedure, including the USA , Switzerland , the Netherlands , France , Poland and other EU countries.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Bernd Nowack, Digital Tax Audit Abroad ; Retrieved October 19, 2015.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Standard Audit File for Luxembourg VAT purposes ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Ernest & Young website; accessed on May 21, 2015.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Guidance for the Standard Audit File - Tax Version 2.0 of the Forum on Tax Administration of the OECD

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Deliver your data on time and in the right format ; Information / advertising from Ernst & Young on its own website; Retrieved June 7, 2016.

^ Publication of the amendment to the law in the Luxembourg Official Journal .