Issuing invoices for receipts in 2020 – Selected issues

The common practice of issuing invoices for receipts, although it would seem simple, is still controversial among both those who mainly deal with consumer turnover and those who sell to other entrepreneurs.

For example, can an invoice be issued for a fiscal receipt that is considered to be a simplified invoice because of the fulfilment of statutory conditions?

Controversy did not stop due to the amendment of the legislation from 1 January 2020, Whereas it must be admitted that new regulations require more caution on taxpayers in this respect. This publication aims to present selected technical and legal aspects concerning the issue of receipt invoices.

1. General provisions relating to the issue of receipt invoices

Sales to natural persons not engaged in economic activities and to flat-rate farmers are in principle not subject to invoice documentation. This conclusion is based on content Article 106b(1)(1) with regard to Article 106b(3) Act on 11 March 2004 on tax on goods and services 1 (Next the VAT Act).

The provision requires the taxable person to issue an invoice documenting the sale to another taxable person, value added tax or tax of a similar nature or to a non-taxable legal person (hereinafter: professional turnover).

Sales to non-business individuals and flat-rate farmers are, in principle, subject to registration by the fiscal cash register, as is apparent from Article 111(1) the VAT Act (Further: consumer turnover). Entrepreneurs who have been subject to registration must document sales in receipt.

Sales to natural persons who are not traders and flat-rate farmers are generally not subject to compulsory invoice documentation (hereinafter: consumer turnover) 2 . Of course, the rules do not prevent the taxable person from doing activities taxing non-taxable individuals from documenting them by invoices 3 .

There are many reasons—legal and non-legal—for such a state of affairs.

The most common practice is the fact that a taxable person exempt from the obligation to register with a register office (hereinafter: a cash register) uses an invoice document to demonstrate sales in the register. Another example is that when a taxable person makes mail order sales – knowing the buyer’s data – one of the parties performs its registration obligation on the fiscal cash register, and from second, without waiting for a potential demand from the buyer, immediately sends an invoice to him.

Thus, despite the informal breakdown into so-called professional turnover (B2B) and consumer turnover (B2C), there are situations where:

• • the issue of an invoice to another taxpayer (entrepreneur) when the sale was previously included in the cash register and confirmed by a receipt,
• • the issue of an invoice to a natural person not engaged in business activity, both when the sale was previously confirmed by a receipt and when the taxable person making the sale is exempt from such an obligation.
• 2. Issue of receipt invoice without original receipt

As per content Article 106h(1) the VAT Act, in principle, where the invoice relates to a sale registered using a register office, a receipt documenting that sale shall be attached to the copy of the invoice remaining with the taxable person. This provision implies a formal obligation to attach a receipt to a copy of the invoice. In such a situation, the buyer is to have an invoice or receipt. The entrepreneur does not need to have a receipt under an invoice issued to his client when the receipt does not give to the buyer because:

• • the sale is documented by an invoice issued from the fiscal cash register,
• • and the sales value and the amount of tax due were recorded in the daily fiscal report (Article 106h(2) the VAT Act).

Where an invoice in electronic form concerns a sale registered using a register office, the taxable person shall leave a receipt in the documentation for that sale with the particulars identifying that invoice (Article 106h(3) the VAT Act).

The above provisions therefore introduce an obligation to establish an audit trail — the need to link the receipt with the invoice in order to prove to which specific sales these documents relate. The tax due by sales must be included in the sales record only once. The aim is to avoid double registration of the same sales.

In the professional trade, the basis for recording data in the records is in principle an invoice, and in the consumer trade it may be both an invoice and a report from the fiscal cash register (more broadly, in the rest of the publication).

It is necessary to clearly identify the invoiced transaction as one that has already been recorded on the register office.

When issuing an invoice to a receipt takes place after some time, the question arises whether the purchaser is always obliged to give the original receipt to the seller in order to receive the invoice? It appears that this situation does not exclude the possibility of issuing an invoice, as the receipt is not the only document confirming the transaction.

The condition is the ability to verify and identify the transaction submitted by the client. If the buyer does not have a receipt for various reasons (lost, destroyed, faded thermal paper), but has another document confirming the sale (e.g.

confirmation of the transfer, printout from the card terminal), he may request an invoice to be issued.

In such a situation, depending on the type of fiscal cash register used, the seller should identify the transaction on the basis of a copy of the receipt (in the case of an increasingly rarely used fiscal cash register with a paper record of a roll copy) or sales record (in the case of an electronic copy or online cash register).

On the basis of the above documents, the taxable person is obliged to issue an invoice to the receipt, the original of which transmits to the customer, and the copy together with all documents confirming the transaction is kept in the company documentation.

As far as possible, it is also worth having a written statement from the customer in which he gives his personal data (required for the issuing of an invoice) and indicates the reasons why the seller is unable to provide the receipt from the register office.

The above interpretation is confirmed by the tax authorities, because although the rule is that the invoice documenting the sale recorded on the fiscal cashier is physically accompanied by a receipt, the seller is also obliged to issue an invoice made on request by the buyer in the manner in question under Article 106b(3) the VAT Act, also when the latter does not have such receipt 4 .

In one of the interpretation reads: ‘(...) it is permissible to issue a VAT invoice without refund of the receipt in case of other evidence for the sale of goods or services. (...) However, it cannot be assumed that the issuing of VAT invoices without a receipt from the purchaser will become a general procedure for the taxpayer.

Therefore, in principle, the printing of a copy of the receipt cannot replace the cash-issued fiscal receipt and cannot be the basis for recognition of the right to issue an invoice. (...) on the basis of the information provided by the customer (e.g.

dates, hours, amounts of transactions, the end of the card number which the customer has paid for the transaction, as well as proof of receipt of the amount from his bank account), by generating day-to-day transaction statements informing about each transaction on a given day, it is possible to verify the exact time and quantity of diesel taken.

In addition, reports on each payment transaction executed on a given day are produced, indicating the time of refuelling, the quantity of diesel sold, the amount of the transaction and the final payment card number.

On this basis, the Company, using the archiving program, is able to generate a copy of the receipt, which then joins the copy of the invoice issued.

Therefore, in the situation requested when the receipt was lost or not printed due to the failure of the device, the Company acted properly by issuing invoices on the basis of a copy of the receipts, after prior verification and confirmation of information provided by the customers concerning the purchase of diesel’ 5 .

What is worth noting, this possibility applies both to the issue of invoices in consumer and professional trade, with the exception that from 1 January 2020, according to content Article 106h(5), in the case of sales recorded using a register office confirmed by a fiscal receipt, an invoice to the taxable person or a value added tax shall be issued only if the receipt confirming that sale contains the number by which the purchaser of the goods or services is identified for tax or value added tax purposes.

3. Several invoices to one receipt — one invoice to several receipts

The provisions do not explicitly specify whether one receipt must be assigned to one invoices. Practice allows both the possibility of issuing several invoices to one receipt as well as display one invoices for a few receipts.

Article 106h(1) the VAT Act, which relates to the issuing of invoices to receipts, it follows that ‘where the invoice relates to sales recorded using a register office, a copy of the invoice remaining with the taxable person shall be accompanied by a receipt documenting these sales’.

The tax authorities do not object to such practice, but the use of the terms "in fact" and "inventory receipt" in a single number should force some reflection.

In the assessment of the tax authorities, the issue concerns mainly the technical aspects which allow proper sales in the records and evidence.

How We Read In one of interpretation: ‘(...) there are no legal obstacles to the issue in the case under consideration two or more invoices confirming the sale of the various documented goods one a fiscal receipt.

According to the request, the turnover resulting from the sale and the tax due therefrom were recorded on the fiscal cashier by the Applicant in a timely and correct manner.

Where a customer purchasing different goods whose sales have been recorded on one receipts, wants to receive more invoices and these invoices will not include the same goods, there are no obstacles to the Party issuing two or more invoices.

For evidence purposes, the applicant should, on the VAT invoices issued, include an endorsement containing the fiscal receipt number to which the invoice or invoice has been issued.’ 6 .

This is not the result of any provision, but according to the above interpretation, the authorities require, for evidence purposes, an appropriate endorsement to be included on invoices in order to be able to link all documents in a complete and complementary manner. Just as the exhibition is allowed one invoices to document several taxable activities (the so-called aggregate invoice) 7 , if, for each of these operations, the invoice is issued within the time limit and contains relevant information 8 , The tax authorities also allow issuing one invoices to several receipts, which depends on the goodwill of the seller.

In the personal interpretation of the Director of KIS from 12 June 2018 9 says that “(...) Article 106i The laws also cover those invoices where more than one a transaction with a counterparty in a given month, with specific operations for which under Article 106i The VAT Act provides for separate time limits for the issuing of invoices, which should also be taken into account when issuing the collective invoice. Furthermore, it should also be borne in mind that the issuing of collective invoices is the right of the seller and is therefore not required to issue a collective invoice, even at the buyer's request.’

In an individual interpretation of 4 December 2015 10 The Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw confirmed the possibility of issuing collective invoices for the client, who will request an invoice documenting the sale made and registered at the fiscal cash register in a given month, of course including the record Article 106e(106i) the VAT Act laying down the formal conditions to be met by invoices.

That's why the question comes up. If one the invoice may cover several transactions in favour of one counterparty and confirmed receipts for given period, and not the sales cleared during the settlement periods, is the date of sale (the item in question) under Article 106e(1)(6) the VAT Act Should they be on the invoice?

In this regard, the Director of the Tax Chamber in Bydgoszcz commented in an individual interpretation from 17 December 2014 11 , who stressed that the mandatory element of each invoice is, inter alia, the date on which the goods or services were delivered or terminated or the date on which payment was received, where it was determined and is different from the date on which the invoice was issued.

From the content of that provision, the Authority has derived the obligation of the issuer of the aggregate invoice to several receipts to show on such a document the dates of individual deliveries of goods.

The indication on this invoice only the month and year of delivery is not correct. The sale confirmed by such a document does not bear continuous sales and is not settled during fixed settlement periods.

1. Can invoices be requested for a receipt that is considered to be a so-called simplified invoice?

As per content Article 106e(5)(3) the VAT Act, where the total amount of the claim does not exceed 450 PLN either 100 EUR, if this amount is specified in euro, the invoice need not contain specified data Under section 1 point 3 (name and address of the buyer) concerning the buyer and particulars Under section 1 points 8 and 9 and 11-14 (the measure and quantity of goods or the range of services rendered, the net unit price, the net sales value, the tax rate, the sum of the net sales value, the amount of the tax on the total net sales value) provided that it contains data to determine the tax amount for each tax rate.

This provision thus established a new instrument for documenting sales, the so-called simplified invoice. It should be noted that the possibility of issuing simplified invoices is limited only to domestic sales (cf. Article 106e(6) the VAT Act).

It is important for further consideration to conclude that this provision was intended to simplify the documenting of sales for the purposes of goods and services tax. The simplified invoice shall be considered, for example, a receipt documenting sales to the amount 450 PLN, on which the buyer's NIP appears.

And as only a few years ago, such receipts were rather rare (the taxpayer supplied fiscal cash registers equipped with this module, mainly to speed up the documentation process), it is now, due to the amendment of the regulations, that possibility is becoming increasingly common.

For the record, from 1 January 2020, according to content Article 106h.

section 5 the VAT Act, in the case of sales recorded using a register office confirmed by a fiscal receipt, an invoice to the taxable person or a value added tax shall be issued only if the receipt confirming that sale contains the number by which the purchaser of the goods or services is identified for tax or value added tax purposes.

The question therefore arises. Can the purchaser, the VAT taxable person, require the seller to issue an invoice when he has received a fiscal receipt from the NIP of the buyer, which, in view of the amount, is considered a simplified invoice? The answer should be yes.

First of all, it is important to start by saying that the wording of this provision Article 106e(5)(3) the VAT Act it does not appear that the invoice is considered a fiscal receipt from the NIP documenting the sale to the amount 450 PLN. This provision allows an invoice to be issued in which the buyer’s data is kept to a minimum.

Doubts are given by the wording of the provision Article 106h(1) in conjunction with section 4 the VAT Act For the record, according to section 1, where the invoice relates to sales registered using a register office, a copy of the invoice remaining with the taxable person shall be accompanied by a receipt documenting that sale.

However, according to the content Article 106h(4) the VAT Act, recipe section 1 shall not apply where the receipt has been considered to be an invoice (sic!) issued in accordance with Article 106e(5)(3). And yes, with one recipe pages Article 106h(1) the VAT Act clearly distinguishes the invoice from the receipt as two separate documents.

On the other hand, Article 106h(4) the VAT Act provides that ‘the receipt has been considered to be an invoice issued in accordance with Article 106e(5)(3) the VAT Act”, However, the latter provision does not provide that the receipt is considered to be an invoice under certain circumstances.

In addition to the question of the nature of linguistic interpretation, the purpose of the provision was to simplify the recording of sales.

However, such simplification cannot deprive second parties to the possibility of receiving an invoice with all the data they should in principle contain in accordance with Article 106e(1), and in certain cases, at his request, additional information. There may be many reasons for this:

• the buyer may not wish to receive a receipt printed on unstable thermal paper (depending on the quality of the paper and fiscal device, the invoice data will disappear sooner or later),
• the buyer wishes invoices which will contain the full details of the buyer, and furthermore, due to the management policy, asks the seller to provide additional indications identifying the entity which is the consignee of the goods or services. This may be the case, for example, for a multi-company or branch company. The same may apply to local government units or budget facilities.

If the bill allows for more— i.e. issuing an invoice to the NIP receipt to the buyer documenting the sale of any value (from 1 January 2020 The NIP of a receipt buyer is a legal requirement), it should allow less – i.e. issuing an invoice to the buyer’s NIP receipt where the amount per receipt does not exceed the value 450 PLN. In such situations, the risk of exposure cannot be mentioned either. two invoices documenting the same sale, which would, of course, have negative consequences under the rules.

Another opinion is that the Ministry of Finance, which seems not to distinguish between the situation where the rules give the possibility to issue simplified invoices, and the situation where the seller also has an alternative possibility to issue full invoices to such receipts.

And this, in turn, should be decided by the buyer, not the goodwill of the seller.

In one of the judgments, the court held that: ‘the obligation to issue a receipt to the buyer with a NIP number and resulting from Article 106(4) The VAT Act requires the buyer to issue a so-called full VAT invoice on request, which is independent of each other.

A natural person who does not carry out business activity - the purchaser may request both the full VAT invoice and the receipt with the NIP number. It is the buyer who decides whether he wants to receive a VAT invoice or a fiscal receipt or both.

The seller shall not be entitled to refuse to issue them or to issue a document other than that requested by the purchaser.” 12 .

In turn In one “ VAT invoice and fiscal receipt are two separate documents with strict and distinct content; they are in principle intended to document trading in other situations.

The convergence of the data in the fiscal receipt and the invoice does not justify the conclusion that the taxable person-seller may choose a document which will be issued to a natural person who does not engage in the activity, contrary to the obligation which has been clearly defined in the applicable law’ 13 .

With regard to the lack of criminal and tax liability, the same court confirmed that: “It is also not possible to share the arguments of the author of the cassation complaint showing that in the case of a receipt with a NIP number and a VAT invoice The applicant is subject to criminal liability on grounds of issue two accounting documents, which exist in another form, relating to the same legal activity.

The Supreme Administrative Court does not see irregularities in the situation where the taxable person issues a fiscal receipt and a VAT invoice at the buyer's request. When issuing a receipt and a VAT invoice to the purchaser, the taxable person shall not issue two invoices’.

5. Conclusion

The analysis of only a few problematic issues related to the issue of invoices for fiscal receipts shows one the basic conclusion. Lack of clear regulation leads to great freedom of interpretation. The ruling which is correct is one.

Another issue is the daily practice and cases of refusal by sellers to issue invoices of full content, because “the taxpayer has already received an invoice”. Given the value of the transaction, no one wants to settle such disputes in court.

The issue of a general interpretation by the Ministry of Finance is a necessary minimum, which will provide a comprehensive interpretation of the rules.

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1 i.e. Journal of Laws of 2020, item 106.

2 The exception concerns, for example, the documentation of the so-called mail order sales from the territory of the country or the intra-Community supply of a new means of transport, cf. Article 106b(1)(2-3) the VAT Act

3 Cf. J. Zubrzycki, lexicon VAT. T. I, Oficyna Wydawnictwo UNIMEX, Wrocław 2017, p. 288.

4 Cf. interpretation of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw from 25 January 2013, reference no. No IPPP2/443-1165/12-2/KOM.

5 Interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Poznań with 12 January 2016, reference no. No ILPP2/4512-1-781/15-4/MN.

6 Individual interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Warsaw 4 March 2014, reference no. IPPP2/443-1355/13-2/RR.

7 The possibility of issuing aggregate invoices results from the provisions governing timely issuing of invoices and is an implementation Article 223 Directive 2006/112 to 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (Official Journal of the European Union L, No. 347, p. 1 as amended), according to which, under the conditions laid down by the Member States where the supply of goods or services is carried out, a summary invoice covering several separate supplies of goods or services may be drawn up.

8 For example, the individual interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Łódź from 12 August 2014, reference no.

No IPTPP4/443-467/14-2/OS: „(...) in the case of supplies made to taxable persons, the applicant shall have the right to record the sale of several supplies within the framework of one settlement period during the month concerned for the benefit of one buyer, by issuing one invoices on the last day of that month (documenting sales for the whole month) at the latest by 15.

the day of the month following the month in which the goods were delivered.’

9 reference no. No 0114-KDIP1-3.4012.223.2018.1.ISZ.

10 reference no. No IPPP2/443-1100/13-2/DG.

11 reference no. No ITPP1/443-1190/14/MN.

12 Judgment of the WSA in Poznań of 17 July 2014, reference no. I SA/Po 183/14.

13 NSA judgment of 8 December 2015, reference no. I FSK 1321/14.