More than half of public consultations with the Ministry of Finance have already been held
6 public consultation meetings with the Ministry of Finance have already been held. Various aspects related to the implementation of the National e-Invoice System (KSeF) to the Polish law were discussed.
During the consultations, the MF referred to security and system performance, discussed the labelling of consumer invoices and the buyer status, and focused on the role of the KSeF identifier in payments. In addition, opinions expressed by representatives from the factoring and fuel industries, as well as from the sector of utility providers, were heard.
The core issues were:
Certificates in lieu of tokens.
At the end of 2024, authorization tokens that could be generated in the System to date will no longer be used. At mid-year they will be replaced by special certificates. This is an important issue because taxpayers relied heavily on token-based access when they implemented the e-Invoice System. The technical details of how this solutions is going to work have yet to be fully clarified, but we can expect more details in the near future.
System efficiency
The maximum possible throughput of the system is still being reviewed. The Ministry of Finance encourages taxpayers to share information about the periods when they issue the most invoices, so that the system’s performance can be adjusted to users’ needs. At this point, there is no information how the system’s performance was tested.
Communications and technical improvements
During the meeting, the issue of increased efficiency of information exchange between the Ministry of Finance, the system users, and entities responsible for technological solutions for the system operation was discussed. There was a proposal that a platform for effective discussions of more technical nature should be established, and the Ministry promised to improve communication with the IT tool providers and taxpayers.
Emergency mode and unavailability of the System
The emergency mode is currently under intense scrutiny. The Ministry has no intention to withdraw from this solution and with the upcoming proposals for legislative changes we should receive a precise technical documentation/specification thereof.
B2C invoices in the e-Invoice System and buyer identification
During the consultations, a discussion was held on the merits of an optional B2C invoicing in the System, and on a potential solution of identifying the buyer by indication of a VAT number in a transaction.
Specification of verification codes and payment identifier
The Ministry of Finance confirms that the specification of verification codes and payment identifier will be available around 18 March 2024, but the specification in English will not be available until the legislative work has been completed.
“Scam” invoices
The System will offer a functionality of hiding or reporting suspicious invoices, with the invoice issuer not being informed thereof.
Invoice visualization
The Ministry is of the opinion that the visualization is to be primarily consistent with the invoice at the data level. Any doubts regarding the visualization are to be resolved in explanations to be issued by the MF. In response to suggestions from business, the idea of a foreign language visualization for foreign contractors will be considered.
Representatives of different sectors were well-prepared for the consultations and presented their own proposed solutions during the meetings with the Ministry.
Sizeable invoices
Representatives of the utility and fuel sectors have reported the need to increase the limit of items in an invoice, and to add additional, optional fields in each invoice line. Although the Ministry of Finance is reluctant to make changes to the current schema, they promised to consider this issue.
Collective payment identifier
A problem of decrypting a collective payment identifier was raised by representatives of the factoring sector. The Ministry promised to consider a solution that would make it possible to decrypt a collective payment identifier with no need to log into the system.
Notifying Entity3 of a correction invoice
In order to limit the risk of scam, the factoring sector suggests that Entity3 should be notified that a correction invoice is issued without disclosing the corrected details. However, the Ministry expressed concerns that confidential tax or business information might be revealed if this solution is used.
Expanding the offline mode definition
Representatives of the fuel and retail sectors have informed of a need to expand the definition of offline mode at times when the System is not fully available, i.e. it does not operate efficiently. The Ministry neither supported nor opposed this idea, and stated that the rules for using the offline mode would be more specifically defined in the future.
Adding the “Employee” role to the schema
As an improvement of the employee expense accounting procedure, it was suggested that consideration be given to including a new defined role labeled as “Employee” in the Entity3 section. This role would make it easier to identify persons responsible for specific spends on behalf of the company, and help keep track of employee-related expenses. The Ministry of Finance did not take a clear stance on the issue.
Phases of System deployment
As the deadline for mandatory implementation of the e-Invoice System was postponed, taxpayers suggested that staging should be abandoned to avoid potential problems of identifying contractors required to use the System. The Ministry plans to discuss this issue during future consultation on the subject.
Deadline for System deployment
As requested by taxpayers, both systemic and legislative readiness should be achieved no later than 6 months before the planned date of mandatory use of the System. Additionally, representatives of business indicate that the System should not be implemented on 1 January 2025 (due to financial year closing activities) and that the planned date of implementation should not coincide with other major initiatives, such as the entry into force of JPK CIT or CSIRE.
In the coming week, the last consultation meetings with the Ministry of Finance are planned. These will be dedicated to the System implementation in local government units and phases thereof. There will also be a session of explanations, interpretations and training.
Next step will be the publication of the Ministry’s explanations and proposed solutions to the most crucial issues.
We will keep you updated.
KONTAKT
E: aleksandra.kalinowska@pl.Andersen.com
T: +48 22 690 08 70
M: +48 724 440 693
E: elzbieta.lis@pl.Andersen.com
T: +48 32 731 68 58
M: +48 664 948 038
