Fiscal receipt as a simplified invoice

On October 16th this year, the Ministry of Finance published an extensive statement regarding the principles of treating fiscal receipt as simplified invoice and the rules concerning JPK_VAT file. The statement focuses mainly on the sales receipts that have the Tax Identification Number (NIP) and were issued for an amount not exceeding 450 PLN.

Rules for issuing invoices for fiscal receipt

Under the amendment of January 1st, 2020, an invoice for the taxpayer (buyer of goods or services) can only be issued if the NIP is printed on the fiscal receipt. Therefore, before finalizing the transaction, the buyer (being a VAT payer) must decide whether he is purchasing as a VAT payer or as a consumer. The fact that the seller issues a simplified invoice means that it is not possible to issue a standard invoice for the transaction.

When a NIP number is not located on the fiscal receipt, the tax authority can impose a fine on the taxpayer, which can equal up to 100% of the tax amount shown on the invoice.

The provisions introducing JPK_VAT are in force from October 1st, 2020. More about the new declaration file and rules that concerns it can be found in this article.

Fiscal receipts – principles of recognizing as simplified invoices

Simplified invoices, according to the EU Directive 2006/112/EC, must contain:

• document’s ID number (in this case, the receipt number)
• date of the invoice,
• taxpayer identification data (name),
• type of goods or services provided,
• the amount of VAT due,
• if the invoice is a note or a “document accepted as an invoice” (Art. 291 of the Act): the invoice must also contain a reference to the original invoice.

Simplified invoices and JPK_VAT

The latest tax explanation, published on October 16th, 2020, clearly shows that a fiscal receipt up to 450 PLN gross, with the included buyer’s NIP number, is a simplified invoice. However, as part of the declaration and JPK_VAT records, by the end of 2020, such documents do not have to be shown separately – provided that by the end of 2020, the value of sales without tax (net) and the amount of tax due resulting from collective information from the sales records, were entered in the records under § 10 sec. 1 point 8 of the JPK_VAT regulation.

Full records (separate reporting in JPK_VAT) of simplified invoices issued based on receipts with the NIP number will apply to all taxpayers only from January 1st, 2021.

It should be remembered that the said provisions caused controversy on the part of the legal and financial advisors. We will update the article with new information regarding the provisions described as soon as new rules will come into force.