The National e-Invoices System – what should we expect?

An innovative, nationwide, and voluntary system for managing so-called structured invoices will start operating from January 1st, 2022. Polish entrepreneurs will be allowed to test the new system (pilotage stage) from October 1st of this year.

The National e-Invoices System (in Poland abbreviated as KSeF) is yet another example of the progressive electrification of tax institutions in Poland (after the Court Registers Portal launched on July 1st). Similar solutions, allowing for the generation and storage of invoices on the servers of government bodies, are already successfully operating in some countries of the European Union.

The most important purpose of the KSeF is certainly the functionality of automatic delivery of the invoice to the buyer through the electronic procedure. Therefore, a faster connection will be created between the issuer and the recipient. Moreover, after entering the invoice into the system, the interface will analyze the data compliance with the structured invoice template and assign a unique ID number.

The KSeF operation is based on the so-called structured invoices – a format that allows you to automate the processes of verification and archiving financial documents.

What is a structured invoice?

A structured invoice is one of the three acceptable forms of transaction settlement, besides paper and electronic invoices. According to Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 16th, 2014, a structured invoice has a predetermined form (with legal information) within an electronic XML format, which enables automatic reading and processing of the data.

Therefore, the structured invoice allows accounting software or universal file setups (such as JPK_VAT) to match the data with a scheme, for faster reading and analysis. It will also interact with the KSeF system starting from October 2021.

A draft logical e-invoice structure

To meet the expectations of entrepreneurs interested in the e-Invoices system, on August 6th, the Ministry of Finance has released a draft of logical structures. Early access to a draft e-invoices template will allow business owners to efficiently prepare for the upcoming changes. Legislators admit that the transition to the KSeF will require the modernization of the accounting software.

A draft logical structure is available for preview and download here.

National e-Invoices System – obligatory from 2023?

The Ministry of Finance does not hide its intention to establish the KSeF system as an obligation for all taxpayers and contractors. According to preliminary assumptions, this would not happen until 2023. The Ministry argues in favor of this plan, pointing at the benefits of the new system. Invoices will be stored on the new platform for up to 10 years from the end of the year in which they were issued, which ensures their protection. Based on the structured invoice scheme, the system will analyze data consistency, which will reduce the number of errors while generating JPK files.

In the future, the e-invoice system will allow for granting conditional access for third-party service providers, such as accounting offices or contracted accountants.