The new Invoice-decree (NGM ministerial decree 23/2014 (VI.30.)) has come into effect on July 1, 2014, meanwhile replacing the former PM ministerial decree 24/1995 (XI.22.) .
The receipt and invoice issued with a pre-printed form, the invoice produced with an invoicing program and the receipt made with a computer can be considered as suitable for tax administration identification if it meets the requirements provided by the above decree.
One of the most important changes in the new decree is the fact that the taxpayers also need to report the data of the used invoicing program to the tax authority.
WHAT DATA SHALL BE REPORTED?
Concerning the applied invoicing program:
- name
- identifier
- name of developer and its tax number, if there is any
- name and tax number of the one selling or making it available
- the time of acquisition, start of usage or – in case of using self developed software – the time of starting use for its intended purpose
In case of applying online invoicing system the tax payer shall report:
- name and address of the invoicing system
- name and tax number of the online invoicing service provider
- the time of starting to use the online invoicing service
WHEN?
The deadline for reporting:
- In case of software acquired or started to be used after October 1, 2014: within 30 days after starting its use
- In case of software acquired prior to October 1, 2014 and still in use on October 1, 2014: November 15, 2014.
The data sheet for reporting is now under preparation by the Hungarian Tax Authority. Its name is expected to be “SZAMLAZO” and it will be available from October 1.
Besides the above stated facts, the invoicing programs the use of which is terminated shall be subjected to separate data reporting obligation with the above data content while also indicating the time of terminating usage within 30 days after termination.
REQUIREMENTS OF INVOICING PROGRAMS
The invoicing program shall ensure the followings:
- continuous numbering without omission or repeat
- for issuing invoices under non-Hungarian tax number, a separate numbering range different from the one for Hungarian tax number
- user’s documentation in Hungarian language
The documentation shall contain the followings:
- detailed description of the operation and use of the invoicing program and explanation of all the functions of the invoicing program
- The invoicing program shall execute only those functions that are in the documentation!
- The program shall not have any such function that is not included in the documentation!
The tax payer shall preserve the documentation until the right for determining tax is elapsed (even in an electronic form). The obligation of preserving shall be applied to all the extensions, modifications of the program, therefore the documentation is to be preserved for each version number.
RULES APPLICABLE TO PROXIES
The tax payer may fulfill the obligation of issuing invoices with the help of a proxy as well.
The authorization shall be put in writing. The invoices issued by a person or organization acting as proxy shall meet the following requirements:
- in case of paper-based invoice and electronic invoice: the proxy immediately sends a copy of the invoice to the principal with the obligation of issuing the invoice;
- in case of invoice produced with an invoicing program: the principal with the obligation of issuing the invoice and its proxy agree in advance and in writing on the numbering range that is to be applied when producing the invoice; this shall be recorded in the registry of the principal with the obligation of issuing the invoice as well.
Those persons and organizations who act as proxies for issuing invoices for multiple principals with the obligation of invoicing at the same time, shall keep a separate registry on this obligation for each principal.
Based on the above stated facts it is advisable to inspect all the used of invoicing systems and supervise these from the aspect of rightfulness of use and whether or not these systems meet the requirements of the new decree, and based on these decide upon using the software forward, or discontinue the usage, possibly purchase a new one.
It is mostly advised to update the registry of documents subjected to strict accounting rules, check the authorizations and proxies about invoice issuing, if these include all necessary data (for example the sequence numbers of invoices), contact the software developers, and collect the Hungarian documentation, guideline for the software and all the information necessary to fulfill the reporting obligation to the tax office.
Rita Kormos
Accounting team leader