E-invoice from 1 October 2021

E-invoice is a document in standardised electronic form, modelled on a template developed by the Ministry of Finance. Poland will be the third EU country, after Spain, Portugal and Italy, where such a solution has been implemented.

The implementation of e-invoices is another step towards full digitalisation of fiscal services. E-invoices will be created in taxpayers' financial and accounting systems and sent to the National System of e-Invoices (KSeF).

Taxpayers will have to authenticate themselves in KSeF in order to view invoices issued and received, as well as to send or convert them. Such authorisation may also be granted to accounting offices or external service providers.

When will e-invoicesbe available?

In the transition period - from 1 October 2021 - e-invoices will be voluntary, while from 2023 the use of this form of invoicing will become obligatory. To facilitate the use of e-invoices by taxpayers, the e-Mikrofirma application will be adapted to the new form of invoicing, and e-invoices may also be downloaded and sent directly through the API.

The e-invoice is to be corrected under the existing rules. In addition, e-invoices will be recorded in local or cloud-based financial and accounting systems according to a template developed by the Ministry of Finance.

E-invoices - faster VAT refunds  

The most important benefit of introducing e-invoices for companies will be a shortening the time of waiting for VAT refunds from 60 to 40 days. The Ministry of Finance has also listed some other advantages of structured invoices, including:

• protection against destruction or loss, no need to issue duplicates,
• guarantee of invoice delivery to the contracting party,
• unification - one template for all companies
• standardisation: cross-accounting and invoice accounting in financial accounting systems will be easier.

As announced by the Ministry, the introduction of e-invoices will also facilitate inspection of dishonest taxpayers and reduce the VAT gap.

The public consultation on e-invoicing ends on 23 February 2021.