Electronic invoices are the future. In the coming years, the exchange of electronic invoices will become the number one option for businesses, since this type of interaction allows for faster cash flow, as well as improved relationships with suppliers.

Reasons for switching to electronic invoices:

external pressure (influential suppliers, clients);

price (processing electronic documents costs companies less);

innovation and process automation;

optimization of cash flows (acceleration of funds turnover);

improved quality (documents are not lost or forgotten about);

public sector initiative (fighting fraudsters, increasing tax revenues, optimizing own processes).

Who is required to issue ESF?

The requirement for issuing an ESF is established:

1) meet the requirements established for the extract of the ESF;

a note stating that the ESF is corrected;

serial number and date of issue of the corrected ESF;

serial number and date of issue of the canceled ESF.

According to the corrected ESF, the recipient of goods, works, services has the right, within 10 calendar days from the date of receipt of such corrected ESF, to indicate disagreement with the issuance of such ESF in accordance with the document flow of invoices issued in electronic form.

In what cases is an additional ESF prescribed?

· correspond to the issuance of invoices;

· contain the following information:

a note that the ESF is additional;

serial number and date of issue of the additional ESF;

serial number and date of issue of the ESF for which the additional ESF is issued;

in the case established by the Tax Code - adjustment of the amount of taxable turnover and the difference between the amount of VAT indicated in the previously issued ESF and the amount of VAT on the date of issue of the additional ESF;

in the case established by the Tax Code - the VAT rate on the date of issue of the additional ESF and the amount of VAT on the date of issue of the additional ESF.

· in cases of adjustment of the amount of taxable turnover provided for by the Tax Code, not earlier dates of occurrence of such cases, and not later 15 calendar days after the date of occurrence of such cases;

· in the event of a difference between the VAT rate that was in effect on the date of issuance of the ESF and that in force on the date of the sale turnover, provided that the ESF was issued earlier than the date of the turnover, - within a month after the enactment of a law providing for a change in the tax rate.

Under an additional ESF, the recipient of goods, works, services has the right, within 10 calendar days from the date of receipt of such additional ESF, to indicate disagreement with the issuance of such ESF in accordance with the document flow of invoices issued in electronic form.

Let us remind you that an electronic invoice, just like its paper version, is the basis for deducting VAT amounts presented by the seller to the buyer (clause 1.2 of the Procedure).

Electronic document management operator

An operator of electronic document management of invoices is an organization that ensures the exchange of invoices drawn up electronically in an established format between the buyer and seller through an electronic document management system for invoices (EDI).

The electronic document management system (EDF) for invoices is an automated system (program, web interface) that allows you to create, send and receive invoices compiled electronically in an established format through an electronic document management system for invoices.

The register of trusted EDI operators can be found on the Federal Tax Service website www.nalog.ru (Taxation in the Russian Federation → Submission of tax and accounting reports → Electronic invoices → List of electronic document management operators).

An organization can choose any of them. And it is not at all necessary that the counterparty with whom electronic exchange of invoices is being introduced is serviced by the same operator. The only important thing is that in order to exchange electronic invoices, the parties to the transaction must have compatible technical means (clause 1.3 of the Procedure). This means that they must be compatible across their operators. Therefore, when choosing an EDF operator, you need to find out with which of the other operators it has the technical ability to exchange invoices.

In turn, when concluding an agreement with the operator, the organization must indicate whether it agrees or not to transfer information to another operator (clause “b”, clause 2.1 of the Procedure).

EDI invoice operators, as intermediaries, solve two problems at once.

Firstly, the organization does not need to independently worry about the technical development of tools for receiving and processing electronic invoices that are compatible with the facilities of the counterparty with which it is switching to electronic exchange of invoices. You just need to install the program (use the web interface) provided by the EDF operator.

Secondly, EDI operators generate technological documents that confirm the fact of exchange (dates of dispatch, receipt, etc.) of electronic invoices. And this is important to avoid disputes between the taxpayer and the Federal Tax Service. The tax authorities themselves point to this (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated April 30, 2015 No. BS-18-6/499@).

Consent of the parties to the transaction

You or your counterparty can confirm your consent to the use of electronic invoices in any form. This could be a specially directed letter or simply the fact that you and your counterparty have included each other in the list of counterparties in the EDI system (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 1, 2011 No. 03-07-09/26).

Seller's actions

To issue an electronic invoice, within five calendar days after shipment or receipt of an advance payment (clause 2.4 of the Procedure), the seller must:

• draw up an electronic invoice in the established format and sign it with an electronic signature;
• send the buyer an invoice file via TKS through an EDI operator.

Next, the seller will receive confirmation from the EDF operator indicating the date and time of receipt of the invoice file. In response to this confirmation, no later than the next business day, he must send a notice that the confirmation has been received.

According to the Procedure, after receiving this confirmation from the EDF operator, the invoice is already considered issued (clause 2.7 of the Procedure). Sending by the buyer a notice of receipt of an invoice via TKS through the EDI operator is only the subject of an agreement between the parties to the transaction (clause 2.9 of the Procedure). This is not required.

An electronic invoice issued to the buyer cannot be duplicated on paper. But if there is a need, for example, in case of a technical failure with the EDF operator, you can issue the buyer a paper invoice instead of an electronic invoice (clause 2.20 of the Procedure).

In the sales book, an electronic invoice is registered in the general manner in the quarter in which the date of shipment of goods or receipt of an advance payment falls (clause 2 of the Rules for maintaining a sales book (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 26, 2011 No. 1137), letter from the Federal Tax Service Russia dated June 17, 2013 No. ED-4-3/10769).

Buyer actions

The buyer receives from the EDF operator a file with an electronic invoice and confirmation of its dispatch, indicating its date and time. No later than the next business day, he must send the operator a notice of receipt of confirmation.

This should be done only if there is such an agreement with the seller (clauses 2.9, 2.12 of the Procedure).

In the purchase book, an electronic invoice is also registered in accordance with the general procedure (clause 1.11 of the Procedure).

Electronic document flow when exchanging invoices is carried out for each invoice separately.

How to fix an electronic invoice

To correct an electronic invoice, the buyer, through the EDF operator, sends a notification to the seller to clarify the invoice.

Having received the notification, the seller corrects the errors indicated in it and sends a corrected electronic invoice to the buyer through the EDI operator (clause 1.12 of the Procedure).

The procedure for further actions by the parties is similar to that used when sending the initial invoice.

By the way, according to the Ministry of Finance, if an electronic invoice is issued, an adjustment to it can be drawn up on paper (letter dated February 7, 2018 No. 03-07-09/7269).

How to combine paper and electronic invoices

Paper and electronic invoices are recorded in the purchase and sales ledgers in general chronological order.

When issuing an invoice electronically, the taxpayer enters the date of receipt of the invoice file to the EDF operator from the seller, indicated in the confirmation of this operator. Upon receipt - the date the seller’s invoice file was sent to the buyer by the EDF operator, reflected in the operator’s confirmation (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated May 7, 2014 No. GD-4-3/8815).

Based on paragraph 1 of Article 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, for the use of electronic invoices, the exchange of electronic invoices is possible only if four conditions are met:

• there is mutual consent of the parties to the transaction;
• invoices are prepared in accordance with the established format;
• invoices are signed with an enhanced qualified signature;
• the parties have compatible technical means and capabilities to receive and process these invoices in the prescribed manner.

Some more conditions can be found in the Procedure for issuing and receiving invoices in electronic form via telecommunication channels (TCS) (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure). Moreover, from April 1, a new procedure, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance dated November 10, 2015 No. 174n, has been in effect. However, it differs slightly from the previously used procedure, so we’ll talk about the changes as we go.

According to clause 1.3 of the Procedure, the exchange of electronic invoices is only possible via TKS through an electronic document management operator.

What does this mean in practice?

Electronic signature and format

According to paragraph 6 of Article 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, an electronic invoice must be signed with an enhanced qualified signature of the head of the organization or a person authorized by him to sign invoices. From April 1, 2016, the Procedure also complies with this requirement: previously it simply spoke of an electronic digital signature.

note

The format of the electronic invoice is established by order of the Federal Tax Service dated March 4, 2015 No. ММВ-7-6/93@. Only an electronic invoice drawn up in this format and signed with an enhanced qualified signature can serve as the basis for the buyer to deduct “input” VAT. And only such electronic invoices can be sent to the Federal Tax Service at its request via TKS (letter from the Ministry of Finance dated November 13, 2015 No. 03-02-08/65721, Federal Tax Service dated February 9, 2016 No. ED-4-2/1984@, dated September 7. 2015 No. ED-4-2/15669).

There is no need to print out such an electronic invoice either for submission to the Federal Tax Service or for storage for a specified period (clause 1.13 of the Procedure, letter of the Ministry of Finance dated January 13, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/259).

Electronic document management operator and tool compatibility

Operator of electronic document management of invoices is an organization that ensures the exchange of invoices drawn up electronically in the established format between the buyer and seller through the electronic document management system of invoices.

Electronic document management system (EDF) for invoices is an automated system (program, web interface) that allows you to create, send and receive invoices compiled electronically in the established format through an electronic document management system for invoices.

The register of trusted EDI operators can be found on the Federal Tax Service website www.nalog.ru (Taxation in the Russian Federation – Submission of tax and accounting reports – Electronic invoices – List of electronic document management operators).

An organization can choose any of them. And it is not at all necessary that the counterparty with whom electronic exchange of invoices is being introduced is serviced by the same operator. However, it should be remembered that in order to exchange electronic invoices, the parties to the transaction must have compatible technical means (clause 1.3 of the Procedure). This means that they must be compatible across their operators. Therefore, when choosing an EDF operator, you should find out with which of the other operators it has the technical ability to exchange invoices.

In turn, the new Procedure provides that when concluding an agreement with an operator, an organization must, among other things, indicate whether it agrees or not to transfer information to another operator (subclause “b” of clause 2.1 of the Procedure).

Of course, it would be much easier if buyers and sellers could exchange invoices electronically directly with each other without intermediaries. However, EDI invoice operators solve two problems at once.

note

The electronic signature of the chief accountant is not required for issuing electronic invoices (clause 6 of Article 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Firstly, the organization does not need to independently worry about the technical development of tools for receiving and processing electronic invoices that are compatible with the means of each counterparty with which it switches to electronic exchange of invoices. You just need to install the program (use the web interface) provided by the EDF operator.

Secondly, EDI operators generate technological documents that confirm the fact of exchange (dates of dispatch, receipt, etc.) of electronic invoices, which is undoubtedly important for eliminating disputes between the taxpayer and the Federal Tax Service. The tax authorities themselves point to this (letter of the Federal Tax Service dated April 30, 2015 No. BS-18-6/499@).

Consent of the parties to the transaction

You or your counterparty can confirm your consent to the use of electronic invoices in any form. This could be a specially directed letter or simply the fact that you and your counterparty have included each other in the list of counterparties in the EDI system (letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 08/01/2011 No. 03-07-09/26).

Seller's actions

To issue an electronic invoice within five calendar days after shipment or receipt of an advance payment (clause 2.4 of the Procedure), the seller must:

• draw up an electronic invoice in the established format and sign it with an electronic signature;
• send the buyer an invoice file via TKS through an EDI operator.

Next, he will receive a confirmation from the EDF operator indicating the date and time of receipt of the invoice file, in response to which he must send a notification no later than the next business day that the confirmation has been received. According to the new Procedure, after receiving this confirmation from the EDF operator, the invoice is already considered issued (clause 2.7 of the Procedure). Previously, the seller had to wait until the buyer was notified that the invoice file had been received. Although the previous procedure provided that the date of issuance of an electronic invoice is considered to be the date of receipt of its file by the EDF operator, indicated in the operator’s confirmation (clause 1.10 of the Procedure).

Now, sending the buyer a notice of receipt of an invoice via TKS through the EDI operator is only a subject of agreement between the parties to the transaction (clause 2.9 of the Procedure). This is not necessarily required.

An electronic invoice issued to the buyer cannot be duplicated on paper. But if there is a need, for example, in case of a technical failure with the EDF operator, you can issue the buyer a paper invoice instead of an electronic invoice (clause 2.20 of the Procedure).

In the sales book, an electronic invoice is registered in the general manner in the quarter in which the date of shipment of goods or receipt of an advance payment falls (clause 2 of the Rules for maintaining the sales book, letter of the Federal Tax Service dated June 17, 2013 No. ED-4-3/10769).

Buyer actions

The buyer receives from the EDF operator a file with an electronic invoice and confirmation of its dispatch, indicating its date and time. No later than the next business day, he must send the operator a notice of receipt of confirmation. It is necessary to send a notification to the seller through the EDF operator about receipt of the invoice file only if there is such an agreement with the seller (clauses 2.9, 2.12 of the Procedure).

In the book, the electronic invoice is also registered in accordance with the general procedure (clause 1.11 of the Procedure).

Electronic document flow when exchanging invoices is carried out for each invoice separately.

How to fix

To correct an electronic invoice, the buyer, through the EDF operator, sends a notification to the seller to clarify the invoice. Having received the notification, the seller corrects the errors indicated in it and sends a corrected electronic invoice to the buyer through the EDI operator (clause 1.12 of the Procedure). The procedure for further actions by the parties is identical to that used when sending the initial invoice.

How to combine paper and electronic invoices

It is unlikely that it will be possible to switch to electronic exchange of invoices with all counterparties at once. And with someone it may not be possible to agree on this at all. Nothing wrong with that. Paper and electronic invoices are recorded in the purchase and sales ledgers in general chronological order. When issuing an invoice electronically, the taxpayer enters the date of receipt of the invoice file to the EDF operator from the seller, indicated in the confirmation of this operator. Upon receipt - the date the seller’s invoice file was sent to the buyer by the EDF operator, reflected in the operator’s confirmation (Letter of the Federal Tax Service dated 05/07/2014 No. ГД-4-3/8815).

So the exchange of electronic invoices can first be tested on one of the counterparties, and then negotiate with the others.

It is much easier to introduce new rules and get used to them, moving gradually, slowly.

Editorial Board "PB"Oksana Dobrova

Practical accounting

Companies that pay VAT register invoices in purchase and sales books, and companies that are intermediaries register invoices in accounting journals. Paper invoices are recorded based on the date of issue. With electronic invoices it is a little more complicated, since they have three dates at the same time: the date of issue, the date of issue and the date of receipt. In this article we will look at how electronic invoice accounting is carried out.

Electronic invoice

An electronic invoice is analogous to a paper version and represents the basis for accepting VAT submitted by the seller for deduction. To use electronic invoices in document flow, the consent of all parties to transactions, as well as the availability of certain technical capabilities, is required. Not only sellers, but also tax agents, commission agents, and agents who on their own behalf sell or purchase goods for the principal have the right to issue invoices electronically. Thus, the exchange of electronic invoices is possible if the following conditions are met:

• availability of consent from each participant in the transaction;
• the document is drawn up according to the approved format;
• the document is signed using an enhanced qualified signature;
• All parties to the transaction have technical means and capabilities for receiving electronic documents and processing them.

Procedure for issuing an electronic invoice

An invoice must be issued within 5 days from the date of shipment of goods (works, services) or receipt of an advance payment. In accordance with Article 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, this can be done not necessarily in paper form, but also in electronic form. An electronic invoice is a full-fledged analogue of a paper one. It contains all the necessary details, as well as signatures of authorized persons. The following requirements are put forward for electronic invoices:

• drawn up in accordance with the form approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service No. ММВ-7-6/93@ dated 03/04/2015;
• have a qualified electronic signature;
• are transmitted through an EDF operator, which records the date of issue of the document and its receipt.

Important! According to the current legislation of the Russian Federation, documents that have a qualified electronic signature and are transmitted through EDI operators are originals. There is no need to print such documents.

Electronic accounting of invoices

In order to account for VAT at enterprises, its payers must keep a book of purchases and sales. Intermediaries, as well as persons who issue and receive invoices in accordance with transport expedition contracts or performing the functions of a developer, are required to keep a log of received and issued invoices. All types of invoices (primary, adjustment, etc.) are subject to a single registration.

Important! The form of the book and the form of the journal, including the procedure for maintaining them, are indicated in Government Decree No. 1137 of December 26, 2011.

Invoices can be recorded in either paper or electronic form. It should be remembered that since 2015, the information contained in the book and journal is submitted in the VAT return, which is submitted electronically. In this regard, it is also more convenient to keep track of invoices electronically, rather than on paper.

If the document flow is carried out on paper, then it is very difficult to track the date of issuance of the invoice and the date of its receipt, so the date of its preparation is usually reflected. When using electronic invoices, recording occurs on three dates:

• drafting;
• exhibits;
• receiving.

In the book of sales and purchases, only the date of compilation is recorded, since the book is necessary for accounting for VAT amounts. The dates of issuance and receipt of the document are entered into the accounting journal maintained by intermediary organizations.

Registering invoices in the sales ledger

Once the obligation to pay VAT arises, the registration of invoices occurs in chronological order in the sales book for the tax period in which the obligation to pay VAT arises. When registering, provide the following information:

• transaction type code;
• TIN, KPP and name of the buyer’s company;
• number and date of the payment document;
• currency and its code;
• transaction amount, as well as tax payable.

Registering invoices in the purchase ledger

Once the right to receive a VAT deduction arises, invoices are registered in the purchase ledger. It contains the following information:

• transaction type code;
• document number and date of its preparation;
• date of acceptance of goods (work, services) for accounting;
• TIN, KPP name of the seller’s company;
• TIN, KPP and name of the intermediary company;
• details of the customs declaration;
• currency, its code;
• the amount of the transaction, as well as the tax that can be deducted.

Emergence of the right to deduction

The buyer has the right to reduce the accrued VAT by the tax paid on the purchased goods (works or services). This right arises only if the following conditions are met:

• goods (works, services) were purchased for transactions subject to VAT;
• purchased goods are accepted for accounting;
• An invoice has been received from the seller.

Important! The electronic invoice is recorded in the purchase ledger by the date of issue, but the right to deduction will depend on when it is received. A tax reduction is possible only if there is a correctly executed invoice, the issuance of which is the responsibility of the seller. That is, until the seller issues an invoice and the buyer receives it, the tax cannot be reduced.

If the buyer receives the document in the tax period in which goods are posted, then there are no difficulties in accepting VAT for deduction.

If the posting and receipt of a document occur in different periods, then questions may arise. If an invoice is received after the end of the tax period in which the goods are accepted for accounting, but before the declaration for this period is submitted, the buyer can deduct VAT on those goods in the period in which they were accepted for accounting. If the buyer receives an invoice after submitting the declaration, then it will have to be attributed to the next tax period.

Registering invoices in the accounting journal

Depending on whether the intermediary is a VAT payer, his obligation to maintain a journal of invoices is determined. At the same time, intermediaries, forwarders and developers do not pay VAT and do not accept it for deduction on those invoices that they register in their journals.

The accounting journal is divided into two parts, in one of which the invoices issued are recorded, and in the other - received.

In the first part, documents are registered according to the date of their issue. If invoices are not transmitted to customers, they are registered according to the date of issue. In the second part, documents are registered according to the date of their receipt.

For each quarter, intermediaries are required to provide accounting logs to the tax authorities. Based on this, the Federal Tax Service carries out control and also determines the compliance of the VAT amounts accrued and declared by buyers for deduction. And also whether the declared amounts of VAT deductible correspond to those paid to the budget by sellers.

Answers to common questions

Question: Is it possible to duplicate an electronic invoice issued to a buyer in paper form?

Answer: No, however, if necessary, you can provide a paper invoice instead of an electronic document. This may be required, for example, if the EDF operator has a technical failure.

Question: The company issues invoices both on paper and electronically. How should they be accounted for?

Answer: The recording of purchases and sales and paper and electronic invoices in the ledger occurs in general chronological order. When issuing an invoice electronically, the date of receipt of the file by the EDF operator from the seller is indicated. When receiving the document, you need to indicate the date the file was sent by the EDF operator to the buyer, which is contained in the operator’s confirmation.

Date of publication: 08/23/2016

If you are working with the Electronic Invoices portal for the first time, keep in mind that you will need:

1) Valid digital signature keys. If you have a legal entity. a person is an electronic digital signature on a physical. the face of the director and the First Leader.
2) NCA certificates.

As for EDS keys, they need to be obtained from the Public Service Center.
Installation of NCA certificates is available on the website http://pki.gov.kz/

But let’s look at the last, 3rd point in more detail.

Preparing a computer to work with the register of electronic invoices of the Republic of Kazakhstan

If you just open Mozilla Firefox and go to the ESF website httpS://esf.gov.kz:8443/esf-web/login, you can see a blank page with incomprehensible symbols or this picture (image below):

Therefore you need to do standard preparatory work:
1. Make sure your browser is updated, otherwise you need to update it;
2. Make sure that you have the latest version of Java installed and all old ones have been removed;
3. Register the sites http://esf.gov.kz and httpS://esf.gov.kz in the Java control panel (in the list of exceptions),
4. Make sure that the browser, antivirus and other programs do not block access to httpS:// sites (ssl protocol). Otherwise, add the necessary sites to the “trust list”.

Important Reminder: If you make changes to your browser settings, it is important to restart it! This principle applies to other programs as well. Also, after installing new software, you need to restart your computer.

If in the process of performing these steps you have any questions or system errors appear, use paid technical support -. The specialist will do everything for you!

Now that your computer is ready to work with the system, you can proceed to registration.

Registration on the ESF portal

The first step you need to register on the portal from Phys. faces
On the login page httpS://esf.gov.kz:8443/esf-web/login, click on the “Registration” button and select “Individual”.

Next, you will need to specify the path to your digital signature. To do this, click 1) select a certificate, 2) path to the certificate and 3) open button. The system will ask you to enter the key password, usually “123456”.

Important reminder: If you get a Java pop-up when you log in asking “Do you want to run this application?”, check the box and click “run”.

After selecting a certificate, some of your data will be automatically entered into the form, for example Login (IIN). All you have to do is enter the missing information, including the desired password for your ESF IS, and click the “Submit” button. After that, you will receive a letter to the email address you specified during registration with a link to confirmation of registration, by clicking on which you will need to sign the agreement on the portal using an electronic signature, indicating with the “Browse” button its location on your computer.

The second step you need to do similar steps for registration, but from the “Head of the Legal Entity”

After successful registration, you can return to the login page, “select a certificate” again, enter the password you specified during registration (not to be confused with the EDS password) and go to your ESF account.

We remind you that from January 1, 2017 In Kazakhstan, it is planned to make a mandatory transition of all VAT payers to the Electronic Invoice system.

Is it too difficult or do you still have questions? Contact our consultant, we will be happy to help you!