Electronic invoices to arrive in 2021

Polish Ministry of Finance is developing an IT platform which will enable the tax payers to issue and upload electronic invoices, whilst the contractors will be able to obtain such electronic invoices within the same IT platform and verify their issuer.

As announced by the Ministry, a typical transaction would be as follows:

1. the seller issues an invoice in his/her accounting system,
2. the invoice is then uploaded to the system server and assigned to the seller’s account, as well as made available on the buyer’s account
3. the buyer receives notification about the invoice being issued in the system
4. the buyer logs in to his/her account in the system and downloads the invoice
5. the buyer receives information about the seller, including data of the bank account number entered on the white list of taxpayers
6. the seller receives notification that the buyer has downloaded the invoice

At all stages, the tax office will have full access to above information. Initially, the system is to be voluntary.

Over time, additional functionalities are planned, including the option to pay for the invoice directly from the system level. This seems like a good opportunity for payment service providers.