The Council of the European Union published in the Official Journal of the EU the Decision authorizing Romania to apply, starting January 1, 2024, electronic invoicing at the national level for all invoices issued in B2B relations between taxable persons established on the national territory. Currently, the e-Invoice requirement for B2B operations is limited only to those involving goods considered risky from a fiscal point of view.

Through this Council decision, Romania has officially received permission to derogate from articles 218 and 232 of the VAT Directive, so that it can impose, from January 1, 2024, the electronic invoicing system through the e-Invoice platform operated by the Ministry Finance as the only invoicing method in all operations between taxable persons established in Romania.

The exemption granted by the EU Council is valid until December 2026 and includes, concretely, two special rules that our country can impose:

• Romania is authorized to accept only invoices issued by taxable persons established on the territory of Romania in the form of documents or messages in electronic format;
• Romania is authorized to provide that the use of electronic invoices issued by taxable persons established on the territory of Romania is not subject to acceptance by the recipient established on the territory of Romania.

In the request for derogation sent by the Ministry of Finance in 2022, Romania also requests that the VAT deduction be allowed only on the basis of the original copy of the invoice, considered the one from the e-Invoice platform, but the decision of the EU Council did not grant this derogation to the authorities in Bucharest, so the VAT deduction will not be able to be limited in this way.

The decision of the EU Council does not produce effects as such, as it is necessary for the Ministry of Finance to amend the national legislation to introduce the obligation to use e-Invoice.

Regulation of e-Invoice, currently

The issuance of electronic invoices and their reporting through the national e-Invoice system became mandatory from July 1, 2022, but only for certain operations. Thus, in the B2B relationship, the system is currently mandatory for sales of products considered to have a high fiscal risk, and in the B2G relationship, the system is mandatory for all public procurement, both for goods and services.

Through the e-Invoice system, the electronic invoice is sent and received in a structured electronic XML format, which allows its electronic and automatic processing. The e-Invoice system is available in the Virtual Private Space, where access is based on a qualified certificate for electronic signature.

Invoices are uploaded to the system in the form of an .xml file, they are validated from the point of view of syntax by the ANAF server and, if all the form conditions are met, the system sends an invoice issuance message to the SPV both to the recipient and to the beneficiary.

The .xml type files can currently be generated either through a free application, made available by the Ministry of Finance, or through own applications developed iwnternally by companies or invoicing software developers.

The date of communication of the electronic invoice to the recipient is considered the date on which the electronic invoice is available to him for download from the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Factura, and the original copy of the electronic invoice is considered the .xml file, available in the MF servers.

Invoices are kept in the SPV for 60 days, then archived and available upon request.

Currently, companies can also optionally register in the e-Invoice Register for the application of the electronic invoicing system, and the registration leads to the obligation to report all invoices through the system. In addition, once they have opted for the application of the e-Invoice system, companies can no longer renounce their option.

Article published in TaxMagazine