New essential functionalities, introduced in e-Factura12 February 2024

Although the e-Factura implementation calendar remained unchanged for 2024, with the same obligation for companies to use the new electronic invoicing standard from January 1 alongside traditional methods and then fully migrate to the new system from July 1, in the last weeks, the authorities have changed the framework for using the national electronic invoicing system several times. The updates concerned both technical improvements made in the invoice reporting platform, as well as clarifications and changes in the legislative framework of the field, with a direct impact on the reporting obligations and the sanctioning regime applicable to companies that do not comply with the new invoicing standard.
From a technical point of view, the e-Factura platform received several significant updates and modernizations in the last month, necessary to make the issuing and management of electronic invoices more efficient, reflecting a series of requirements expressed since the beginning of the year by companies that started to use the national electronic invoicing system.
The Ministry of Finance announced, for example, that it has introduced the auto-invoicing function, so the system now allows the e-Factura to be sent including invoices issued by beneficiaries on behalf of suppliers, with the right to post to the buyer, not to the supplier.
Responding to requests from accounting service providers, the Ministry of Finance has also implemented an advanced invoice filtering function, which allows users to sort invoices based on specific criteria, which facilitates efficient management of fiscal documents. Implemented via a change to the invoice list call from web services, filtering is automatically accessible via API, providing easy integration into existing accounting systems.
In order to provide greater flexibility in the transmission of the supporting documentation, which in some cases accompanies the invoices, the Ministry of Finance has made it possible for companies to include annexes or additional documents directly in the XML structure of the electronic invoice that is uploaded to the servers of the tax administration. This improvement facilitates the transmission of complete and detailed information within the e-Factura system.
Beyond improvements and new functionalities, the platform operated by the Ministry of Finance has also been optimized to solve one of the major problems frequently complained about by users in the last month: the transmission of an invoice in the system several times. Since January 16, the e-Factura platform blocks the introduction of duplicate invoices, eliminating the risk of human error and simplifying the tax verification process.
Another aspect complained by the companies and which was remedied by the authorities concerns the interrupted operation of the e-Factura, due to the periodic unavailability of the Virtual Private Space (SPV). The Ministry assured that the technical solutions implemented in the last month now allow uninterrupted access to the e-Factura system, even during maintenance work at the SPV.
On the legislative side, the legal framework of the electronic invoicing system was modified in the last days of last year, by GEO no. 115/2023. The ordinance brought clarifications to the deadlines for reporting invoices in the system, established reporting exceptions and modified the sanctioning regime applicable from July 1.
Thus, the normative act clarified that, starting from July 1, the deadline for reporting invoices in e-Factura is five calendar days, therefore different from the deadline of five working days which is mandatory until that date. The fines for non-compliance with the reporting deadlines are differentiated according to the size of the taxpayers: large companies risk fines from 5,000 to 10,000 lei, medium-sized ones – from 2,500 to 5,000 lei, and small ones and individuals – from 1,000 to 2,500 lei.
Later, from July 1, GEO 115/2023 establishes another sanction, this time for receiving and registering invoices in a different format than the one imposed by the e-Factura system: for such practices, companies will risk a fine of 15 % of the invoice amount (including VAT).
The ordinance also established that the following are exempted from the reporting obligation in the national system: simplified invoices, those issued in transactions with persons not registered for VAT purposes in Romania, as well as those issued for intra-community deliveries or exports.
Article published in Business-Mark.ro