Starting June 1, companies must be extremely careful about the new e-invoicing obligations, as the penalty-free grace period ended on May 31. With the sanctioning regime related to the national electronic invoicing system currently in force, companies must ensure that their invoicing systems comply with e-Invoice requirements as non-compliance with these obligations can lead to significant financial penalties, affecting both large taxpayers, as well as the medium and small ones. Adapting to the new rules is not only a legal obligation, but also a necessity to avoid fines and to ensure efficient business management in the current context, marked by accelerated digitalization.

The grace period for e-Factura ended on May 31st, so the sanctioning regime related to the national electronic invoicing system began to apply from June 1st. This means that companies now have no respite, and can be fined at any time if they do not submit all invoices issued through the national e-Factura system.

The reporting deadline is no more than 5 working days from the issuance of the invoices, and non-compliance will attract considerable fines, differentiated according to the size of the taxpayers:

• Large taxpayers: fines between 5,000 and 10,000 lei;
• Medium taxpayers: fines between 2,500 and 5,000 lei;
• Small taxpayers and natural persons: fines between 1,000 and 2,500 lei.

Meanwhile, by GEO no. 34/2024, published in April, the authorities also clarified how these fines will be effectively applied, given that this was not sufficiently well articulated in the initial legislation.

Thus, the Ministry of Finance made it clear through this normative act that fines are applied only once for all invoices related to a month and not reported in the system, not on each individual invoice. This means that the sanctions will be applied globally for the lack of sending invoices in e-Invoice from a calendar month, regardless of their number.

Also, through GEO no. 34/2024, it was expressly established that for invoices not reported during the grace period (until May 31), ANAF cannot apply retroactive fines.

However, we draw attention to the fact that in the Fiscal Procedure Code there is an indirect sanctioning mechanism. The mechanism, notified including by the central press and then confirmed by the Ministry of Finance, is a general one and can be applied to several types of contraventions in the accounting-fiscal sphere, so including those targeted by the e-Factura. Through this mechanism, an inspector in fiscal control can request a company to send in e- Factura all invoices issued in other formats in the first five months of this year (as long as the grace period was in force), and, subsequently, if the measure ordered by the inspector is not fulfilled, fines can be applied (so the actual absence of invoices from the e- Factura will be sanctioned, but the failure to fulfil some measures imposed by ANAF inspectors).

Fines of this kind are even higher than those specifically provided by the legal framework of e- Factura: between 12,000 and 14,000 lei for medium and large taxpayers or between 2,000 and 3,500 lei for other legal entities and individuals.

It is also worth pointing out that later, from July 1, the obligations related to electronic invoicing enter a new stage, an even stricter one: invoices in paper format or those in alternative electronic format (e-mail or any other standards used by companies until now in their invoicing process), with invoices being issued and communicated to commercial partners strictly through e- Factura. And the deadline for reporting invoices will be shortened, from July 1, being five calendar days from issuance.

Apart from the fines, which will be the same for not reporting invoices on time, from next month another sanction will appear for those who receive or register invoices not reported in the national electronic invoicing system: the fine will be equal to 15% of the total value of the concerned document.

Apart from the fine, starting from July 1, 2024, taxpayers who receive and register invoices that were not sent through the e- Factura system will not have the right to deduct the related VAT, since starting from this date only the electronic documents issued in the system are eligible for VAT deduction, in accordance with articles 299 and 319 respectively of the Fiscal Code.

Article published in TaxNews.ro