Companies must issue electronic invoice by the end of the year

By ETCO

Author: Daniel Lima / Agência Brasil

Source: iMirante - PLANTÃO I - 20/06/2010

BRASÍLIA - By the end of this year, 1 million companies need to start issuing electronic invoices in transactions with each other and to obtain credits from the tax authorities. Since the beginning of the program, in April 2008, more than 191 thousand companies have joined the system, and have issued more than 1 billion documents and transactions, which add up to R $ 32,5 trillion.



The electronic invoice is a digital only document, issued and stored, that registers for tax purposes a movement of goods or the provision of services between companies.



According to Álvaro Antônio da Silva Bahia, national technical coordinator of the Electronic Invoice Project, the new system will bring several benefits, ranging from transactions between companies to more accurate control of state tax authorities, in addition to reducing prices for citizens common.



For the departments of Finance and the Federal Revenue Service, the benefit of adopting this system is greater control over the process and, consequently, the payment of taxes resulting from these operations. For companies, the advantage is cost reduction, as it is no longer necessary to store notes and fill in various paper documents.



According to the supervisor-general of the Public Digital Bookkeeping System, Carlos Sussumu Oda, with greater control by the tax authorities, many frauds resulting from the use of the paper note will cease to exist.



“Unfair competition will fall, causing an increase in competitiveness between companies. If there is competition, prices will fall ”.



In addition, the measure will avoid the felling of trees for the manufacture of paper and will reduce the use of printing ink, among other benefits for the environment.



According to the project coordinator, Álvaro Antônio da Silva Bahia, the electronic invoice has been implemented since April 2008. The first group of companies with the obligation to issue the digital document was the fuel segment, such as Petrobras, and cigarettes.



Since then, an adherence schedule has been established for the various segments, published on the Ministry of Finance portal. It is expected that by the end of the year, more than 95% of companies will be issuing electronic invoices in Brazil. Those who do not adapt will have problems, since the physical paper notes will no longer be valid within this period. The goal is that in 2011 everyone is definitely in the system.



According to Álvaro Antônio da Silva Bahia, who in addition to being the program's technical coordinator is a tax auditor for the Bahia Finance Department, the deadline will not be changed. “We will not open at any time if the deadline is not met. It is a matter of honor to keep the deadlines ”.



Although electronic invoicing is a must, Silva Bahia said that, given the benefits, there are companies that have decided to use it also for the end consumer. "It turns out that the product is so good, that there are companies, such as car dealerships, that are already preferring [issuing the electronic note also] to the consumer".



To issue the electronic invoice, the taxpayer must be accredited with the Finance Department of his district. Then, he gains access to the computing environment of the Secretariat of Finance to issue the document only in a test environment in search of homologation of his invoices, until obtaining legal validity.



After this stage and the necessary adjustments in the company and secretariat processes, the taxpayer can begin to issue the document in its own environment.



For each note issued, the taxpayer's computer communicates with that of the Treasury Department, which will validate the issue, verifying that the data contained in the document are correct. If so, the company is authorized to issue the note to the customer. The IRS will be responsible for maintaining the national repository of all these documents.



A free program is provided by the finance departments. The taxpayer also needs to have a digital certificate of legal entity to sign the document digitally, which guarantees its validity.