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VAT anti-fraud law: what changes your billing method
If rigorously managing its invoicing for a company is an activity that can seem tedious and time-consuming, it is absolutely essential. The laws governing the creation of invoices and their follow-up are changing. This is how the 2018 finance law amends article 88 of the 2016 finance law.
This new billing law, which takes effect on January 1, 2018, requires the use of state-certified software for companies subject to VAT. This applies to anyone who registers their customers' payments using cash register software. Subsidiaries and branches of foreign companies are also affected by these changes. On the other hand, micro-entrepreneurs, issuing invoices exempt from all VAT, are therefore normally not affected by this change, at least for the moment. And, for those who use multifunction software, only the cashier functions are concerned.
The objective of this law is to encourage companies to digitize their billing method. Thus, invoices issued in paper format are digitized in order to be able to keep them longer and to facilitate their storage. The legislation thus imposes the inalterability of invoices when they have been issued. The software keeps the invoices but also records any modification made, whether it is a change of date or amount for example. In addition, the paper invoice must be in all respects similar to the digital invoice. This digitization aims to eliminate any invoice fraud.
The use of this software allows each company to keep all of these documents for the mandatory period of six years. Archiving can be done using the software or in a specific archive if it complies with the anti-fraud conditions imposed by this new bill law. This data archiving makes it possible, in the event of an administration check, to find and read your invoices more easily.
Our invoicing software meets each of the requirements of the VAT anti-fraud law as it entered into force on January 1. And, to certify its compliance, we provide each of our customers with a certificate that affirms that our software meets the conditions of inalterability, security, conservation and archiving.
Our certificate is nominative for each entrepreneur subject to VAT and it includes the mandatory information:
- The fact that our software complies with the 4 conditions expected in the VAT anti-fraud law
- The name and reference of the software as well as its version and license number
- The date of acquisition by the taxable person
If the certificate does not have to be renewed at regular intervals like every year for example, it must be if our software undergoes major evolutions such as a later version which could have appeal to the functions of inalterability, security, conservation or archiving. We undertake to give you a new certificate in the event of a new major version of our software so that you are always in compliance with this law.
It is good to know that any entrepreneur who does not use billing software recognized by the State may be fined € 7,500 in the event of an administrative check and will only have 60 days to regularize his situation. It is therefore better not to take any risk and abandon your Word or Excel invoicing system for software or cash register system that meets the conditions required by the anti-fraud law such as the our.
