EU-Ministerrat beschließt Vereinfachung bei elektronischen Rechnungen

15.07.2010

Der Ministerrat der EU hat am 13.07.2010 die Änderungen der bisherigen Mehrwertsteuerdirektive 2006/112/EC endgültig beschlossen. In Artikel 233 wird es nun den Beteiligten überlassen, wie sie die Authentizität, Integrität und Lesbarkeit einer Rechnung sicherstellen. Dabei wird nicht zwischen elektronischen Rechnungen und Rechnungen auf Papier unterschieden. Zulässig sind alle Verfahren, die den Zusammenhang zwischen einer Rechnung und der Lieferung von Waren oder Dienstleistungen zuverlässig herstellen. Die bislang verpflichtend vorgeschriebene digitale Signatur beziehungsweise das EDIFACT-Verfahren nennt die neue Direktive nur noch beispielhaft.

Direktive

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Intention der Direktive

"Since the use of electronic invoicing can help businesses to reduce costs and be more competitive, current VAT requirements on electronic invoicing should be revised to remove existing burdens and barriers to uptake. Paper invoices and electronic invoices should be treated equally and the administrative burden on paper invoicing should not increase."

Artikel 233 in der Neufassung

1. The authenticity of the origin, the integrity of the content and the legibility of an invoice, whether on paper or in electronic form, shall be ensured from the point in time of issue until the end of the period for storage of the invoice.

Each taxable person shall determine the way to ensure the authenticity of the origin, the integrity of the content and the legibility of the invoice. This may be achieved by any business controls which create a reliable audit trail between an invoice and a supply of goods or services.

"Authenticity of the origin" means the assurance of the identity of the supplier or the
issuer of the invoice.

"Integrity of the content" means that the content required according to this Directive has not been altered.

2. Other than by way of the type of business controls described in paragraph 1, the following are examples of technologies that ensure the authenticity of the origin and the integrity of the content of an electronic invoice:

(a) an advanced electronic signature within the meaning of point (2) of Article 2 of Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures*, based on a qualified certificate and created by a secure signature creation device, within the meaning of points (6) and (10) of Article 2 of Directive 1999/93/EC;

(b) electronic data interchange (EDI), as defined in Article 2 of Commission Recommendation 1994/820/EC of 19 October 1994 relating to the legal aspects of electronic data interchange, where the agreement relating to the exchange provides for the use of procedures guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the data.