The industry in The Netherlands has been released from a huge paperwork burden, after the political decision was taken to allow e-mail for sending invoices. This administrative change provides entrepreneurs with possible annual savings worth € 600 million.
The tax authorities state that paper is no longer sacred. Companies are allowed to send invoices to each other per email, without having to pass all kinds of rules and regulations. Until now, it was compulsory for companies to prove that their bills were able to meet certain authenticity rules. This rule did not count for citizens. Last month, the new method was put into practice.
Head start
State secretary De Jager (Finance) showed his satisfaction in an interview with newspaper De Telegraaf: “This is a huge gesture to industry, without touching the taxpayers money,” De Jager said.
Dealing with everyday paperwork still costs a lot of money and time. By simply sending their bills by e-mail, businesses can significantly save on paper and postage. It is also possible and fairly easy to digitally process invoices in the computer system. Entrepreneurs are now often working long hours to process paperwork.
Until now it was difficult to send invoices electronically because of the strict authentication requirements. But according to De Jager, digital invoices are no less secure. In anticipation of a law adjustment, he therefore would like to make the first move: “This is a huge motivation for doing a lot more by using digital instruments and it saves hundreds of millions,” says the CDA politician, who also wants to put the subject higher on the European agenda.
Context
Despite this decision organisations still have to live up to their obligation to have a proper (fiscal and financial) administration. The decision makes clear that e-invoicing is part of the entire administration of an organisation. To determine whether an organisation has lived up to his or her –VAT- obligations with e-invoicing, the invoices will be checked against other administrative resources within an organisation and its customers. For instance: financial statements, bank accounts and audit files.
The translated article (using Google Translate) can be found here:
Source: www.telegraaf.nl
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Was the translator of this article perhaps a big (Star Wars) Yoda fan?
These sentences remind me of his particular use of grammar:
Until now, companies were able to demonstrate that the coupons to all features comply. For this duty all citizens did not. The Inland Revenue is going next Monday with the new method to work.
:-)
[Editor: Apologies for the poor first translation, we overlooked a part of the article while translating it. Hopefully the new version is acceptable.]