April 1, 2014, is the expiration date for the grace period granted some months ago by the Portugese Tax and Customs Authority to allow businesses trading in Portugal to migrate their accounting systems to an compliant electronic invoicing solution audited by the DGCI (Directorate General for Taxation).

The extended grace period was granted because the Portuguese authorities discovered that a large number of companies were still in the migration process to the new mandatory system for electronic billing and would not be ready as from 1 April 2014.

Now that the grace period has expired, it is understood that companies should have already completed the rollout process. So, as of 1 April with the entry into force of Ministerial Decree nº 340/2013:

• the obligation of compliant electronic invoicing solutions extends to all businesses issuing electronic invoices.
• any company that do not use certified billing software, can be liable to penalties.
• all software developed in-house by companies will no longer be considered valid, even if it follows the XML file construction criteria with inclusion of the fields deemed mandatory by the tax authorities.

EDICOM SAFT-PT: Certified Solution

EDICOM’s solution for electronic invoice issuing in Portugal is audited and certified by the Portuguese Tax Authority (DGCI), in accordance with the requirements of Decree nº 363/2010 and this new Decree nº 340/2013.

Additionally, EDICOM’s SAFT-PT solution includes value-added services:

• Web Service Connector: Automates online declaration of electronic invoices to the Portuguese tax authorities.

• File Validator: Automatic validation model that ensures compliance with the specifications required by the Tax Authority.