details

Executive summary

Electronic invoices have been used for a long time by Swedish businesses; it was allowed in Sweden also before the transposition of Directive 2001/115, which did not lead to any major changes when it came to invoicing electronically. The main methods used are EDI-invoice, e-Invoice and e-Giro (initiative by banks), self-billing, invoice-files via e-mail and online services (ASP, web-EDI, etc) and scanning of paper invoices. The banks and other private providers offer different solutions related to e-invoicing. The Swedish government has decided that all government agencies shall handle invoices electronically by July 1 2008; by this date 99 percent of the agencies could send and 98 percent could receive e-invoices. Efforts are being taken to get the government agencies’ suppliers to invoice electronically. The government standard used is Svefaktura (www.svefaktura.se). The private sector has many solution providers for e-invoicing, both those focusing on Sweden only and those with a more international scope, catering for the needs of multinational corporations. Many fora exist to discuss and develop standards around e-invoicing; e.g. NEA, the Swedish Alliance for eBusiness, as well as industry sector initiatives such as Odette, Papinet, and GS1.

Legal aspects

In summary, no technical measures are mandatory for e-invoicing, as long as the invoice remains unchanged; the interpretations allow e.g. conversions as long as the contents remain the same. Already before the transposition of the VAT Directive (2001/115/EC) paper based and electronic invoices had to be correct and unaltered in order to be valid proof for the statement of account and the tax declaration. No specific technical solutions have been required in order to achieve this purpose. The transposition of the Directive did not lead to any inclusion of specific technical solutions that would secure that the invoice is correct and unaltered; the current regulations in the Book-keeping Act were considered satisfying. In relation to archiving of electronic invoices an amendment was made to the Tax Payment Act, according to which the invoices must be kept unaltered and readable during the entire storage period. The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) may issue regulations with regards to the control of the electronic transfer of invoices. So far no such regulations have been issued by the Tax Agency. Relevant Swedish VAT legislation is the Book-keeping Act (SFS 1999:1078, bokföringslag), the VAT Act (SFS 1994:200, mervärdesskattelag) and the Tax Payment Act (SFS 1997:483, skattebetalningslag).

Important Links

www.e-fakturera.nu
www.sfti.se
www.svefaktura.se
www.nea.nu