Scope of the e-Invoicing system
The Thai Revenue Department (RD) introduced electronic invoice regulation in 2017. However, there is no obligation to comply with it, so taxpayers implement e-invoicing in their systems on a voluntary basis. The system is named the Electronic Tax Invoice (or e-Tax Invoice) and Electronic Receipt (or e-Receipt), and prepares tax invoice data electronically. The regulation covers not only invoices and receipts, but also credit and debit notes, which should be generated in the required electronic format.
Both B2B and B2C transactions are covered by the regulation. E-Tax Invoices and e-Receipts can be generated by all VAT-registered suppliers and sent to the final customer.
Technical details of the e-Invoice system
The regulation sets the required electronic format as XML or other electronic formats such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, or PDF/A-3. Additionally, receipts can be received in PDF format, which is a human-readable version of the source electronic document. Before submitting to the government portal, documents must be electronically signed and time stamped.
To add a digital signature, suppliers or service providers must get an electronic certificate from the Certification Authority (CA).
There are several methods to submit e-Invoices and e-Receipts;
1. The e-Tax and e-Receipt System
This submission method is also divided into three options. The first is web upload, which allows issuers to send data manually to the RD, which is convenient for small companies that have low volumes of data.
The second method is host-to-host, in which suppliers connect their accounting systems to the RD directly. This is used by large companies that have large amounts of data.
Some criteria used by the government to specify large companies are:
- if they process at least 500,000 uploads per month
- if they are under the supervision of the Large Business Tax Administration.
- if they have transmission systems that can connect to the information system of the RD as prescribed.
The third method is to send data through a service provider. This is not mandatory, but there is a list of approved service providers published by the government.
The service providers in the list are certified by the RD and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA).
2. e-Tax Invoice by Email
Instead of submitting data to the RD portal, data can be sent through e-mail. VAT-registered entities whose income is less than 30 million Baht per year can issue e-Tax invoices and e-Receipts in PDF/A-3 format and send them via e-mail.
Issued electronic documents should be reported every month and on the 15th of the following month.
How can SNI help you?
SNI’s SAP add-on solution enables you to extract your data in the SAP system, map and process the data, and convert it into the required XML format for electronic invoicing. SNI’s end-to-end add-on solution provides taxpayers with automated electronic invoice transmission.
