Background

In terms of digital reporting, the obligation to submit invoice data electronically began in 2013.

Taxable persons (both resident and non-resident) with an annual turnover above EUR 50.000 should use invoicing software certified by the Tax Authority to transmit invoicing data to the Tax Authority portal and generate supporting documents.

Digital Reporting obligations for taxable persons in Portugal consist of:

1. Electronic transmission of invoice data which can be done by one of three available methods:
   1. By electronic transmission of documents and data in real-time
   2. By electronic transmission of data, by sending a standardized file structured based on the SAF-T (PT) file
   3. Export of the SAFT-PT file to the Tax Authority portal
2. Mandatory obligation to create and export a SAFT-PT accounting file at the request of the tax authority. From 2025, this file should be exported and submitted to the tax authority annually. This means that the first mandatory submission will be April 2026 relating to the records for FY 2025.
3. Electronic communication of data related to transport documents.

It is mandatory to generate electronic invoices for B2G transactions in Portugal, however this obligation does not exist for B2B and B2C transactions. Electronic invoicing in public procurement was initially intended to enter into force on January 1, 2019. The timeline has been updated several times due to the complexity of the project, and then the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the implementation of B2G e-invoicing for large taxpayers, the last phase covering small&medium-sized companies and micro-enterprises will go live on January 1, 2025.

After these changes, all entities should generate e-invoices in the approved standard format – CIUS-PT when supplying services to public entities.

Following the recent latest legal changes, PDF invoices will be considered as electronic invoices for all tax related purposes until December 31, 2024.

What Types of Businesses Does This Apply to?

The last phase when it comes to coverage of suppliers to whom the E-Invoicing rules within the B2G sector are applicable has been finished with the introduction of the mandatory obligation of the micro, small, and medium-sized entities to issue E-Invoice to public entities. Besides economic operators within these categories, the last phase of the project has also taken into account the coverage of obligations of public authorities to issue e-invoices as suppliers to public authorities acting as a recipient.

• Co-contractors may be private entities or public entities as long as they are covered by public contracts.
• The FE-AP solution is available to any public entity and allows direct integration with the GeRFiP solution or, via web services, with any other accounting or document management system, through iAP - Interoperabilidade na Administração Pública.
• Following the 2024 Budget Law, until December 31, 2024, PDF invoices will be accepted, being considered as electronic invoices for all purposes provided for in tax legislation.

Governmental Body Responsible for E-invoicing in Portugal

• The Ministry of Finance is the governmental body responsible for the E-Invoicing project
• The Public Administration Shared Services Entity IP (ESPAP, IP), is the entity that coordinates the implementation of electronic invoicing
• ESPAP, IP, provides a solution for issuing electronic invoicing for Public Administrations, in accordance with the European standard on electronic invoicing
• The Electronic Invoice Portal for Public Administration – FE-AP – is the State Gateway for receiving and processing electronic invoices

Penalties for Not Adhering to Portugal’s E-invoice Mandates

The Portuguese General Regime of Tax Infractions should be taken into account when observing potential penalties for taxpayers when operating in a non-compliant manner:

• Failure to issue invoices or receipts within the deadline: EUR 150 - 3750
• Transaction or use of billing software or equipment that doesn’t comply with legally required documents EUR 3000 - 18 750
• Ommissions or inaccuracies in statements or tax-relevant documents EUR 750 - 22 500

What does the e-invoicing process in Portugal look like?

In relation to B2G E-Invoicing via the State platform, the taxpayer or public entity should first be onboarded on the platform, to authenticate itself before it can start issuing E-Invoices according to the (CIUS-PT Standard) to the public administration body - recipient.

• The FE-AP solution is available to any public entity and allows direct integration with the GeRFiP solution or, via web services, with any other accounting or document management system, through iAP -Interoperability in Public Administration( Interoperabilidade na Administração Pública)
• The solution for implementing the Electronic Invoice in Public Administration (FE-AP) provided by eSPap, within the scope of Shared Finance Services, can be used by all AP bodies, as public contractors
• Public Authorities suppliers, as co-contractors, access the B2AP portal and send electronic billing documents to the FE-AP portal

Digital Reporting Mandate for Invoicing(Real-time reporting of invoice data/SAFT-PT Monthly invoicing file)

1. Following the VAT Law and complementing tax regulation, to taxpayers are given three mutually excluding routes by which they can communicate invoicing data to the Tax Authority Portal:

• Real-time communication via web service
• Monthly submission of the SAFT invoicing file
• Manual upload of the XML file on the tax authority portal

Is SAF-T Needed in Portugal?

The taxable person resident or non-resident should prepare SAFT-PT monthly invoicing file(if this is the chosen method for communication of invoicing data) to submit to the tax authority portal and should also prepare a SAFT-PT Accounting file when asked by Tax Authority for conducting a tax audit.

E-Invoicing & Global Tax Automation with Fonoa

One way to comply with Digital Reporting Requirements in Portugal is to use a provider like Fonoa.

With Fonoa you can:

• Have one integration for your global needs, including Portugal
• Save time and money by automatically cleaning your data to minimize errors and manual work
• Utilize our validation mechanisms to ensure reporting accuracy, data completeness, full control, and compliance
• Rest assured that transactions are successfully reported or queued for internal investigation with our retry mechanisms
• Get full visibility with our dashboards by filtering criteria, analyzing granular transaction data, and quickly importing /exporting information