Life of physical invoices enters the final count; This November 29 expired deadline to benefit from electronic invoicing

In EasyPrint, a small photocopying and printing business, located in the north center of Quito, two young entrepreneurs provide -as every day- service to their customers. One of the clients pays for the service and they ask him if he wants a physical or electronic invoice. The man hesitates, but the owner explains that physical invoices can only be issued until Tuesday, November 29, and that some companies only accept electronic ones. The man then asks for the electronic invoice.

Daniela Ortega, owner of Easy Print, assures that at the moment her business already has both systems (physical and electronic). but from tomorrow, November 30, only the electronic ones will be issued, as recommended by their accountant.

is that this November 29, 2022 is, as provided by the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), the last day to implement electronic invoicing. The Economic Development Law indicates that within a maximum period of one year from the publication of this law in the Official Gazette (November 29, 2021) the taxpayers of the Income Tax that are obliged to invoice must have incorporated the scheme of electronic billing. This provision will not be applicable to taxpayers that are considered popular businesses.

In this way, the issuance of physical invoices almost comes to an end in Ecuador, to a kind of final count, since the SRI will no longer issue authorizations for physical invoices. This was explained a few days ago by the director of Revenue, Francisco Briones, in a radio interview: “Although as of November 30 the SRI will no longer give authorization for physical invoices, until November 29 we will continue giving them because that It is what the law commands us.” But he also explained that those who still have physical invoices that have been authorized by the SRI in the past months, will be able to use them for a few more months: “They will have a validity period of two, three, six, twelve months, those documents will still be valid. We will see some physical documents circulate for another year,” said the official..

Meanwhile, some companies that are software providers for electronic invoicing and that advise to obtain the electronic signature, which is necessary to enter the system, are currently overwhelmed with orders. Ricardo Vallejo, manager of Iconta, explained that there are many companies and businesses that are asking for the service “and want it now.”

He considers that in the course of this week, the orders will continue and he realizes that at the moment in his particular business there are some 500 companies that have already requested the service and to which it is dispatching.

Until now 423,000 taxpayers have already implemented electronic invoicing (332 thousand individuals and 91 thousand companies). However, the SRI authorized a few days ago, ex officio (automatically) to 661,100 taxpayers to be incorporated into this issuance scheme. These taxpayers authorized ex officio must obtain the electronic signature and biller to comply with the obligation. Thus, together with those authorized ex officio, they will add more than a million taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the SRI highlighted that it made modifications to the process to facilitate the migration to electronic invoicing for taxpayers:

• A debit agreement is no longer required for authorization as issuers of electronic receipts.
• Obtaining an electronic signature with an ID was enabled (previously it could only be obtained with a RUC).
• Two new certifying entities were approved in the electronic receipt scheme.
• The billing application was enabled for all taxpayers SRI and Me onlinethe same one that previously was directed only to natural persons not obliged to keep accounts.

Taxpayers can verify if they have been authorized ex officio for the issuance of electronic invoices by entering the query “Validation of issuer in production” on the SRI page. (YO)