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LegislationThe provision of Section 5 of the the Austrian ICT Consolidation Act from 2012 mandates mandates that all contracting partners of the federal government, including foreign contracting partners, must must only submit structured structured electronic invoices for the provision of goods and services to government departments[1]. eInvoicing is mandatory only for the federal government although a few exceptions do not require eInvoicing. These include immediate payments, leasing contracts, insurance contracts, etc. The national Transposition of Directive 2014/55/EU is contained in BVergG 2018 §368. It only mandates the reception of eInvoices on procured good and services that are above the threshold2018 §368. In Austria, there has been a minimal transposition of the Directive and the obligation was applied only for contracting authorities above the EU thresholds. The final deadline for the central procuring authorities to comply is the same as the EU date for the implementation of the eInvoicing Directive, i.e., 20 April 2020. eInvoicing platform and management solutionse-Rechnung.gv.at is a data transfer method for the delivery of structured electronic invoices (eInvoices) to the Austrian Public Sector as well to other invoice recipients. eInvoices can be electronically transmitted via the Unternehmensservice Portal (Business Service Portal - USP) or via the Peppol eDelivery Network, whereby the process of the invoice handling is optimised for the biller as well as for the invoice recipient. The Unternehmensservice Portal uses ebInterface as the standard format for eInvoices. Since January 2022, the platform supports only the XLM invoicing format ebInterface versions 4.3, 5.0 and 6.00. If the eInvoices are submitted via the Peppol eDelivery Network, they must be issued instead in a UBL format. Peppol is mostly use to send eInvoices outside of Austria since a foreign invoicing party usually does not have an Austrian VAT ID and therefore cannot transmit invoices via ebInterface. Austria mandates the use of the FederalBusiness Service Portal ( Unternehmensserviceportal – USPUnternehmensservice Portal), thethe central processing eInvoicing platform of the federal government to receive eInvoices . eInvoices are sent to the Austrian Federal Government through the Federal Service Portal. The portal is operated by the Federal Computing Centre (BRZ). A one- time freetime free-of- charge registrationcharge registration step is necessary before eInvoices can be transmitted (source). Solution providers in Austria can choose their preferred eInvoicing platform for submitting eInvoices. There are about 60 software providers who can generate structured eInvoices in the country. However, any used solution (except for solutions using the Peppol infrastructure eDelivery networkNetwork) must connect to the the Federal Service Portal (USP) that provides that provides authentication services necessary for the submission of eInvoices and to the the E-Rechnung.gv.at, which which is a data transfer “method” method for the submission of eInvoices specifically to the Austrian Public Sector. The federal government’s eInvoicing service, E-rechnung.gv.at, which has been operating since 2012, will be is able to understand UBL and CII syntaxes. Four out of nine of Austria’s federal states are already connected to this system. The latest version versions of the national standard (i.e. ebInterface , ebInterface version 5) takes into .0 and 6.0) take into account the EN and the convertibility to both to both syntaxes. Additionally, the Federal Economic chamber maintains a a list of service operators, connected to USP, through which the automatic electronic transmission of invoices to federal agencies can be performed. The BBG (Bundesbeschaffung Ges.m.b.H) is the federal public procurement agency from austria. Economic operators which are comimissioned commissioned over contracts provided by the BBG has have to sent send invoices to the BBG eInvoices portal. BBG has the legal obligation to evaluate statistical data from the invoices. The BBG invoices portal is connected to the federal government eInvoicing service. Delivery of eInvoices to this service (E-Rechnung.gv.at) is free of charge for the user. Approach for receiving and processingThe Austrian federal government receives and processes eInvoices from economic operators supported by the following solutions:
Thus, companies submit eInvoices viavia E-rechnung.gv.at afterafter authenticating in the PortalPortal (USP) or as paper, e-mail, PDF etc., via a solution provider managing the transmission. Solution providers already connected to thethe Federal Business Service Portal (USP) can forward their clients’ invoices without the need for individual registration. After the submission, the eInvoices are stored as automatically generated PDFs. This is followed by an automatic pre-acquisition of the invoice receipt document, linking to the archive, which then initiates the processing workflow. The eInvoice processing is integrated into the federal budgeting and bookkeeping system process. Once received by public administrations, eInvoices are processed at federal level through automated and integrated systems linked to the workflow and core systems of the public administrations. While the processing of eInvoices is automated and integrated into the federal government, it widely differs for all other public entities. For example, in cases when organisations do not have ERPEnterprise Resource Planning systems in place, eInvoices are processed manually. No electronic signature is required for eInvoices and the archiving period amounts to 7 years. Archiving abroad is possible if the eInvoices are accessible online[2]. eInvoicing implementation in sub-central level contracting authoritiesAt sub-central level, the eInvoicing system is based on Peppol, used by 50 000 contracting authorities. The The reception of eInvoices on a sub-central level is not organised by law. They are free to join eRechnung.gv.at, the federal government solution, as receivers volontarily voluntarily or implement their solution. The EN is partially implemented. Some issues related to the certain attributes of the eInvoicing format impacted its take-up. The issues are mainly related to the unique identifiers (for suppliers) which are considered as misleading. CIUS-AT-NAT and CIUS-AT-GOV are the CIUS in operation and are communicated through workshops, information on websites and internet forums. The communication is mainly done through the Austrian eInvoicing standard ebInterface. On this ebInterface, the Chamber of Economy provides a word plugin for the creation of eInvoices. There is also a dedicated eInvoicing portal. The The main identified benefits of the implementation of eInvoicing at the sub-central level are cost and operational savings, the reduction of administrative burden and optimization , the optimisation of time to payments and the contribution to process automation. Status on the implementation of the European Standard on eInvoicing (EN)The latest amendment of The latest amendment of the act on public procurement (BVergG 2018) , transposed transposed Directive 2014/55/EU. This act came into force in 2018. As mentioned in the section "Additional information“ the The Austrian government implemented a specific plan at the federal level for the implementation of the European standard on eInvoicing. The mandatory Portal (e-Rechnung.gv.at) was extended to allow Austrian public entities to receive eInvoices according to EN-16931. All EN documents can be obtained from Austrian Standards. The necessary technical requirements of the the European standard on eInvoicing are are covered in the existing portal portal e-Rechnung.gv.at. Monitoring eInvoicing implementationThe monitoring is implemented only at the central level. Use of Core Invoicing Usage Specifications (CIUS) at national levelAustria has two Austria has two CIUSes in place: one for the national level (complying with Austrian VAT law) and another one for the government sector’s specific obligations (based on the previous CIUS on VAT law). These two CIUSes are approved by the by the Federal Minister of Finance. Additional informationFederal Procurement office (BBG) and the Austrian Federal Computing Centre (BRZ) work together in different EU initiatives (CEN/e-SENS/Peppol ).The Austrian government also prepared a specific plan at the federal level for the implementation of the European standard on eInvoicing. The mandatory Portal (e-Rechnung.gv.at) will be extended to allow Austrian public entities to receive eInvoices according to EN-16931. A federal procurement law (source, page 8[CRG1] ) is in place to transpose Directive 2014/55/EU and an agreement exists at both the federal and state level, calling on the states to adhere to what exists at the federal level (SM2). In Austria, there will be a minimal transposition and the obligation will fall only for contracting authorities above the EU thresholds. The deadline for the central procuring authorities to comply is the same as the EU date, i.e. 18 April 2019. The sub-central authorities will have an additional year to comply with the Directive, as permitted by the Directive. For Austria, the main challenge will be to overcome the PDF/document-based eInvoice system currently in use in the public sector, therefore no further political steps will be taken beyond the scope of the Directive. Digital reporting requirementsAdditional informationIn Austria, eInvoicing is not currently used for Valuad Added Tax (VAT) digital reporting. However, while no reporting obligations have been introduced, accounting and tax data in SAF-T format can be requested from certain companies by tax authorities in the case of audits. These on-demand requests linked to audits are not considered as Digital Reporting Requirements (DRRs)[3]. [1] Government Government departments include all federal ministries and their subordinate departments, as well as the Parliament, the Office of the Federal President, the Administrative Court, the Constitutional Court, the Austrian Ombudsman Board and the Austrian Court of Audit, [2] (Electronic Invoice in Austria, 2023), [3] (VAT in the Digital Age Report Digital Reporting Requirements, 2022).
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