EY Romania survey : Four out of ten companies are not ready to comply with e-invoicing

Four out of ten companies (39%) are not ready to comply with e-invoicing on a widespread basis, 32% say they are 30-50% ready, and almost a third of those surveyed said they have not yet analysed the impact of this requirement, according to an EY Romania survey.

The RO e-Invoice (RO e-Factura in Romanian, ed. n.) system could become mandatory across the board, starting as early as 1 January 2024, for all types of transactions between companies established in Romania.

At the end of July 2023, the Council of the European Union granted Romania a derogation to apply special measures for the adoption of compulsory electronic invoicing, the decision being applicable for the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026.

As the RO e-invoice system has already been applied from 1 July 2022 by some Romanian companies (for B2G invoices, high tax risk products or holiday vouchers), but most companies waited for the EU Council decision on generalised e-invoicing, EY Romania has conducted a study to understand how ready economic agents are to integrate into the generalised e-Invoicing system and what would be the time periods they need for a successful enrollment in the system.

According to the consulting company, the good news is that a large proportion of respondents are now focusing on preparing for the time of full electronic invoicing, with the overwhelming majority of respondents (78%) being concerned that the tax authorities are considering making the e-Invoice programme generally applicable and that this could happen as early as 1 January 2024.

The less good news is that with less than 6 months to go before 1 January 2024, a number of challenges loom that would take more than half a year to resolve.

“Pending a decision from the tax authorities on the exact date from which e-invoicing becomes mandatory in Romania, companies should have already started taking steps to be able to integrate the processes and invoicing systems currently used with the RO e-Invoice system. 1 January 2024 is fast approaching and, even if the authorities decide to postpone the adoption of e-Invoice to a date later than 1 January 2024 or to grant a grace period, as has happened in the case of other tax reports, such as SAF-T or RO-transport, practical experience has shown that such an implementation requires at least 6 to 12 months, depending, of course, on the diversity of economic operations, but also on the particularities and the level of integration and automation of the invoicing solutions currently used by companies,” says Georgiana Iancu, EY Romania Indirect Tax and Tax Digitisation Practice Coordinator.