Legal alert no. 96

Deadline extension – Invoice processing rules (Decree-Law no. 28/2019)

The Order no. 254/2019 know published, postpones certain obligations of Decree-Law no. 28/2019, namely:

·         Obligation of exclusive use of billing software programs previously certified by the Tax Authorities for taxpayers who were not covered by this obligation may be fulfilled until 1 January 2020, without any penalties;

• Obligation to ensure the general requirements of the billing and accounting software programs, regarding the operational integrity, the integrity of the supporting data and the availability of the relevant technical documentation of the mentioned software programs, considering that this obligation was not yet required may also be fulfilled until 1 January 2020 with no penalties;

·         The obligation of the taxpayers regarding the establishments, under the scope of article 34 of Decree-Law no. 28/2019, may be fulfilled until 31 October 2019 (for taxpayers already exercising activity or with start of activity up to 30 September 2019, and within 30 days from the start of activity or changes on the activity, for all other taxpayers).

The order also prescribes that Tax Authorities must provide an APP, free of charge, to allow the use of billing software programs previously certified.

Tax Authorities shall publish, until 1 October 2019, a guidance to clarify some doubts that have been raised regarding some aspects of Decree-Law no. 28/2019, of 15 February. One of those is, obviously, the controversial obligation of exclusive use billing software programs previously certified by the Tax Authorities for taxpayers who were not covered by this obligation, as the VAT taxpayer’s non-resident in Portugal and with no permanent establishment known as “980” taxpayers.

Please click here to read the Order no.  254/2019.

Therefore, the deadline of June 30^th, 2019 for the submission of the initial declaration of the ultimate beneficial owner, as well as the deadline of July 1^st, 2019, which corresponds to the date as of the obliged entities shall start with the mandatory access to the CRBO, have to be extended, attending to the difficulties raised by its execution, pursuant to the legal security and public order principles.

In this regard and pursuant to the provisions of the approved Ministerial Order, the initial declaration of the entities subject to the CRBO, which have been incorporated until June 29^th, 2019, shall be submitted respectively until October 31^st, 2019, for the particular case of entities subject to commercial registration, and until November 30^th, 2019, for the remaining entities.

Additionally, entities that are legally deemed to access to the CRBO to confirm information, shall fulfill with this obligation solely after January 31^st, 2020, unless in case where the respective access code had been previously provided to them. It should be noted that is applicable to all entities subject to the CRBO, including those, which have been incorporated after October 1^st, 2018.

Finally, Ministerial Order no. 200/2019, of June 28^th foresees furthermore that the annual obligation to be fulfilled by those entities to confirm the information regarding the beneficial owner shall not be applicable nor deem in 2020, and this exemption shall be applicable even for those entities that have submitted the ultimate beneficial owner declaration in 2018, without prejudice of the obligation to update any potential change in the information provided that may occur.  

This Ministerial Order shall enter into force in June 29^th, 2019.

To access to the complete provisions of Ministerial Order no. 200/2019, of June 28^th, please click here.