Perhaps everyone whose future profession is connected with the study of company reporting needs to know what an invoice is.
This document is an official paper certifying the supply of goods or services. From the point of view of tax accounting of the Russian Federation, this is a certificate of the seller ’s obligation to pay VAT to the budget necessary for tax. For accounting, the VAT taxpayer fills in the books of purchases and, accordingly, sales. Any invoice contains the name and details of the seller, as well as the buyer. Of course, the invoice reflects the list of goods and services received, the date of the transaction. You can issue an invoice on a specialized form, and it will serve as a certificate showing the origin of the goods.
Legislative regulation
The application of invoices is regulated by the corresponding article of the Tax Code of Russia numbered 168, as well as 169. In addition, one should be guided by the Decree of the Government of Russia dated 02.12 2000, numbered 914, which approves the rules for maintaining journals used to record invoices, as well as the already mentioned books of purchase and sale in the prescribed form.
By law, the preparation of invoices is imposed on the following categories of taxpayers conducting these operations:
1. Taxable.
2. Not subject to taxation (according to Article 149 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
4. Category exempted from VAT (according to Article 145 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). The invoice is marked “without VAT”.
5. The so-called tax agents of the Russian Federation (all organizations, including individual entrepreneurs), who purchase goods or services from foreign persons in the Russian Federation that are not registered with the tax authorities.
6. Tenant organizations of state-owned property, which are also tax agents.
Categories of taxpayers that do not constitute an invoice include:
1. Organizations and citizens without the formation of a legal entity (IP) engaged in retail trade, public catering or providing other services directly to the population in cash. In this case, the seller must issue only a cashier's check.
2. Taxpayers in securities transactions exempted from VAT (excluding brokerage, as well as intermediary services).
3. Banking institutions, for certain transactions, for which VAT is not paid.
4. Insurance companies for tax-exempt transactions.
6. Non-state pension funds for operations exempted from VAT.
In accordance with article number 168 of the Tax Code of Russia, the buyer or seller must submit an invoice for the goods within five calendar days from the date of full payment or prepayment. At the same time, authorized persons who must sign the invoice include the chief accountant, as well as the head.
The tax authorities are particularly demanding to draw up a document such as an invoice. The new format (the list of corrections in the document effective April 2012 according to the government decree of December 26, 2011) is given below.
New invoice format
- in line 7 we now need to register the currency code, in strict accordance with the all-Russian classifier;
- if the organization has other units, then through the dividing line the unit number is indicated (which is previously prescribed in the accounting policy);
- in the column "unit of measurement" the code is indicated, as well as the symbol, which is also taken from the all-Russian classifier.
These are the main changes that the 2012 invoice must meet. Also, the concept of an electronic invoice based on a digital signature is prescribed in the legislation of the Russian Federation. At the moment, it is practically not used.