The Ministry of Finance presents the final logical structures of the Standard Audit File for Tax

 

The issue concerning the Standard Audit File for Tax (further referred to as "SAF-T") has been already discussed in one of our recent publications (Tax Alert). At that time it was not yet clear what exact form it would take. It was not until Wednesday, 9th March 2016, following analysis of the results of public consultations, that the Ministry of Finance presented the final structure of the file. It can be accessed using the Tax Administration and/or Fiscal Control tabs at the website of the Ministry of Finance (link).

In addition, the Ministry also published a document presenting answers to questions posed by taxpayers during public consultations (link). The issues addressed include, among others, questions about the scope of data requested by tax authorities, the security of data submitted to tax authorities, reporting with SAF-T when using several accounting systems, filing adjustments of SAF-T, overviews within the purchase records, sales, VAT, etc.

As a reminder, the SAF-T is introduced by the Act of 10th September 2015 on Amending the Tax Regulations Act and Some Other Acts (Journal of Laws of 2015, item 1649). The concept of SAF-T requires taxpayers to present to tax authorities accounting books and evidence in the form of structured XML format files. It will allow tax authorities to automatically extract the required substantive data and to verify them. The obligation to submit data in a specific, structured format has been introduced with Article 193a added to the Tax Regulations Act.

The amendment will enter into force on 1st July 2016, whereas in relation to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, the obligation to use SAF-T will only take place from 1st July 2018.

 

If you have any questions or need to discuss the topic, you are strongly encouraged to contact our expert, Tomasz BEGER.

e-mail: [email protected]

tel. +48 61 8515 766

fax +48 61 8515 786