The electronic invoice is that document that supports the transaction of sale of goods and/or services, which must comply with the characteristics and conditions of issuance, receipt, rejection, and conservation required for invoicing in physical form, and must also observe the provisions set forth by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in its Decree 2242 of 2015, which establishes January 1, 2019, as the deadline for all companies in the country to implement electronic invoicing.
The implementation of electronic invoicing in Colombia has been carried out gradually across different economic sectors. Thus, as of March 29, 2018, Resolution 72 of 2017 came into effect, which established who is required to invoice electronically, grouping them into two categories: taxpayers with mandatory electronic invoicing and voluntary electronic invoicing.
Initially, those who, under the terms of Decree 1929 of 2017 and until December 29, 2017, were issuing this type of invoice are required to invoice electronically. Therefore, those who attempted to gradually implement electronic invoicing should fully and definitively integrate it into their invoicing processes no later than June 29, 2018.
Regarding the second group of taxpayers, the voluntary ones, they were only obliged to invoice electronically when, for their own particular interest, they had submitted the tests for the enabling of the invoicing software provided on the web portal of the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs, entering the Muisca System, and had complied with the requirements imposed by this same state entity, such as the amount of operations, annual transactions and profits, assets, among others.
Thus, the law had granted deadlines for its implementation. Accordingly, taxpayers who, prior to Decree 1929 of 2017, had been gradually or progressively implementing electronic invoicing had to definitively integrate it into their invoicing process no later than June 29, 2018. Those who, from January 1 to October 31, 2017, had sold more than 3,000,000 (three million) products had until September 29, 2018, as the maximum deadline to implement this type of invoicing. However, all companies, regardless of their situation, were granted a maximum deadline until January 1, 2019.
Failure to adopt the electronic invoicing system entails different types of sanctions. On one hand, the sanction of closure or shutdown for three days of the commercial establishment, office, consulting room, and, in general, the place where the activity, profession, or trade is carried out, may be imposed through the placement of official seals containing the legend “CLOSED FOR EVASION”. This sanction will be imposed through a resolution by the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs, after prior notification of charges to the offending person or entity, who will have a maximum period of ten days to respond to the aforementioned resolution.
On the other hand, Decree 624 of 1989, in its Article 657, paragraph 6, establishes that in the case of a person who has not issued an electronic invoice and therefore has incurred the aforementioned sanction, they may pay a pecuniary sanction equivalent to ten percent (10%) of the operating income obtained in the month prior to the date on which the sanctionable event occurred. In such case, the tax administration will refrain from ordering the closure of the establishment.
In conclusion, since January 1 of this year, Colombian companies are obliged to implement electronic invoicing, under penalty of being imposed a sanction of ten percent (10%) of the operating income obtained in the month prior to the date on which the sanctionable event occurred, or the closure or shutdown of the establishment where the activity, profession, or trade is carried out.