The National Taxation Bureau of Taipei, Ministry of Finance (NTBT) expressed that the penalty-relief period has expired for offshore e-commerce suppliers who are obliged to issue cloud invoices to domestic natural persons for electronic services since January 1st, 2020, NTBT will soon penalize any offshore e-commerce supplier failing to issue cloud invoices in accordance with related laws and regulations.
NTBT states that as for March 17th, 2020, there are 76 offshore e-commerce suppliers already issuing cloud invoices, such as Apple, Uber, Uber Eats, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Airbnb, Agoda, and Expedia etc. The relevant sales amounts of November and December 2019 filed by those suppliers reaches NTD 19.607 billion, occupying 97.91% of the total sales amounts (NTD 20.027 billion) filed by overall 113 offshore e-commerce suppliers registered in the same period. Until now, there are still 37 offshore e-commerce suppliers not issuing cloud invoices.
NTBT further states that considering Taiwan’s unique uniform invoice system, offshore e-commerce suppliers globalization management and inputs for substantial manpower and time to modify the system are required for introducing cloud invoice issuance, the Ministry of Finance already granted those suppliers one-year penalty-relief period. Besides continuously email notices, international airmails, hard copies of notices attached with operating instruction of introducing cloud invoice system and related penalty provisions in both Chinese and English versions via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NTBT has uploaded relative information on eTax Portal, Ministry of Finace(https://www.etax.nat.gov.tw)/Tax on Cross-Border Electronic Services/Cloud Invoices/The Information Zone of Cloud Invoice Implementation for Cross-border E-Commerce Suppliers for references in regard to the offshore e-commerce suppliers. In the light of fair taxation on both domestic and offshore e-commerce suppliers, NTBT already issues the formal notices of obligation to issue cloud invoices and entrusts the Ministry of Foreign Affair the delivery to the offshore e-commerce suppliers not yet issuing cloud invoices. Those who fall short of issuing cloud invoices will receive penalties in accordance with Paragraph 1, Article 47 of Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act (hereinafter referred as to the Act) after being notified to make corrections or to comply with the requirements within a specified deadline, from NT$3,000 to NT$30,000. Failure to comply with the rules within the time limit may result in continuous penalties and possible suspension of business.
NTBT pointed out that once the offshore e-commerce suppliers fail to issue cloud invoices in accordance with the relevant provisions and involve tax evasion flagged by whistle-blowers or involved in the investigation conducted by the tax authorities, the severest imposition prescribed among the Articles 51, 52 of the Act and Article 44 of Tax Collection Act may incur, other than the penalties prescribed in the previous paragraph.
NTBT called on offshore e-commerce suppliers who still fail to issue cloud invoices for compliance, or they will possibly be penalized for violation of duty in accordance with the Article 47 of the Act. Should the offshore e-commerce suppliers have any questions or difficulties on cloud invoices issuance, please refer to the cloud invoice pages on the aforementioned eTax Portal or contact NTBT or the Fiscal Information Agency, Ministry of Finance for compliance advice.
(Contact: Mr. Lai, Section Head of the Fourth Examination Division; Tel: 886-2- 2311-3711 Ext. 2530)