Electronic Income Receipts
26 January, 2023We draw the attention of our customers that it is mandatory to communicate the billing series to Tax Authorities (AT) before issuing any invoice.
The question becomes relevant now because most invoicing systems mention the year of issue in the invoice numbering. If you usually update the series of invoices in effect in January of each year, you must communicate this to AT and this article is for you.
It is true that billing software providers take the initiative to contact their customers and deal with the matter in order to ensure compliance with this legal obligation, so this message ends up being informative.
The unique document code (ATCUD) is a code that makes it possible to uniquely identify a document, regardless of its issuer, the type of document and the series used.
The ATCUD, as defined in article 3 of Ordinance no. 195/2020, of 13th August, results from the combination of the validation code assigned to the series with the sequential number of the document within that series.
Each issuer must communicate to AT, for each type of document and means of processing, the series it intends to use, in order to obtain, in advance, a validation code with which the respective ATCUD will be composed.
In the documents issued on the Portal das Financas, communication is automatic, being the series validation code automatically assigned and the document’s unique code (ATCUD) included.
Invoices and other tax-relevant documents issued by any means of processing, such as cash registers, must display the unique document code (ATCUD), which must be entered by the respective program or equipment, regardless of the turnover or issuer taxation regime.
In documents pre-printed by an authorized printer, the ATCUD must be printed by the authorized printer.
Documents pre-printed in authorized typography without mentioning the ATCUD can only be used until December 31st, 2022.
The same series and respective validation code can be used for more than one year (multiannual) as long as the sequential numbering is guaranteed over the various years, without being restarted.
The series validation codes do not have an expiration date, although the possibility for taxable persons to communicate the end of the series use is foreseen, in order to facilitate the management of the series in use.
The ATCUD goes into effect on 01 January 2023
As always, Granconta is available to provide any clarification.
