DE102012109578A1 - Method for electronic rendering of invoice document from invoicing party to invoice receiver in private sector, involves providing document with electronic signature, and transmitting document to invoice receiver by service provider - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves creating an electronic calculation document (eR-Brief) by an invoicing party, where the document is provided with an electronic signature that is based on transaction number. The document is sent to a financial service provider (FD) as signed document. Authenticity of the sent document is checked by the service provider, and the document is registered by a server of the service provider based on checking of the authenticity. The document is provided with another electronic signature and transmitted to an invoice receiver by the service provider.

Description

The invention relates to a method for electronic invoicing, in particular for the treatment of VAT and sales tax.

VAT invoices are issued in the private sector, with VAT being paid as VAT to the responsible tax office.

Necessary processes such as VAT returns, sales tax returns, etc. incur a considerable organizational effort on the part of the biller as well as on the part of the tax authorities, for which labor and equipment (hardware and software) must be provided.

Errors or abuses with regard to the invoicing and the VAT based thereon are difficult to verify and if at all discovered later, so that the tax office escaped by significant tax refunds by improper VAT refunds.

Across Europe, pseudo-bills, fictitious invoices and so-called carousel transactions are accumulating, resulting in an estimated annual damage of 15 billion euros in the Federal Republic of Germany.

In order to avoid the aforementioned manipulations as possible, is in the AT 11 336 U1 2010-08-15 proposed a procedure for the non-cash management of VAT in the business chain. According to this procedure, sales tax amounts are invoiced in non-cash form. Disadvantageously, however, it remains unclear here in what way a tax office should finally take the remaining taxes or payments in this case after offsetting. The status of the liquidator is completely unclear. Also, the effort that must be operated for a clearing, considerably, in particular, remains unclear real economic, by whom or what institution such an effort should be operated.

The present invention is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method for electronic invoicing of a biller to a bill recipient (usually the recipient of the service), which accelerates payment transactions in a simple manner and reduces or even prevents abuse.

This object is achieved by a method having the features of claim 1.

According to the invention, an invoice in the form of an electronic invoice document is created by a biller, ie seller or service provider, to an invoice recipient. This document is signed with a unique transaction number (ie per invoice), preferably coded, in the form of a first electronic signature. The transaction number can in this case be applied for in advance at a server of a financial service provider or a tax authority and be transmitted from this to the biller.

According to the invention, the biller sends the electronic invoice document as a signed document to the financial service provider, whereupon the latter verifies the transmitted document on the basis of the transaction number or signature of the invoice document for authenticity.

Only if the signature or the underlying transaction number and the financial service provider known transaction number match, the invoice or the electronic document from the server of the financial service provider is accepted or registered and provided for security with a second electronic signature.

In addition, the financial service provider extracts from the invoice the amount of VAT and transfers the amount of VAT to a tax authority, where a VAT account of the biller is debited an amount equal to this amount (i.e., VAT is (pre-) notified). Furthermore, the financial service provider sends the invoice document (copy) provided with the second signature to the invoice recipient.

This advantageously not only simplifies invoicing, but also VAT treatment, in particular advance notification, ensuring a high level of security against abuse, as well as the process robustness and transparency can be increased.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the bill-to party checks in particular whether the billed service has been provided and / or the bill is authentic. If the result is positive (correct invoice), the bill recipient preferably attaches the bill document for security reasons with a third electronic signature and sends it as a payment instruction to his bank. The bank then transfers the full amount of the accounting document to the financial services provider, which splits the amount into VAT and net share (shown in the invoice document), transfers the VAT share to the tax authority and forwards the net share to the biller.

The tax authority compares the VAT paid with the amount debited to the VAT account of the biller (pre-registered) and relieves the biller of the tax liability in case of compliance.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the revenue authority provides the invoice document with a fourth electronic signature for security reasons, sends the bill document signed in this way to the biller and the bill recipient via the financial service provider and thus informs the parties about the factual conclusion of the transaction. As a result, not only the payment transactions can be advantageously accelerated, but the entire VAT treatment can be handled. By preferably using corresponding signatures also abuse is almost impossible.

Signatures can be created in a known manner (private key - public key, common respectively known secret, etc.) and checked for correctness by the respective recipient.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the biller requested in advance on the server of the financial service provider a unique transaction number and gets this electronically transmitted. This ensures that a new transaction number is issued or generated directly by the financial service provider for each new transaction. As a result, the security against abuse can be further increased, although it is of course also conceivable to forward such transaction numbers for future invoices in advance to the biller, for example in the form of a (numbered) list.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the transaction number is issued to a sales tax identification number of the biller, so that transaction number and VAT number correspond unambiguously in this way and are always considered and treated in context. As a result, a connection can be established in a simple manner, in particular for subsequent verification processes, between the given transaction number and the VAT identification number and thus the entire biller data relevant to the revenue authority.

Of course, the embodiments of the invention explained above can be combined with one another in any desired form. In the different embodiments, according to the invention preferably no offsetting of amounts takes place, but an actual transaction of amounts (preferably in the form of money orders, transfers, etc. to a recipient account). Even an actual cash payment is conceivable here. However, the practice of deduction of input tax is not affected by this and continues to be carried out at the level of the tax authority.

Although the above embodiments using a financial service provider have been explained as a particularly preferred embodiment, it is also conceivable - instead of a strict separation (organizational, legal, local and process-related) - that the financial services provider and the tax authority form a unit, so that the operations or steps the financial service provider can also be made by the tax authority itself.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the dependent claims.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawing.

In the single figure, a process flow of a method according to the invention or of such a payment system is shown schematically. The explanation "Payment system with cash settlement ..." is intended to clarify that there is no offsetting of amounts on accounts. Of course, transactions are not only possible in the form of cash payments or handovers, but are preferably made in the form of transaction-based payment instructions, transfers, etc.

As can be seen from the figure, the biller or vendor or service provider creates an invoice by computer (1) and requested by means of its own VAT identification number (UST.IDNR.) Online, for example via Internet connection to a server of a financial service provider (FD) a transaction number (TID ), which also serves as the primary identification of the seller or service provider.

The Transaction Number (TID) will always be indexed by the financial service provider's system and, eventually, at other subsequent locations, with the vendor's Turnover Tax Identification Number (VAT IDNR.), Checked for validity, and always treated in a coherent manner.

In a step 2 shown in the figure, the financial service provider (FD) sends the seller / service provider the transaction number (TID) which is digitally encoded, preferably encoded, or embedded in the issued invoice via a 2D barcode.

By means of this signature (QR code 1), the invoice is converted into an electronic invoice document, hereinafter referred to as "eR letter".

In step 3, the newly generated eR letter is now transmitted to the financial service provider (FD) and checked for authenticity on the basis of the transaction number (TID). If the check result or the data comparison is successful, the eR letter is registered by the financial service provider and is now signed with another signature, for example QR code2. The path of the eR document branches at node K3 as follows:
In branch 3a, the financial services provider FD extracts from the eR letter the amount of value added tax and transmits it to a competent tax authority FA, where the sales tax account of the buyer / service provider is immediately debited with this amount. From this moment, the sales tax liability of the buyer / service provider at the tax office FA as registered or pre-registered.

In branch 3b, the eR document is duplicated by the server of the financial service provider FD and preferably transmitted electronically to the buyer or service recipient.

In a fourth step, an invoice control (eg bookkeeping) of the buyer or service recipient checks the eR document, registers it in his EDP and provides it with a signature, for example a QR-Q3. Subsequently, the buyer / beneficiary, in particular its accounting, forwards a corresponding payment instruction to his house bank.

In step 5, the buyer / beneficiary's house bank transfers the bill in full to the financial services provider FD. After receipt of the invoice amount, the financial service provider will clear the sales tax and the net amount of the invoice and forward it to node K5 as follows:

In branch 5a, the VAT portion of the bill is transferred to the tax authority FA.

In branch 5b, the net portion of the bill is forwarded to the seller / service provider.

In step 6, the tax authority FA reconciles the amount of VAT received with the pre-notification, which has already taken place under point 3a, and relieves the seller / service provider of his tax liability.

In step 7, the revenue authority FA provides the eR document with another signature or QR code4 and reports back to the participants (vendor / service provider and buyer / service recipient) via the financial service provider FD the validation and thus the de facto completion of the transaction.

All participants now have the quadruple signed (in each case different signatures, in particular QR code1 QR code4) eR document, which can now be stored in the legally prescribed digital long-term archiving (among the participants).

Even if the transmission of the electronic invoice document (eR letter) as described above also preferably electronically or online (eg direct connection, TCPIT, VPN connection, etc.), it is of course conceivable for the participants the eR letter in the respective form (ie provided with the respective QR codes 1-4) to print out and transmit in printed form, which can be read or scanned again for the further electronic processing at the respective recipient of eR letter thus received.

As can be seen from the figure, an invoice for an exemplary net amount of 500 EUR with an assumed VAT rate of 20%, ie 100 EUR VAT, can be invoiced and settled in a simple and fast way, in the figure the document flow with dashed arrows and the cash flow is represented by normal arrows.

There is a strict separation (organizational, legal, local and operational) between financial service provider FD and the tax authority FA.

As a preferably coded signature, or signatures 1-4 are of course a variety of electronic or even, as shown, printable signatures in question, which ensure the purpose of authentication in sufficient quality.

According to the above-described invention, the primary objective for the state, that is to minimize VAT losses, is largely ensured. For unauthorized persons, the effort to penetrate the servers of the platform (eBrief, financial service provider and tax authority) would hardly be worthwhile, as a VAT refund according to the invention is systematically not provided anyway. Furthermore, the VAT amount is paid promptly to the tax office (as soon as the buyer makes the payment of the bill), so that the state can in most cases now dispose of the VAT revenue much faster, instead of only at the end of one Quarterly or longer billing period (current status).

As explained above, the method or system according to the invention is designed for maximum transparency and always offers the subscribers the possibility of querying the status of their transactions, provided the network availability is adequate. This is a very effective tool, especially for the tax authorities. With optimum parameterization, processes and correlations can be monitored very precisely, in real time. Forecasts such as tax estimates are much more precisely possible, and the system according to the invention or eR platform offers a very effective prevention tool for search purposes and thus contributes to more tax honesty of the tax debtors, in particular companies.

In contrast to models from the past (either too complex or completely new), the principle and structure of the eR platform are transparent and therefore easy to implement (in a reasonable amount of time).

Since the status of buyer and seller are already returned as "checked" by the system, the tax authorities do not even have to investigate or even investigate the matter in this regard.

Paying by eR letter also elegantly solves the problem of a potential lack of liquidity of the buyer. If, within the chain of the above-mentioned sequences, a block or step should be missing for any reason, the process is aborted and reinitialized. This also applies to payments that are still open. In this situation, the biller's claims management can turn on and suggest a solution.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• AT 11336 U1 [0006]

Claims (6)

 A method of electronic invoicing from a biller to an invoice recipient, in which a) the biller creates an electronic invoice document and provides it with a first electronic signature based on a transaction number (TID), b) the biller sends the electronic invoice document as a signed document to the financial service provider (FD), c) the financial service provider (FD) checks the submitted document for authenticity on the basis of the TID, d) the invoice document is successfully registered by the server of the financial service provider (FD) and provided with a second electronic signature, e) the financial service provider (FD) extracts from the invoice the amount of value added tax and sends it to a tax authority (FA), where a VAT account of the biller is debited with an amount of this amount, f) the financial service provider (FD) sends the invoice document provided with the second signature to the invoice recipient. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that subsequently after step f): g) the bill recipient checks the bill document, provides it with a third electronic signature and sends it as a payment instruction to his bank, h) the biller's bank sends the bill document to the financial service provider (FD), i) the financial services provider (FD) divides the invoice into VAT and net share, transfers the VAT to the tax authority (FA) and forwards the net share to the biller and k) the tax authority (FA) receives the VAT share compares the amount debited to the VAT account of the biller under step e) and relieves the biller of the tax debt if it agrees. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that following step k): l) the tax authority (FA) provides the invoice document with a fourth electronic signature, the invoice document to the biller and the bill recipient via financial service provider (FD) sent and thus the de facto conclusion of Transaction notifies. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the biller in advance on the server of a financial service provider requests a unique transaction number (TID) and the financial service provider (FD) sends the requested transaction number (TID) to the biller. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transaction number (TID) is issued to a VAT identification number (UstIdNr.) Of the biller, so that transaction number (TID) and VAT identification number (UstIdNr.) In this way until the completion of the transaction (response FA) clearly correspond with each other. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the financial service provider (FD) and the tax authority (FA) are procedurally separated, so that the above-mentioned process steps take place via an external financial service provider (FD).

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