General aspects – operationalization
According to a recent communiqué of the Ministry of Finance, the RO e-Invoice system will be operationalized starting with November 11, for the relationship between companies and public authorities, and will soon be available for exclusively private commercial operations.
We mention that in this sense, a special section dedicated to Ro e-Invoice has been developed on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
https://mfinante.gov.ro/ro/web/efactura
Public authorities and taxpayers have at their disposal both the legal framework and technical information on the use of the system. The information platform includes separate documentation both regarding the national system regarding the electronic invoice Ro e-Invoice for public institutions, as well as the presentation of the web services for the national payment system regarding the electronic invoice available for all legal entities.
The MF representatives specify that, after a period of accommodation working in the Ro e-Invoice platform, it will become mandatory for all public procurements made in Romania. Also, Ro e-Invoicing will become the exclusive tool for invoicing starting, most likely, from 2023.
RO e-Factura has innumerable benefits both for the public administration and for the private environment:
- provides an overview, in real time, on the budget execution and in the next stage, of the transactions in the b2b relationship;
- contributes significantly to the reduction of VAT fraud at national level, as well as within the European Union;
- will reduce the losses associated with tax evasion;
- will be a system interconnected with other systems owned by EU Member States;
- will ensure the possibility of participation in the public procurement process of any entity from any member state of the European Union;
- the system will provide real-time data, which will lead to the efficiency of the collection process and, implicitly, to ensure the need for investments of the Romanian state;
- efficiency, predictability and transparency in the spending of money by public institutions;
- will contribute to the development of the documentary verification mechanism (desk – audit – ANAF control – remote anti-fraud) for compliance and prevention actions;
- the data collected through this system will be support for more detailed predictive analyzes of the economic evolution, the identification of the asymmetries in the economy and the implementation of pertinent fiscal policies that will ensure a natural framework for the development of the business environment;
- eliminates the vulnerabilities of the old paper invoicing system.
Procedure for use and operation:
OMFP no.1365 for the approval of the Procedure for use and operation of the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice, as well as for receiving and downloading the electronic invoice by the recipients of the electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship in the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice was published in the Official Gazette (Part I) no. 1065 of November 8, 2021.
The national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice is available in the computer system Virtual Private Space.
The economic operators that register in the SPV for the use of the RO e-Invoice system are subject to the provisions of OMFP no. 660/2017, with the subsequent modifications and completions.
The procedure establishes the framework for the use and operation of the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice, as well as the receipt and download of the electronic invoice by the recipients of the electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship in the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice.
This system is created, developed and administered by the Ministry of Finance, through the National Center for Financial Information. It is important to emphasize that in order to use the RO e-Invoice IT system, the economic operators must be registered in the Virtual Private Space (SPV) in their own name or through a legal representative, through a designated representative or through a proxy.
In order to use the RO e-Invoice system in the B2B relationship, the issuer and the recipient must be registered in the RO e-Invoice Register.
he contracting authorities and entities provided in article 2 paragraph (1) letter m) of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 120/2021 must be registered in the Register of public entities, according to the provisions of the Order of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Finance, no.2004 / 2013 for approving the procedures regarding the register of public entities and the register of other entities, with subsequent amendments and completions.
Transmission of the electronic invoice:
The issuer of the electronic invoice prepares the file corresponding to the electronic invoice in XML format, according to the technical documentation published in the dedicated section RO e-Invoice available on the portal of the Ministry of Finance, respectively to the National Agency for Fiscal Administration.
The XML file must comply with the European standard EN 16931 (basic semantic model of the electronic invoice) and the national RO-CIUS rules provided in the specific legislation.
Thus, for the transmission of the electronic invoice, the issuer uses the electronic identification means for accessing the SPV, for:
- a) the interconnection of the application available at the level of the issuer with the RO e-Invoice system, using a series of microservices exposed in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface);
- b) the use of the applications made available free of charge by the Ministry of Finance.
The technical documentation for the mentioned microservices and applications is available at www.efactura.mfinante.ro.
After sending the electronic invoice, the RO e-Invoice system automatically assigns an identification number, used as a reference in the system-specific processes and operations.
Electronic invoice verification
The verification of the electronic invoice aims at respecting its structure, the authenticity of the origin regarding the identity of the issuer, as well as the integrity of the content after the transmission of the file corresponding to the electronic invoice, without including the verification of the transactions between the issuer and the recipient of the electronic invoice.
After sending the electronic invoice, the RO e-Invoice system performs the following operations, automatically, on the XML file, as follows:
– checks and validations regarding the structure and syntax;
– semantic checks.
After performing these operations, an automatic response message is generated.
If no errors are identified, the electronic signature of the Ministry of Finance is applied, certifying the receipt of the electronic invoice in the RO e-Invoice system.
The original copy of the electronic invoice is considered the XML file accompanied by the electronic signature of the Ministry of Finance, which is made available to the issuer, respectively to the recipient, in the RO e-Invoice system, in the form of a zip archive file.
If errors are identified, the electronic invoice is not considered transmitted in the system, respectively is not received by the recipient, the issuer receiving an XML file containing the identified errors, accompanied by the electronic signature of the Ministry of Finance, as a file zip archive.
After correcting the identified errors, the issuer sends the electronic invoice in the RO e-Invoice system.
Important! Throughout the automatic verification period, the issuer can query the status of the transmitted file in the system.
Receipt and download of the electronic invoice by the recipients of the electronic invoices issued in the B2B relationship:
In order to receive and download the electronic invoice, the recipient uses the electronic identification means to access the SPV, for:
- a) the interconnection of the application available at the level of the recipient with the RO e-Invoice system, using a series of microservices exposed in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface);
- b) the use of the applications made available free of charge by the Ministry of Finance.
The technical documentation for the mentioned microservices and applications is available at the web address www.efactura.mfinante.ro.
The contracting authorities and entities provided in Article 2 paragraph (1) letter m) of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 120/2021, as recipients of the electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship, have the obligation to receive and download the electronic invoice, by accessing ” “Single Point of Access” on the website of the Ministry of Finance – National Forexebug Reporting System, section “View Reports” – “Electronic Invoices”.
The receipt and download of the electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship can be performed only by the persons enrolled with the role of viewing reports in the national reporting system of the Ministry of Finance, according to the procedure provided in annex no. 1 to OMFP no. 517/2016 for the approval of procedures related to some modules that are part of the operation procedure of the national reporting system – Forexebug, with subsequent amendments and completions.
The technical documentation regarding microservices and other applications is available at www.efactura.mfinante.ro.
According to article 8 paragraph (3) of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 120/2021, the recipients of electronic invoices issued in the B2G relationship who do not have a conversion application can use the computer application provided by the Ministry of Finance, through the National Center for Financial Information, at the time of operationalization of the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice.
Under the conditions of an electronic invoice issued in the B2B relationship on which the recipient has objections, he notifies the issuer of the electronic invoice, including in the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice, by sending a message.
In the case of an electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship to which the recipient has objections, he notifies the issuer of the electronic invoice including through the national reporting system – Forexebug, by sending a message.
The electronic invoice communicated to the recipient cannot be returned in the RO e-Invoice system.
The correction of the electronic invoice communicated to the recipient in the RO e-Invoice system is performed according to article 330 of Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, with subsequent amendments and completions.
The corrected electronic invoice is sent within the same RO e-Invoice system.
The date of communication of the electronic invoice to the recipient is considered the date on which the electronic invoice is available to him for download from the RO e-Invoice system.
The files corresponding to the electronic invoice in XML format and the error messages are available for download 60 days from the moment of publication in the system, and subsequently they will be archived electronically in accordance with the legal provisions in force and issued upon request.
Legal basis:
- – Fiscal Code (approved by Law no. 227/2015, published in the Official Gazette no. 688 of 10.09.2015), with subsequent amendments and completions;
- EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 120/2021 on the administration, operation and implementation of the national system on electronic invoice RO e-Invoice and electronic invoice in Romania, as well as for completing Government Ordinance no. 78/2000 regarding the homologation, issuance of the vehicle identity card and certification of the authenticity of road vehicles in order to be placed on the market, made available on the market, registered in Romania, as well as the market surveillance for these;
- ANAF Order 1365/2021 for the approval of the Procedure for use and functioning of the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e-Invoice, as well as for receiving and downloading the electronic invoice by the recipients of the electronic invoice issued in the B2G relationship in the national system regarding the electronic invoice RO e -Invoice;
- https://mfinante.gov.ro/ro/web/efactura/informatii-tehnice.