Taiwan Makes e-Invoicing Mandatory for all Taxpayers

Since January 2021, any foreign or national company in Taiwan must invoice electronically. Failure to comply could imply sanctions from the Ministry of Finance.

Taiwan has reached its goal to fully substitute the paper invoice with the electronic invoice. Since 2000 many of the government has embarked on multiple initiatives to substitute paper invoicing with e-invoicing.

In 2006 a program was initiated to plan and standardize the e-invoicing process through an integrated services platform.

Finally, in 2018 the ministry of finance imposed the mandatory use of electronic invoices through a gradual implementation that will include all taxpayers this December.

The Electronic Invoice in Taiwan - eGUI

The electronic invoice in Taiwan is called the “Electronic Government Uniform Invoice”, also known as the GUI or eGUI.

The eGUI is an invoice sent or received through the internet or other electronic methods.

The use of the e-invoice is defined by the Uniform Invoice Use Method norm.

Administrative Pre-requisites

To invoice electronically companies must comply with the following requisites:

• Possess an industrial and commercial certificate issued by the Ministry of Economy.
• Hire a value-added center and an electronic invoice provider that interfaces with the national invoicing platform according to the legislation.
• Companies should identify their invoices with the pre-asigned serial number requested from the government.

Taiwan’s e-invoicing System

The e-invoices must be signed and electronically sent to the ministry of Finance’s Electronic Invoicing platform, known as “Platform” 7 days after their delivery to business partners. Invoices are normally sent to clients via e-mail  in PDF format.

Format

The e-invoice’s format is MIG-3.2.1, based on the XML format. The PDF must also follow government specifications.

Archiving

The emission, cancelation, return of sale, purchase withdrawal or discount of electronic invoices should be approved by the counterparty of the transaction. The business should also archive the consent message and the certification documents related to the invoice for at least 5 years.

Requisites to Contract With an e-invoicing Provider in Taiwan

To send and receive e-invoices in Taiwan it is necessary to have an e-invoicing provider with the adequate security mechanisms that guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity and non-repudiation of the content and its transmission.

The communications system should also verify the structure of the format to avoid errors and have duplicate controls.

EDICOMS electronic invoicing platform allows you to sign, send and receive e-invoices according to the technical and legal standards imposed by the Taiwanese government. The invoices are generated and sent from your ERP to EDICOM’s Global Invoicing solution which will then transform them to the MIG-3.2.1 format and deliver them to the Ministry of Finance’s platform and to your trading partners in a PDF format in a fully automated fashion.

EDICOM is backed by the most strict international cyber-security certifications like the ISO27001 and SAS70 Type II. Our platforms are also continually audited for security gaps according to OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) standards.