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María Gabriela Sosa (Caracas)
Tel: (58-2) 276-5111
Fax: (58-2) 264-1532
On 27 April 1996 SENIAT issued Resolution No. 3.061 regarding the parties who may produce the invoices, vouchers and other documents required of taxpayers by the Wholesale and Luxury Tax Law (the "Law") and its Regulations ("Regulations") and the information to be contained in said invoices and documents. This new resolution (O.G. No. 35,931 dated 29 March 1996) (the "Resolution") repeals resolutions Nos. 2,999 and 187 dated 18 December 1995, which were to become effective on 1 April 1996. This new Resolution will become effective as of 1 August 1996, for legal person and as of 1 September 1996, for individuals.
The following are highlights of the new Resolution. Regarding Resolution No. 187
1. A Control Numbering is established for invoices and other documents exclusively for tax purposes. This numbering is optional for taxpayers' accounting and financial purposes, and should consist of a separate and consecutive number for each invoice and individual document. This numbering should begin with the control number "01" and may be repeated when the same exceeds 8 digits.
2. Exclusive standard printed forms and mandatory lithography on delivery orders, waybills, debit and credit notes, vouchers and payment supports are eliminated. Resolution No. 187 provided that delivery orders, waybills, debit notes, vouchers and payment supports should contain specific information and must meet a series of formal criteria. For invoices a standard form model or lithography was not required, but certain information was.
The new Resolution sets general requirements relating to the form and substance of invoices and other documents required by the Law and its Regulations. Generally speaking, the formal requirements are the same, but the form for submitting the information has been made more flexible for all documents, except invoices. This new Resolution does not require any change in the information on the invoices.
According to Articles 7, 9, and 11 of the Resolution, both the invoices and other documents should contain the following information from the printers, regardless of whether they are documents or invoices to be issued manually or by the taxpayer or through automated or computer means:
(a) Printer's data: Name and corporate or trade name; Tax Information Registry Number (R.I.F.) or Tax Identification Number (N.I.T.); number and date of the Resolution for Authorization granted and the Region to which it pertains.
(b) Taxpayer's data: R.I.F. Number.
(c) Data pertaining to the documentation: Control numbering, starting with the phrase: "Control No. ..."; total of control numbers assigned, set forth as follows: "From No. ... to No. ....", and printing date. Except for this information, the other requirements or information required by both the Law and the Regulations for the invoices and other documents may be filled out by the taxpayer.
If the invoices or documents are to be issued manually, they must come from the printer with blanks to be filled out with the information required by the Law and the Regulations for each type of document. For this type of invoice and document, the information must be organized as follows: At the top:
1. Taxpayer data: identification, domicile of head office or branch, telephone and R.I.F. number.
2. Document data: type (invoice or equivalent document, delivery order, waybill, debit or credit notes and supporting documents or vouchers); control number and consecutive and sole number; The rest of the pre-printed information set forth in Article 7 of the Resolution should be put at the bottom.
3. It is not necessary to make duplicates of invoices or documents if the taxpayer issues more than 5,000 receipts per month. It does not say if the 5,000 monthly documents must be of a same type. This exception apparently contradicts the requirements set forth in Articles 62, 65 and 70 of the Regulations, which provide that invoices and vouchers must be issued in duplicate form and delivery orders or waybills must be issued in triplicate.
4. Even if invoices or other documents do not meet any of the requirements set in the Resolution, they are still valid documents. Article 8 of the repealed resolution provided that if the requirements were not met, then invoices and other documents would be deemed invalid and would not generate tax credits for taxpayers.
The Luxury and Wholesales tax (LWT) is designed to operate upon the basis of credits and debits. The amount to be paid by taxpayers to the Treasury for this tax will be equal to the difference between their tax debits (the LWT charged to clients for services rendered or personal property sold in the country) and their tax credits (the LWT paid to their suppliers and services providers). If the invoices were invalid, they could not earn tax credits as stated in the provisions of Article 28 of the Law, and the taxpayer would have nothing to deduct from his debits. According to this new Resolution, noncompliance will be penalized according to the provisions of the Organic Tax Law ("OTL"). On the basis of the provisions in Article 109 of the OLT, if the requirements and formalities required in the Resolution are not met, the offender will be penalized by a fine of 10 to 50 tax units.
5. The Resolution also applies to documents issued pursuant to the Law for Taxes on Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages and its Regulations. Regarding Resolution No. 2,999 Resolution No. 2,999 provided a series of requirements for (i) the printers that produce invoices and other documents for use by the LWT taxpayers and (ii) the cash registers that could replace the issuing of invoices for sales and services to parties who are not subject to LWT.
The new Resolution does not contain major changes for the printers. Resolution No. 2,999 provided that invoices, delivery orders, credit and debit notes, payment receipts and other documents relating to the sale or services performed may only be printed by such printers as SENIAT believes have the technical capacity to meet the requirements for invoices and other documents. Likewise, taxpayers who use computerized systems to issue invoices must use pre-printed invoices and documents on continuous forms made by any of the authorized printers. The printers must keep a record of all taxpayers to whom they have printed invoices, setting forth in detail their orders and the sole consecutive numbering ascribed to them. This information would be submitted to SENIAT on a monthly basis.
Regarding cash registers, this resolution stated invoices issued to non-taxpayers could be replaced by vouchers issued by these machines. Both the cash registers and the vouchers issued had to meet certain requirements. For this purpose, SENIAT should approve and register the forms for cash registers that met the manufacturing and operational characteristics set forth in the resolution. Manufacturers and importers of cash registers had to (i) request the approval and registration of the forms by SENIAT and (ii) perform, on an exclusive basis, the repairs to the machines they had sold to taxpayers. They then had to notify SENIAT the identification of the taxpayers for whom they had made repairs.
Generally speaking, the new Resolution does not contain relevant changes in its provisions for cash registers. The only changes are 2 new requirements:
(i) it provides that manufacturers and importers of cash registers should keep a repair and maintenance control number and (ii) cash registers must contain a Work Memory that issues an aggregate daily control for the taxpayer's accounting. Exception of Article 69 of the Regulations Article 69 of the Regulations authorizes the Tax Administration to exempt from its requirements and controls such taxpayers who due to the volume of operations or their marketing modality of their sales or services are impaired in the efficient development of their activities. For this kind of taxpayers, the Tax Administration may establish alternative control methods that adapt to the needs of each taxpayer.
To qualify for this special treatment, taxpayers must submit an application to the Administration, setting forth the reasons the requirements and controls hinder their activities.
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