Correcting the information on the invoice – what to remember? | JWW Accounting Office

Correcting the information on the invoice – what to remember?

The correcting invoice is one of the basic documents that occur in business transactions. Another document, often confused with it by the entrepreneurs, is a correction note. They both serve the purpose of correcting incorrect items and you can find the differences between them below.

1. Correcting invoice

According to Article 106j section. 1 of VAT Act, a correcting invoice is issued after issuing the original invoice, in the following cases:

there was a price decrease by a discount,
there was a rebate or discount,
the goods and packages were returned to the taxpayer
full or partial payment was refunded to the buyer,
the price was increased or there was an error in the price, rate, tax value or any other item of the invoice.

Only the entrepreneur that issues the original invoice has this right.

The correcting invoice should contain:

the „CORRECTING INVOICE” phrase or “CORRECTION” word,
a consecutive number and date if issuing the invoice,
information included in the source invoice that’s associated with the correcting invoice,
correction reason,
if the correction is changing the tax base or the amount of tax due – accordingly, the amount of tax base correction or the amount of tax due correction,
in other cases – the valid and correct content of the modified items.

The receipt confirmation for the correcting invoice is required in case of:

lowering the tax base or
making a mistake in the tax amount

You don’t have to possess the confirmation of receipt for the invoice correction either when it concerns:

export and intra-community delivery of goods;
the place of taxation that’s outside the country territory;
selling the: active energy, thermal energy, cooling energy, piped natural gas, telecommunication or radiocommunication services;
a situation in which one doesn’t possess the receipt confirmation for the correcting invoice that deflates the tax value but a different documentation states that one’s contractor is aware that the transaction should be taxed differently

2. Correction note

The right to correct certain errors on the original invoice belongs to the right of the person that bought a particular good or service.

The errors might concern exclusively the descriptive items of the invoice so the errors that can’t influence the price and tax. A correction note can correct the following errors:

Tax Identification Number,
date and name of the purchase or good collection,
payment date,
names and addresses of sellers and buyers

Please note! A correction note requires validation from the invoice issuer and therefore should be signed by the issuer.

A correction note should contain:

the „CORRECTION NOTE” phrase,
a consecutive number and date if issuing the note,
full names or legal names of the taxpayer and buyer of goods or services, along with their postal addresses and the number the taxpayer is identified with for the taxing purposes and the number that identifies the buyer of goods or services for the tax purposes or value-added tax,
information included in the subject invoice
highlighting the content of corrected information and the correct information,

A correction note can also be issued electronically.