IRB To Issue Guidelines On e-Invoicing For Companies In July

The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) will issue guidelines in July in relation to e-invoicing to companies with a revenue of more than RM100 million to enable them to learn more about this new initiative.

Chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Nizom Sairi said the board will simultaneously hold engagement sessions nationwide to provide information and explanation on the implementation of e-invoicing.

“Participation will be implemented throughout the country especially in this early stage as we want to ensure what has been developed is in line with the needs of the industry. The guidelines will be out in July and will take care of technical requirements.

“We will also have a lot of engagement sessions in order to obtain information from companies so that it will not be too costly for the industry to move to this system,” he told reporters at an engagement session on e-invoicing with media practitioners and representatives of the northern zone industry.

Mohd Nizom said the implementation of e-invoicing will improve business efficiency through cost savings and will simplify the taxpayer’s work process with the availability of pre-filled tax reporting information in line with ‘compliance-by-design’.

Currently, a total of 4,000 companies with a revenue of over RM100 million are targeted to be the first group involved in the implementation of e-invoicing which is expected to start on 1st June, next year.

The e-invoicing initiative is also in line with the rapid development of the digital revolution with current business styles that require an easier way to exchange information and trade transactions at the domestic and global levels.

“If they (industry) have additional requirements, they can give feedback to us…so this will be an ongoing engagement process until the system is launched later,” he said.

Overall, Mohd Nizom said when the e-invoicing system is implemented, it will help companies save costs in terms of record keeping and business execution.

The IRB hopes the e-invoicing system is implemented as planned although there are still questions on it from the industry.

“The e-invoicing system is very positive especially for big companies as it has been implemented in many other countries,” he said.

The e-invoicing system is an initiative to drive the country’s digitisation agenda in line with the Malaysian Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDigital) and is one of the programmes under the National e-Commerce Strategic Roadmap (NESR) 2.0 which looks at the needs of businesses to exchange information and trade transactions on the global level.

It is electronic invoicing which refers to the delivery of invoices from the seller to the buyer in an integrated electronic format.