García & Bodán

Guatemala: Paper invoices will be null and void before the tax authorities

As of Friday, July 1st, checkbooks, physical invoices, or paper invoices will be discontinued and everything will be made digitally.

The Director of the Tax Administration, Marco Livio Díaz, pointed out that this measure is contained in the Resolution of the Director General SAT-DSI-1240-2021, which was published in the Diario de Centro América on November 24th, 2021, in which it was indicated that paper invoices (pre-printed) owned by the aforementioned taxpayers will not be valid as of July 1st, since they will have to take the corresponding actions for the issuance of FEL (electronic invoice), a new way for taxpayers to issue invoices and other electronic tax documents (ETD) online in a secure and reliable manner.

The group’s mayor, Fernando Soriano, emphasized that residents registered in the general value added tax regime must comply with this requirement, thus avoiding being left without the corresponding procedures to carry out commercial transactions.

Likewise, as of this date, the general public must only accept FEL documents from taxpayers, even if they issue paper invoices (pre-printed), these will not be valid, and therefore will not be used for transactions such as tax credits, among other things. The general VAT regime is made up of 374,091 taxpayers, who are still transferred to the FEL, where there are 23,898 undeclared incomes, for a total of 203,047 persons, with active payments. It should be noted that currently 98.23 percent of the total turnover of the General VAT Regime uses the FEL.

Paul Rodríguez
paul.rodríguez@garciabodan.com
Associate
García & Bodán
Guatemala