Re: [ubl-dev] SAF-T vs XBRL-GL vs UN/CEFACT Accounting Entry

[Stephen Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>]

In UK we now MUST use a taxonomy developed for UK
tax reporting which is an XBRL taxonomy. XBRL was
one of the first XML languages mandated for use in the
UK public sector, specifically the then 'Inland Revenue'

tax authority. It has been unpopular to many in software
development world due to its complexity but there seems
to be no resolve coming from tax authority to push for
any alternative. Of course a great deal of effort goes into

a taxonomy for XBRL so why would anyone want to have
two such efforts? I can answer that myself as just a 
personal opinion: Because there may be problems with 
the one language which are so deeply ingrained in it it

makes it worth having a backup language in case the
first proves too difficult for some of the smaller, less
resource enabled software companies, software houses
and inhouse IT development departments to use. So


personally I agree that something else should be out 
there; whether it should be based on UBL is another
matter - probably there will be a lot of oposing opinions.

Is UN/CEFACT doing anything for tax reporting?

---
Stephen D Green
Document Engineering Services Ltd

2009/7/8 Danny Gaethofs <dgaethofs@yahoo.com>

Dear all,

I am looking into other ways to establish "(tax) compliant" e-invoicing and abolish the use of e-signatures where these are used purely for proving the authenticity of origin and the integrity of content to Tax Authorities..

Years ago - and probably they still exist - we had Intrastat and Extrastat messages to be exchanged with authorities to align tax reported (paid and deducted) in different EU Member States at least from what I recall. It has been almost 10 years now that I implemented these to support the sales and purchase processes across countries (borders).

With respect to electronic invoicing I am looking at ways to close the administrative financial process by reporting registered sales and purchases to tax authorities.

The invoice is the most important document in the purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash processes. However in my view the invoice should be seen as a part of the total exchange of information that all together provide sufficient proof that a valid transaction took place between two business partners.

I spent a lot of time searching more information about the adoption level of SAF-T and XBRL-GL for the purpose of reporting to Tax Authorities on a frequently basis (at least once a month). Neither of these seem to be generally accepted by Tax Authorities.

Apart from that I also looked at the UN/CEFACT Accounting Entry BRS which at current is only available in draft version.

I looked at the OAGIS BOD's and noticed there are a few messages for exchanging GL information between systems but not with Tax or Financial Authorities.

Are there any plans within OASIS UBL to develop these kind of GL reporting messages for Tax or Financial Authorities to accomplish compliant e-invoicing ?

Kind regards
Danny Gaethofs