Taiwan e-invoice for foreign digital service providers

Non-resident online sellers of digital services to Taiwanese consumers will be required to issue cloud-based government uniform invoices (GUI) from 1 January 2020. These are a form of government preapproved e-invoices.

Digital or electronic services includes: streaming or download media; apps; e-books; online gaming; e-learning; online journals; dating website; SaaS; and membership to online sites. Non-resident providers of these services have been obliged to collect and remit 5% VAT to the Taiwan tax office since 1 January 2017.

Cloud GUIs

Foreign providers of e-services with sales in excess of NTD480,000 (€14,000) per annum are obliged to have registered with the Ministry of Finance by 31 December 2019. The service has been voluntary for the past year.

Once registered, the Ministry of Finance then issues unique invoice numbers in batches to the taxpayer. When an invoice is raised, one of these numbers must be allocated to the invoice. It then becomes a GUI. The taxpayer must upload this GUI to the tax authority’s website. For B2C transactions, this must be within two days of issuance of the invoice.

The GUI system already applies to domestic taxpayers on B2C and B2B transactions. GUI’s are submitted either through government-provided software or via an approved third-party e-invoicing company.