14: What will a Sale and Purchase Report/Sales Listing entail?
The Sales and Purchase Report/Sales Listing is a periodic report of information at transaction level (invoice data). This will include invoice number, invoice date, parties to the transaction, total fee and VAT. The report will be required in addition to the general VAT return and will be due on the same dates as the VAT returns.
The Tax Authorities have indicated that the Sales and Purchase Report/Sales Listing should cover all sales and purchase transactions, including B2C sales and credit notes. Names of persons will not appear in the lists, and the Tax Authorities have stated that the solution will ensure GDPR compliance.
The Sales and Purchase Report will be mandatory for all VAT registered entities and entities covered by the Bookkeeping Act. However, exceptions will be made to small businesses. The criteria for exemptions is not yet outlined by the Tax Authorities. A potential solution could be to base the criteria on the same requirements currently used to determine whether a taxpayer is covered by the SAF-T regulations according to the Bookkeeping Regulations (bokføringsforskriften). This section in the Bookkeeping Regulation makes an exception for businesses with less than 5 million NOK in turnover. Small businesses using ERP systems will likely be required to submit a Sales and Purchase Report as they are generally required to be able to provide bookkeeping in SAF-T format for review.
The Sales and Purchase Report will be mandatory for public entities that are liable to VAT, i.e. municipalities.
The implementation of this more detailed reporting at transaction level will require public hearings, hearings in Parliament and amendments of the relevant Acts. The Sales and Purchase Act will expand the requirement to provide information compared to the current statutory duties. A hearing was expected in 2021.
As hearings have not yet been held, it is unlikely that the Sales and Purchase Report will not be implemented until 2023.