Manual E-bill 499.41

The following tax-related points must be taken into account in a fully
electronic exchange of invoices:
• The contents must basically correspond to those of the paper invoice
(MWSTG Art. 37).
• With the digital signature, electronic invoices are just as authoritative
as paper bills. Before using the data, it must be checked that the signature
is accurate (see section 6.3).
• It must be possible to access the electronic invoice data until they expire.
This means that the necessary software and infrastructure must be available
to reproduce these data for this period. The data must also be protected
against loss and damage.
• Electronic invoice issuing may be delegated to a third party if a delegation
declaration is signed.
At PostFinance’s request the Swiss Federal Tax Administration confirmed
in June 2005 in writing that the e-bill solution of PostFinance fully meets
the legal requirements. The following is an excerpt from the letter:
“In conclusion, we hereby confirm that the e-bill solution of PostFinance
[…] meets the current requirements for electronic transmission of invoices.
Moreover, the bill recipient is able to duly store the bills transmitted
by PostFinance. This statement does not change the fact that the service
recipient required to keep the bills – as well as the service provider – must
take all necessary steps to ensure that bills are kept in an appropriate
manner in accordance with the requirements arising from the individual
situation. The service recipient cannot claim to have kept bills in an
appropriate manner merely by using the e-bill solution of PostFinance.”
1.5 Service for billers
The service for billers includes the following:
• Customer administration, in particular the registration of bill recipients
and the provision of a tool that supports the registration or cancellation
of bill recipients with the biller.
• Receipt of the data delivered by the biller and provision of a processing
log.
• The option of automated data delivery.
• Possibility of automatically downloading the registration or cancellation
data, processing records and signed invoices.
• Processing of the delivered data as described in this e-bill manual and
in individual specifications in the application form.
• Forwarding data to network partners (see section 1.7).
• Service for data delivery to SIX Paynet AG (see section 2.4).
• Provision of the bill data to the bill recipients as per separate agreement
with them.
• Digital signature of the bill data according to legal regulations, EIDI-V
in particular, and delivery of these data to the biller and bill recipient,
if the biller has authorized Swiss Post or an affiliated network partner
accordingly.
Manual E-bill Version October 2010 9/64