Taxpayers that fail to register as issuers of electronic tax documents by December 31, 2018, will not be able to issue tax documents electronically. Also, tax documents that are currently valid will no longer be valid if the taxpayers do not register.

As part of the implementation process of the new Online Electronic Invoice regime (FEL for its Spanish acronym) established in Guatemala through Board of Directors' Agreement No. 13-2018, the Guatemalan tax authorities have notified several taxpayers that they must register as issuers of electronic tax documents under the FEL regime no later than December 31, 2018.

The tax authorities have notified taxpayers that have not complied with the registration requirement that, as of January 1, 2019, their tax documents that were previously authorized by the tax authorities (i.e., invoices and other tax documents issued on paper or other computer systems, and electronic documents issued under the electronic invoice (Factura Electronica (FACE) in Spanish) regime) will no longer be valid. In this sense, taxpayers will only be able to issue tax documents through the FEL regime.

To date, Guatemalan tax authorities have authorized four entities with platforms for issuing electronic tax documents as certifiers of electronic tax documents. Taxpayers that have currently valid tax documents and have received a notice from the tax authorities must contact one of the four certifiers to implement the issuance of electronic tax documents through the certifier's platform.

Taxpayers that are unable to comply with the deadline set by the tax authorities should take quick action to inform the tax authorities about the reasons for the delay and should implement solutions before the deadline.

We will provide further details on this matter in future Tax Alerts.

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