SAF-T

SAF-T (Standard Audit File for Tax) is an international standard for electronic exchange of reliable accounting data from organizations to a national tax authority or external auditors. The standard is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The file format is based on XML.

The standard is now increasingly adopted within European countries as a means to file tax returns electronically.

The standard was adopted in 2008 by Portugal[1] and has since spread to other European countries, e.g. Luxembourg,[2] Austria, Germany and France.

Although SAF-T is formally standardized, both with respect to syntax (format) and semantics (meaning) to allow for and fulfill automatic data interchange and tools support, e.g. across country borders or common computerized systems, it do include some room for revenue bodies (tax administrations) to add individual elements, e.g. to cover special needs in a taxation or audit system. For example in Portugal the SAF-T (PT) v1.03_01 standard[3] - based on SAF-T v1.0 - includes some special elements and types relevant to the standard in Portugal.

Standards

In May 2005 the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs (CFA) published the first version of the SAF-T guidance. Version 1.0 was based on entries as found in a General Ledger Chart of Accounts, together with master file data for customers and suppliers and details of invoices, orders, payments, and adjustments. The standard describes a set of messages for data exchange between accounting software and national tax authorities or auditors. The syntax is proprietary and based on XML. There are multiple localized versions available which are compatible with the general v1.0 standard. Schema was originally defined in old DTD format - a precursor to today's XML Schema.

The revised version (2.0) extended the standard to include information on Inventory and Fixed Assets. The opportunity was also taken to enhance the original SAF-T specification to take account of suggestions from OECD member countries and others. Schema is changed to XML Schema format and new information covering Inventory and Fixed Assets added. The schema is not fully backward compatible with v1.0.[4]

Version Introduced XML Schema Annotated File Package
v1.0 May 2005 SAF-T.xsd SAF-T-map.html SAF-T v1.0 package
v2.0 April 2010 SAF-T_Schema_v_2.00.xsd Annotated SAF-T Schema v2.pdf[5]

Country Adoptions

The following countries/organizations have laws adopting SAF-T:

Country Name Latest XML Schema version Date Based on SAF-T version Organization Comments
Portugal SAF-T (PT) 1.03_01[3] October 1, 2013 SAF-T v1.0 Portuguese Tax Authority / Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira
Luxembourg FAIA 2.01[2] March 13, 2013 SAF-T v2.0 Luxembourg Tax Administration / Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines (AED) Law rule (memo) A-206 of December 24, 2008.[6]
France FEC ? January 1, 2014 SAF-T v2.0 French Ministry of Finance FEC FR adopted December 5, 2012 making it obligatory pr. January 1, 2014 for companies to supply file covering years 2011, 2012 and 2013.[7][8]
Austria SAF-T AT 1.01[9] January 31, 2009 SAF-T v1.0 Austrian Ministry of Finance / Bundesministerium für Finanzen Decree of March 20, 2009 BMF-010102/0002-IV/2/2009.[9][10]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "SAF-T (PT) news from Portuguese Tax Authority (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira)" (in Portuguese). 2013-10-01. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Computerized File Audit AED - FAIA v2.01 March 2013 (based on SAF-T v2.0)". Luxembourg Tax Administration (Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines (AED)). 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "SAF-T (PT) v1.03_01 XML Schema .xsd file (download from Portuguese Tax Authority (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira) as adopted 2013-08-21.". Portuguese Tax Authority (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira). 2013-10-01. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  4. ↑ "Guidance for the Standard Audit File – Tax Version 2.0" (PDF). OECD. Retrieved 2013-01-09.
  5. ↑ "Guidance for the Standard Audit File - Tax, Version 2.0: Appendix B: SAF-T Schema version 2.00" (PDF). OECD. Retrieved 2013-01-09.
  6. ↑ "Law rule (memo) A-206 of December 24, 2008" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  7. ↑ "FEC FR 2013 - File bookkeeping" (in French). TJC. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  8. ↑ "Software to comply with FEC FR" (in French). Doplhin Solutions. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Provision of data on data carriers - Standard Audit File-Tax (SAF-T)" (in German). Austrian Ministry of Finance / Bundesministerium für Finanzen. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  10. ↑ "Decree of March 20, 2009 BMF-010102/0002-IV/2/2009" (in German). Austrian Ministry of Finance / Bundesministerium für Finanzen. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  11. ↑ "The SIE format". Retrieved 7 July 2012.