On May 7 the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN, for its acronym in Spanish) issued a resolution to promote the development of billing systems, technology suppliers and the registration of electronic sales invoices for additional security in the national territory. The idea is for the new system to foster greater e-commerce by declaring e-invoices as equivalent to any other invoice issued in the country. The measure also incorporates provisions on credit and debit cards, flight and movie tickets and stock exchange operations. The regulation is already in force.

The text establishes that parties obliged to issue sales invoices or their equivalent will be liable for national consumption tax as well as the taxpayers registered under unified tax under the SIMPLE tax system. The documents equivalent to sales invoices detailed in the regulations include cash register receipts with POS systems, movie tickets, transaction settlement receipts issued by the Stock Exchange, flight tickets and statements issued by certain financial institutions.

On March 5, the Ministry of Finance published a decree allowing the implementation of electronic invoicing at national level. The DIAN resolution, which goes in the same line, provides more details regarding definitions and requirements for sales invoices and equivalent documents as well as presenting the implementation schedule for electronic invoicing at national level, including technical guidelines for invoicing systems and specifications for numbering systems.