KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) has received more than 2.09 billion e-invoices since the digital transformation initiative was introduced nationwide.
Director of Policy and Compliance Section within the LHDN Tax Operations Sector’s E-Invoice Division, Mohd Syazli Mokthar, said the initiative was now in its third year and had involved more than 269,000 taxpayers.
He added that the figure reflects the business community's adoption of a more systematic and transparent method of transaction reporting.
"The comprehensive data collected through this e-invoice platform is vital in helping the administration understand the economic structure and current market transaction flows more accurately.
"The implementation of this national agenda has proven to be more than just a transition from paper documents to digital files. It also improves the daily operational efficiency of businesses," he said on Wednesday (Oct 21).
Mohd Syazli said data analytics functions had been integrated into the e-invoice system to filter, process and analyse taxpayers' financial profiles automatically upon submission of digital invoices.
"The integrated analytics module encompasses descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive functions to forecast trends. However, this does not imply taxpayer culpability, as variations in data patterns may result from account adjustments or reporting timelines," he said.
On non-compliance, he said LHDN frequently detected errors among businesses that issued e-invoices only for commercial stock transactions but overlooked other activities, such as the disposal of business assets and rental income.
He said confusion had also arisen over the issuance of self-billed e-invoices for suppliers who were not yet required to adopt the system, as the facility was limited to specific transactions stipulated in the guidelines.
"To help businesses correct miscalculations and clerical errors, LHDN is offering a full penalty waiver under the e-Invoice Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme, which runs until Dec 31, 2027,” he said.
He added that the measure gave businesses an opportunity to rectify past records, provided they did so transparently and without deliberate manipulation.
Meanwhile, Mohd Syazli said LHDN remained committed to supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through an exemption threshold that had been raised from RM1mil to RM3mil.
"Businesses below the threshold are eligible for the exemption. LHDN also encourages them to adopt e-invoicing voluntarily to accelerate their digitalisation,” he said. – Bernama
