Latest Accounting News
Hot Issues
ATO reveals small business hit list to combat tax debt
What are the FBT implications of Employee Christmas Parties and Gifts?
Assess a business before you buy it
Christmas Parties and Taxi Fare/Rideshare – FBT implications.
Practitioners cautioned on ATO’s top target areas for GST
ATO to target growing businesses in latest compliance blitz
Our SG compliance results are here
Top 20 Most Watched Christmas Movies ever - pre covid
A Unique Advent Calendar
Businesses ghosting the ATO targeted in debt collection blitz
Claiming the tax-free threshold: getting it right
Aussies tired of ‘dodgy tax criminals’, warns ATO
Protect your small business by following these essential steps.
Super guarantee a focus area for ATO business debt collection
Controversial ‘Airbnb tax’ set to become law
Withholding for foreign residents: an ATO focus area
1 in 3 crypto owners confused about tax, study reveals
20 Years of Silicon Valley Trends: 2004 - 2024 Insights
ATO reveals common rental property errors from data-matching program
New SMSF expense rules: what you need to know
Government releases details on luxury car tax changes
Treasurer unveils design details for payday super
6 steps to create a mentally healthy and vibrant workplace
What are the government’s intentions with negative gearing?
Small business decries ‘unfair’ payday super changes
The Leaders Who Refused to Step Down 1939 - 2024
Time for a superannuation check-up?
Scam alert: fake ASIC branding on social media
Millions of landlords the target of expanded ATO crackdown
Government urged to exempt small firms from TPB reforms
ATO warns businesses on looming TPAR deadline
How to read a Balance Sheet
Unregistered or Registered Trade Marks?
Most Popular Operating Systems 1999 - 2022
Articles archive
Quarter 3 July - September 2024
Quarter 2 April - June 2024
Quarter 1 January - March 2024
Quarter 4 October - December 2023
Quarter 3 July - September 2023
Quarter 2 April - June 2023
Quarter 1 January - March 2023
Quarter 4 October - December 2022
Quarter 3 July - September 2022
Quarter 2 April - June 2022
Quarter 1 January - March 2022
Quarter 4 October - December 2021
Quarter 3 July - September 2021
Quarter 2 April - June 2021
Quarter 1 January - March 2021
Quarter 4 October - December 2020
Quarter 3 July - September 2020
Quarter 2 April - June 2020
Quarter 1 January - March 2020
Quarter 4 October - December 2019
Quarter 3 July - September 2019
Quarter 2 April - June 2019
Quarter 1 January - March 2019
Quarter 4 October - December 2018
Quarter 3 July - September 2018
Quarter 2 April - June 2018
Quarter 1 January - March 2018
Quarter 4 October - December 2017
Quarter 3 July - September 2017
Quarter 2 April - June 2017
Quarter 1 January - March 2017
Quarter 4 October - December 2016
Quarter 3 July - September 2016
Quarter 2 April - June 2016
Quarter 1 January - March 2016
Quarter 4 October - December 2015
Quarter 3 July - September 2015
Quarter 2 April - June 2015
Quarter 1 January - March 2015
Quarter 4 October - December 2014
Quarter 3 July - September 2014
Quarter 2 April - June 2014
Quarter 1 January - March 2014
Quarter 4 October - December 2013
Quarter 3 July - September 2013
Quarter 2 April - June 2013
Quarter 1 January - March 2013
Quarter 4 October - December 2012
Quarter 3 July - September 2012
Quarter 2 April - June 2012
Quarter 1 January - March 2012
Quarter 4 October - December 2011
Quarter 3 July - September 2011
Quarter 2 April - June 2011
Quarter 1 January - March 2011
Quarter 4 October - December 2010
Quarter 3 July - September 2010
Quarter 2 April - June 2010
Quarter 1 January - March 2010
Quarter 4 October - December 2009
Quarter 3 July - September 2009
Quarter 2 April - June 2009
Quarter 1 January - March 2009
Quarter 4 October - December 2008
Quarter 3 July - September 2008
Quarter 2 April - June 2008
Quarter 1 January - March 2008
Quarter 2 April - June 2007
Quarter 2 April - June 2006
Quarter 2 of 2022
Articles
Tax Time Checklists - Individuals; Company; Trust; Partnership; and Super Funds
ATO zeroes in on work expenses, crypto investments
Forget the Tim Tams in your WFH claim, say ‘fun police’
Inflation will force a third of businesses to raise prices
Year-end tax planning
World GDP Ranking (1960~2025)
100A ruling ‘turns tax avoidance logic on its head’
Company directors must register - all you need to know
Be alert for phoenix activity, businesses told
Equifax signs data agreement with ATO
E-invoicing will reduce emissions, says PwC
Largest cities in the world 1500 to 2100
Last chance to claim the loss carry-back
Changes to recovery loan scheme for small and medium enterprises
About the cash flow forecasting template
Federal budget 2022: Winners and Losers
ATO puts 50,000 directors on notice.
FBT Reminder – Odometer Reading
Data matching program: government payments
Budget: Big wins for SMEs
Small businesses show sign of omicron rebound
Federal Budget 2022 - Overview
Federal Budget 2022 and YOU - Part 1
Federal Budget 2022 and YOU - Part 2
Budget at a Glance - Video
E-invoicing will reduce emissions, says PwC

Digitising billing systems would save almost $130 million annually in carbon emissions



The adoption of a business e-invoicing right (BER) that takes a two-sided (send and receive) approach can drive productivity within the economy and reduce carbon emissions, said PwC.


PwC partner Brady Dever said the firm had conducted exclusive modelling that finds that the benefits of e-invoicing extend beyond economic productivity and have an environmental benefit too.


The total carbon saving from e-invoicing using the widely accepted Peppol standard is estimated to be $128,086,272 annually.


“With Australia’s commitment to net-zero, some attention should be paid to the environmental benefits of Peppol e-invoicing,” Mr Dever said.


“Initial modelling by PwC Australia’s economics team has found that there are approximately 1.2 billion invoices issued per annum, with circa 90 per cent requiring manual processing of paper invoices.”


The carbon footprint of office paper from cradle to customer was measured at around 4.64 to 4.29-gram carbon dioxide equivalent per A4 sheet, which means over 5,000 tonnes of carbon are avoided when transitioning away from paper invoices.


As the process also uses electricity, the net emissions saving for electronic invoicing has been calculated at approximately 36 per cent, Mr Dever said.


This placed the total net avoided emissions from e-invoicing at 1,804,032 kilograms.


Emissions savings compared to paper-based systems would increase client-side staff productivity gains, such as the reduction of accounts payable and associated activities.


It would also significantly affect the overall carbon efficiency for businesses, in particular, the scale of staff productivity gains and the carbon intensity of customer electricity supply.


“With the social cost of carbon at $71/tonne, the total carbon saving from e-invoicing is estimated to be $128,086,272 annually,” Mr Dever said.


“However, we do believe that the BER needs to be extended for its full economic potential to be realised.”


Mr Dever said it was important to make the BER a two-sided right to drive the environment and productivity benefits.


It should give businesses that choose to invest in e-invoicing functionality the right to request that they send e-invoices to and/or receive e-invoices from their trading partners.


“We agree that it is important to have a BER to give businesses the right to require their suppliers to send e-invoices,” he said.


“This will drive volume into the network, particularly as high-volume billers such as utilities companies, for example, start to send e-invoices to their business customers.


“We acknowledge that there is a fine balance to be struck between regulating a BER on the ‘receive’ side and requiring businesses to invest into e-invoicing too soon at a time when our economy is still emerging from the impact of COVID-19.


“This balance would apply for both small and large businesses. However, we believe that it can be managed.”


Mr Dever said small businesses might be concerned that they may be subjected to a BER demand to receive a Peppol e-invoice from a trading partner of any size, maybe even a large trading partner, before they are ready to invest in Peppol.


“This concern can be mitigated by extending the date by which small businesses would be required to comply with a BER request,” he said.


“Small businesses who choose to invest earlier could opt into the BER and benefit from both sending e-invoices to and receiving e-invoices from other businesses subject to the BER, without burdening all small businesses with an immediate obligation to comply.”


Larger businesses, on the other hand, might be concerned over the additional cost and effort of enabling a Peppol e-invoicing receive capability into their existing peer-to-peer environments.


Mr Dever said it was true that there would be costs for businesses of all sizes to implement Peppol e-invoicing.


These costs included upfront implementation and business process change costs, along with ongoing licence and document processing costs charged by software vendors.


“However, a carefully phased implementation of a ‘receive’ BER could complement and build off investments many large businesses have already made into electronic data interchange,” he said.


“Allowing sufficient lead time also presents opportunities for larger businesses to include Peppol in any upcoming ERP cloud transformation project, as the market shifts from on-premise to cloud ERP over the coming years, allowing cost efficiencies to be achieved by doing the project once.


“We also expect that Peppol will present opportunities for large procurement functions to consolidate invoice processing and actually help drive adoption of EDI by smaller vendors to achieve broader business processing efficiencies and controls.”


More generally, as a key pillar of the government’s wider digital economy policy agenda, there also may be merit in considering other targeted incentives.


Mr Dever said this could particularly suit sole trader and microbusinesses that might not currently be using accounting software.


“Such incentives could include targeted tax concessions – such as refundable tax offsets/rebate incentives (similar to those announced in the last budget for the gaming sector) and/or allocation of grant funding from the $1.2 billion digital economy budget to target specific digitisation of accounting processes for small and micro-businesses,” he said.


“For medium and larger businesses, the Government could consider non-refundable tax credits, or a scheme similar to the instant asset write off for small and large businesses who invest into eInvoicing technology and process transformation projects.”


 


 


 


Tony Zhang


22 April 2022


accountantsdaily.com.au




25th-May-2022

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation