Invoice Acceptance Modes (First Part)

Many times in business, we issue invoices to our contractual partners, but we discover that they do not pay or send them back. Legislation and practice provide us with examples when an invoice is considered accepted for payment regardless of the behavior of the contractual partner. We present a brief analysis in this regard, without proposing to cover all practical situations.

A. Firstly, any tax invoice is accepted for payment by the signature and stamp applied to place of the beneficiary.

In connection with stamping the invoice, we mention that, according to O.G. no. 17/2015 regarding fiscal and budgetary measures, normative that entered into force on 30.07.2017, natural persons, legal persons of private law, as well as entities without legal personality are not obliged to apply the stamp on declarations, applications, contracts or any other documents or certifcates filed with the public institutions or authorities or issued in relation to the public institutions or authorities. We note that the law does not refer to the stamping of invoices issued by professionals, and from this point of view we consider that “stamping” will still be applicable between them.

B. Another way of accepting invoices is by partially paying off the debts from their contents. The Civil Code indicates that they are acts of tacit debt recognition, partial payment of the debt, payment in full or in part of interest or penalties, requesting a payment deadline and other such acts. Therefore, by paying a portion of the debit included in the invoice, the debtor assumes, by tacit debt recognition, the entire amount of the invoice in question.

C. As regards the communication of an invoice by electronic means, we note that it is not an issue of an electronic invoice itself. By downloading and printing, the electronically scanned invoice takes the form of an invoice that is outlined in a document. As long as does the invoice contain all the mandatory elements according to the provisions of art. 319 point 20 of the Fiscal Code, this is legally valid, although invoices sent by e-mail or fax are not considered as original invoices. It is mandatory for the supplier / service provider to issue the invoice as a result of the commercial activities performed. The problem is how it will be considered accepted by the recipient of the goods or services. We can not say that once sent by email or fax, an invoice is automatically accepted by the recipient. There may be a number of situations where the recipient can dispute the invoice, not accept it in its accounts, without the importance of how it was sent (fax, email or mail).

In order to have the accept of the recipient of the invoice and so to know if the debt has been acknowledged, there must be a confirmation of the addressee, either by e-mail or by any letter sent by post or courier, showing that it accepts the invoice or, if multiple invoices are issued, that they accept the debit balance. If the mail is usually emailed between the parties, then the email is considered valid acceptance.

1. It is possible for the contract to provide, expressly or implicitly, the acceptance of invoices. For example, it may be stipulated that by requesting a new order for the supply of goods or services, it is absolutely presumed that the requesting party has accepted the invoice sent for the payment of the old order.
2. Another way is to provide a clause in the contract to show that if the invoice is not disputed within 2 days of receipt, then it is considered as accepted for payment.