Record Keeping Once authorised, the taxable person can proceed to transmit or receive messages by electronic means. The existing provisions of VAT law as regards issue, retention and storage of records apply to electronic records in the same way as they apply to paper records. However a taxable person who is authorised to issue or receive messages by electronic means must also issue, or, in the case of the recipient construct, retain and store the following additional documents:

a) A batch (Tax) control record that contains all the detail as defined in the Statement of Practice- Electronic Invoicing document.

b) A summary document produced at the end of each month by both issuer and recipient containing all the details as defined in the Statement of Practice-Electronic Invoicing document.

c) In the case of an authorised recipient, a document produced by him and issued to a trading partner giving details of any discrepancy between the batch (TAX) control document issued by the sender and that constructed by the recipient.

d) In all cases a transmission log - i.e. a record of transmission sequence numbers between each trading partner. Required action for EDI tradefast user In addition to the required action outlined above there is an additional requirement on users to produce a Monthly TAX control statement. This facility on the eircom net EDI tradefast service is designed to provide the users with a two week time frame following the end of each month to print this information.

If the user does not print this report during this time frame the information is lost and cannot be recovered from the system.

Subsequently this Monthly TAX control statement should be stored by the user in a way that complies with the Regulation.