Adjustment notes - what you need to know

When running a sole proprietorship or a company (legal person), you are always in contact with a lot of documentation or at least a number of documents. Although in case of sales, where the only way of correcting an error on the invoice is to issue a correcting invoice, in case of purchases, the legislator provided the recipient with a tool, namely the adjustment note. 

When to issue an adjustment note? 

The adjustment note is a document that allows correcting errors in issued VAT invoices. In Art. 106k of the Polish Act on VAT, the legislator listed the situations in which such a document can be issued. The act stipulates that the adjustment note can be issued in any situation except for situations that result in a change of (Art. 106e section 1 point 8-15 of the Polish Act on VAT):  

• the measurement and amount (quantity) of goods delivered or scope of services provided; 
• the unit price of goods or services excluding the tax amount (net unit price); 
• amounts of any price discounts or reductions, including rebates on account of earlier payments, insofar as they have not been included in a net unit price; 
• the value of goods delivered or services provided under a transaction excluding the tax amount (net sale value); 
• the rate of tax or rate of value added tax in case of the use of special procedures referred to in Section XII in Chapters 6a, 7 and 9; 
• the total value of net sale split into sale covered by individual rates of the tax and tax-exempt sale; 
• the amount of the tax on a total value of net sale split into amounts of individual rates of the tax; 
• the total amount due; 

It should be highlighted that there is no time restriction as to the issuance of the adjustment note. 

What should be included in an issued adjustment note? 

 The adjustment note issued by the entrepreneurs must contain the following elements: 

• words “NOTA KORYGUJĄCA” (ADJUSTMENT NOTE) 
• number of the note and its date of issue, 
• purchaser’s identification details – details of the company that issues the note,  
• seller’s identification details – details of the company that issues the invoice and receives the note  
• details on the adjusted invoice – document number, date of sales, date of issue,  

• the indicated adjusted contents and the correct contents 

Acceptance of the note 

Issuance of the note as such and sending it to the contractor does not mean that it will become legally-binding. The legislator indicated that the adjustment note must be accepted by the recipient, but the form has not been specified. In case of delivery by standard post, it is recommended to prepare two copies – so that the recipient can sign the acceptance in one of the copies and sent it back. But when the invoice is sent by other methods (e.g. via electronic mail), acceptance of the e-mail message will suffice. 

Adjustment notes issued in the KSEF system 

Although KSEF has not become obligatory yet, regulations stipulate that it will be impossible to issue a correcting invoice outside the KSEF system for an invoice that was issued through KSEF. It means that along with the obligatory implementation of the national e-invoices system (KSEF), adjustment notes will basically no longer be relevant. Thus, each correction of an invoice will be made by the seller (the issuer of the invoice). 

Author: Arkadiusz Markuszewski Accountant at the MDDP Outsourcing accounting company in Katowice  

Sources: 
Act of 11 March 2024 on value added tax
https://mddp.venti7.e-kei.pl/nota-korygujaca-dofaktury/ 
https://kancelariawyrzykowscy.pl/pl/blog/nota-korygujaca-wystawiona-do-faktury-w-ksef/ 
https://poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl/-akceptacja-noty-korygujacej 
https://druki.gofin.pl/nota-korygujaca,wzor,192,171.html