Poland’s KSeF system introduces new risks as fake invoices are being sent to companies that weren’t involved in real transactions.
Ghost Invoices in KSeF – New Threat to Your Business
The National e-Invoice System (KSeF) aims to streamline tax processes and document flow, but digitization has also revealed new threats. One is the emergence of fictional invoices issued without real transactions. These documents may reach companies that were not parties to any agreement or service. Since invoices are directly transferred to business accounts in KSeF, there is an increased risk of accidentally settling a debt that should not be paid.
In response to these threats, the tax administration is developing tools to report abuses and protect honest taxpayers from financial losses.
From 2026, KSeF Will Be Mandatory for Structured Invoices
Starting in 2026, KSeF will be the mandatory system for issuing and receiving structured invoices. Although its main goal is to increase transparency and reduce errors resulting from human factors, automatic assignment of documents to buyers based on the NIP number may be misused. As a result, an invoice may end up with a company that should not be its recipient.
A Critical Problem: The Inability to Pre-reject Invoices in KSeF
A significant issue is the inability to initially reject invoices in KSeF. Every document—regardless of whether it concerns a real transaction, an error, or an attempted fraud—appears in the system identically. With a large number of invoices, it is easy to overlook a suspicious document and make payment for a service or good that was never delivered. However, it should be emphasized that the mere appearance of an invoice in KSeF does not trigger tax consequences; these arise only at the time of its booking and settlement.
Red Flags: How to Spot a Suspicious e-Invoice?
It is crucial to distinguish whether we are dealing with an unintentional error or a conscious attempt at fraud. An invoice issued with incorrect data, such as the wrong NIP number, constitutes a formal error. In such a case, the seller should make a correction—issue a zero-value corrective invoice, and then prepare a new, correct document. Scam invoices, which are intentionally created to extort money, data, or prompt the recipient to pay to the scammer’s account, are different. An additional complication is that corrective notes do not function in KSeF, which complicates the error correction process.
“Issuing a scam invoice is not always easy to detect. It may often be a document from an entity with whom the buyer has never cooperated, or an invoice for a transaction that never took place. Warning signals also include the inability to contact the issuer, language errors, or a very short payment deadline imposed without agreements. Another difficulty is that to detect fraud, one cannot rely solely on analyzing a single symptom—the analysis should consider several indicators together,” says Joanna Łuksza, head of the accounting experts team at ifirma.pl.
Reporting Abuses in KSeF 2.0: Step-by-Step Instructions
In KSeF 2.0, a function for reporting suspicious invoices to the National Tax Administration (KAS) is planned. This tool will be purely technical and will not be used to resolve commercial disputes. Reports can be made by buyers and other entities authorized to access invoices—sellers and their representatives will not have such an option.
The reporting process requires specifying a justification and applies to each individual invoice—no option for bulk document reporting is provided. Each report is analyzed by the tax administration, but the entrepreneur does not receive information about the course or result of the verification. However, it is possible to withdraw a report, also with a reason given, for example, after determining that the invoice was the result of a simple error. The system also enables ongoing checking of the report status—from its submission to the last change.
“However, even the best reporting mechanism does not relieve entrepreneurs of the obligation of due business diligence. The tax administration may determine that the invoice was issued by an unauthorized entity, but it is the buyer’s company that must continuously verify whether the document comes from a real contractor,” warns Joanna Łuksza.
Security in KSeF: Will the System Catch Fraudsters Itself?
The functionality for reporting scam invoices will be launched with the deployment of the production version of KSeF 2.0. Simultaneously, additional solutions are planned, such as the ability to hide suspicious documents. Ultimately, the new tools are intended to increase the security of electronic transactions and limit the scale of abuses, which remain a significant challenge in the digital tax settlement system.
