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Update to Invoices for Freelancers and Clients

lenaellis
Community Member

After February 15th, freelancers will be able to view and download invoices that are sent to clients by going to their Reports.  

 

Additionally, to conform to legal requirements for VAT compliance, both freelancer and client addresses will appear on invoices if the client is located in a VAT country. Displaying an address is optional for non-VAT clients by marking a checkbox on the company contact information page.


client address option.png

 

This is a retroactive change and once made, addresses will be visible on all current and past invoices from March 2015 onward. Please take a moment to verify or update the address you want displayed. Freelancers, you can find this under your contact information setting, and clients under company contact information.



For reference, here’s how your address will appear on invoices:

 

invoice.png

 

 

Update 2/17/21

We want your invoices to always show your name, address, etc., as you had it listed at that time. Because of that if you update your information, your past invoices will not reflect the update. This is for accuracy and to ensure that your invoices reflect the same information as they did on the day they were created. Also, if you live in certain areas, we must collect taxes, such as sales or VAT. Having the proper address displayed at the time of invoicing is important to show what taxes were applicable and charged.

39 Comments
evaristg
Community Member

Thanks so much Valeria.

evaristg
Community Member
Hello Valeria,
Just reaching out for a follow up,
is there any update on this?
spod777ru
Community Member

I am a freelancer working for my company. Until yesterday, I worked for my European company for more than three years with a verified VAT number. Yesterday I changed the details of my company in the profile. It is now an American company. Support hasn't solved the problem for over a month (I was planning to switch to a new US company earlier, but was forced to switch only yesterday). The problems are as follows:

1. The company data has changed for all invoices already paid.

2. VAT number has disappeared in all already paid invoices

3. The system has charged me VAT on already paid invoices (in which a verified VAT number was previously added)

4. My guess is that at the end of the year, the system will also send data on all transactions (1099-К) for the year to the IRS and I will have big problems with the law

5. New invoices for a US company contain VAT.

 

My clients are already downloading erroneous invoices without a VAT number to the new company (which have already been paid to the account of the old company with a VAT number) and I am already calculating the amount of potential fines that they and I will have to pay.

 

Support is silent for a month. Tickets are closed without any answers. I did not expect this from a large well-known company. This is all very strange and makes me look for alternatives. Up to this point, I have been very happy with our cooperation.

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Sergei,

 

I apologize for the inconvenience this caused! It looks like you have an open ticket with our support team about this concern. I’ll go ahead and follow up with the team handling your case and you can expect to receive an update on your ticket as soon as possible. 

 

Thank you for your patience.

spod777ru
Community Member

Nobody answered me. Maybe you have some information?

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member

Hi Sergei,

 

Rest assured, our team is working on resolving this as soon as possible. One of our team members will update your ticket and will assist you further. Just to confirm, I have also escalated your concern to our team as well. Thank you.

evaristg
Community Member

I can only imagine how many issues are opened every day, and how busy Upwork development team is. My most sincere thanks to all the people who work everyday to make Upwork such a great marketplace.


But honestly, I am also surprised this issue hasn't been solved already.


If (for example) today, one of my clients decides to download an invoice for the work I did before updating my tax information, he is going to see my new tax information, which is completely innacurate because it doesn't reflect my situation at the time of doing the work. I was living in a completely different jurisdiction (differente country, differnt continent) back at the time!


The EU has very specific rules about how to deal with taxes for services provided within the EU. If the service provider is located whitin the EU, it is important to say it. If it is not, it is important the invoice doesn't say it is! Worse than that, my clients could be filing invoices issued from a company before that company was even created!


Do you guys realize how serius this is?


Based on another thread I found in this community, Upwork is aware of this error from December 2017 at least. If Upwork is not going to solve this issue, or if it is not considered an issue to be solved at all, I don't understand why doesn't Upwork just say it.


I can only imagine how busy Upwork team is, but I can't stress enough how surprised I am this problem hasn't been solved.

evaristg
Community Member

Hello, I posted this message in another thread but I think it is no longer active, maybe it is best to start a new thread.

 

When a freelancer updates its tax information, the changes are retroactive, affecting absolutely all invoices issued by the freelancer. This is, all invoices generated AFTER updating the tax information but also all invoices generated BEFORE the update. Absolutely all invoices display the new tax information. You can get more context about this issue here and here.

 

I have been struggling with this issue ever since a few months, and no one has been able to help me so far.

 

I can only imagine how many issues are opened every day, and how busy Upwork development team is. But honestly, I am also surprised this issue hasn't been solved already.


If (for example) today, one of my clients decides to download an invoice for the work I did before updating my tax information, he is going to see my new tax information, which is completely innacurate because it doesn't reflect my situation at the time of doing the work. I was living in a completely different jurisdiction (differente country, differnt continent) back at the time!


The EU has very specific rules about how to deal with taxes for services provided within the EU. If the service provider is located whitin the EU, it is important to say it. If it is not, it is important the invoice doesn't say it is! Worse than that, my clients could be filing invoices issued from a company before that company was even created!


Do you guys realize how serius this is?


Based on another thread I found in this community, Upwork is aware of this error from December 2017 at least. If Upwork is not going to solve this issue, or if it is not considered an issue to be solved at all, I don't understand why doesn't Upwork just say it.


I can only imagine how busy Upwork team is, but I can't stress enough how surprised I am this problem hasn't been solved.

jmeyn
Community Member

This violates EU regulations and I dare say it also violates US GAP

evaristg
Community Member

Didn't I create a new thread for this in 'Freelancers'? Did an admin move my msg to this thread?