The implementation of e-invoice is the hottest topic in the business arena nowadays in Malaysia, especially as the first phase for companies with RM100 million yearly revenue approaches the mandatory date on 1st August 2024.
While different industries have different levels of impact, for the parking industry, it seems the impact should be small due to parking transactions normally being small. However, the complication is much larger than in many other industries when one looks more closely.
Here are a few factors and how they contribute to the e-invoice compliance complications:
1. The business of car parking is basically B2C but leans towards B2B when season parking is involved.
For B2C transactions, parking operators deal mostly with consolidated e-invoices, unless some customers require individual e-invoices. But for season pass customers, if companies pay for their staff, individual e-invoices become compulsory. Don’t forget that individual season parkers may also require individual e-invoices to claim from their employers. In this case, the parking system has to accommodate personal TINs if season parkers own a proprietary business or company TINs if the employer is a Sdn Bhd.
2. You don’t meet your customers face-to-face when unmanned cash or cashless parking methods are involved.
Unlike other B2C businesses, you meet your customers and deal with them when there is a need for individual e-invoices. But when casual parkers enter and exit a parking site with cashless or automated parking payment machines, if individual e-invoices are required, you have to establish some communication methods such as QR codes to be scanned or apps to be downloaded that fulfill the requirement of e-invoices.
3. The parking management system that issues receipts and invoices is not usually linked up with the accounting system.
Most parking operations do not integrate their parking systems with accounting systems, and this practice did not create any issues before the e-invoice era. Since the parking management system is the front line to deal with customers in processing receipts and invoices, it has to play the role of collecting the information to fulfill the e-invoice requirements. And since the accounting system is sitting at the back and links to the LHDN platform for e-invoicing processes, certain integration between the two systems is necessary. It becomes more complex for two-way back-and-forth interactive integration if one aims to achieve better automation.
4. Many parking methods from ticketing to cashless bank cards and touchless LPR, and some combination of two to three methods.
To generate individual e-invoices if using TnG cards or bank cards as the parking method, besides all the TIN information, parking operators have to ensure their system allows users to input TnG numbers or credit and debit card numbers, so that the unmanned system can trace and pick up the actual transactions in their parking system. For LPR systems, the system has to ensure the license plate number field is ready. While for ticketing systems, the receipt number is required for further individual e-invoice applications.
5. Many parking types such as on-street parking, casual parking, season parking, valet parking, event parking, etc.
Again, for parking operators running a business that involves many parking types such as casual parking, season parking, and valet parking, they may have different parking systems or a parking system that can handle different parking types. All the parking types have a certain mix of parking methods that complicate the fulfillment of e-invoices, even though the TIN would be the same.
Parking operators might think, “why such a big fuss?” since parking fees are so small, especially for casual parking, and only a minority of parkers will ask for an individual e-invoice which can be ignored. They might consider just putting up a notice stating “This Parking Site Does Not Provide E-Invoices” to be good enough to manage their parking business.
Such a “go elsewhere to park” statement is certainly a momentary angry remark because in the parking industry, parking facilities are meant to lure visitors to the locations and buildings.
In the past, even if your parking site didn’t provide any normal receipts, it wasn’t really a big deal. But failure to issue e-invoices is an offense under Section 120 (1) (d) of the Income Tax Act 1967, with a fine of not less than RM200 – RM20,000 or imprisonment of not more than 6 months, or both, for each non-compliance. It means whoever requires an individual e-invoice, the service provider has to fulfill his or her requirements, no matter how small the transactions.
We don’t know how seriously enforcement will be carried out, but if parking operators are serious about their business, it’s better to get prepared. Besides compliance, there is always competitiveness in the parking industry.
For more details about e-invoices for the car parking industry, please click here:
https://www.timeteccloud.com/parking/e-invoice
About TimeTec:
TimeTec Group was established in 2000. Over the past 20 years, the Group has developed three homegrown, globally recognized IT brands: FingerTec, TimeTec, and iNeighbour. These brands specialize in workforce management, security, smart parking, smart office, smart residential, and smart township solutions, harnessing the power of biometrics, cloud and edge computing, IoT, and AI technologies. All these solutions connect and reshape the landscape of work life and home life within a larger ecosystem.
Through an extensive network, TimeTec Group distributes its biometric hardware products and 18 cloud applications, including IoT devices, to more than 150 countries worldwide. Visit our company websites at TimeTec Cloud, FingerTec, iNeighbour, and TimeTec Building.
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