After you pay the shipping and service fees, how is the e-invoice issued and where do you get it?
The short answer: how does the invoice reach you after payment?
Yes. HowBridge issues an e-invoice once you pay consolidation shipping and service fees. The item is always listed as “consolidation service fee,” and no invoice is issued for the customs duty and business tax themselves that are paid on your behalf.
An e-invoice is issued as soon as your online payment succeeds; there is no waiting for reconciliation or a monthly closing. Where it goes is decided by the issuing option you pick at checkout: enter a mobile barcode or a Citizen Digital Certificate barcode and the invoice is stored in your carrier with no paper printed; enter a donation code and it goes directly to the recipient organization; enter a company tax ID and the invoice is issued showing the buyer's tax ID and its certificate copy can be printed; enter nothing and a duplicate-form invoice is issued, whose e-invoice certificate copy you can download yourself later as a PDF from the "Freight invoices" sub-tab under the "Docs" tab on the billing page (the My invoices button in the e-invoice block on the homepage, or entering the old address /member/invoices directly, both take you to the same place). Once issued, we transmit the invoice data to the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform for filing within the statutory deadline, so you can also look it up on that platform or in the Ministry of Finance uniform invoice redemption app.
HowBridge invoicing at a glance: the numbers that matter
These are the actual parameters of e-invoicing on this site, so you can judge when to expect an invoice, where to get it, and whether you can claim it as a business expense:
| Start of official invoice issuance | Online payments have been invoiced automatically since 2026-09-07; the offline batch for the payment method “bank transfer to the company (TWD)” has been invoiced manually by accounting since 2026-08-20. Payments made before those dates have to be reconciled case by case by accounting and are not invoiced automatically after the fact. |
| Moment of issuance | Shipping bills: issued instantly on completion of the online payment. Work-order service fees: issued by a background job once payment completes, usually within a minute. Neither is issued at dispatch, nor at a monthly closing. |
| Issuing options available | 5 of them: mobile barcode, Citizen Digital Certificate barcode, company tax ID, donation code, and a duplicate-form paper certificate copy |
| Item description on the invoice | Always the single line item “consolidated shipping service fee” (a uniform description required by the National Taxation Bureau), whether you paid a shipping bill or a work-order service fee |
| Deadline for transmission and filing | Buyer is not a business entity: within 2 days counted from the day after issuance; buyer is a business entity: within 7 days (no extension if the final day falls on a holiday) |
| How to obtain the certificate copy | Download the PDF yourself from the "Freight invoices" sub-tab under the "Docs" tab on the billing page; the My invoices button in the e-invoice block on the homepage and the old address /member/invoices both lead straight to the same list. The list is scoped to your account, and it includes the official invoices issued for online payments, offline bank-transfer batches, work-order service fees, and paid-tax-on-your-behalf handling fees. The download button appears only after the Ministry of Finance platform confirms filing |
The deadlines above come from the “Table of the scope and time limits of the information a business entity issuing e-invoices must transmit to the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform for filing”, announced by the Ministry of Finance on 12 December 2024 (ROC 113/12/12) as Announcement No. 11304654280 and effective from 1 January 2025 (ROC 114/1/1). The “48 hours” still repeated in many places is the old rule; for how the provision evolved and its original wording, see the section on the Ministry of Finance platform below.
Which charges are invoiced, and when?
The test is simple: anything HowBridge charges you as consideration for a service is covered by a uniform invoice, whereas government taxes and duties that we pay on your behalf, as you instruct, and pass on to the authorities unchanged are not our sales revenue and are not put on that invoice. Under the “Table of time limits for issuing sales documentation by business entities” appended to the Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act, service-contracting businesses (whose scope expressly includes “contracting for the carriage or loading and unloading of goods”), transport businesses and warehousing businesses must issue “no later than the time of collection”, while agency businesses (whose scope expressly includes “customs brokers and shipping agents”) must issue “no later than the time the agreed introduction fee, handling fee or remuneration becomes receivable” — so the invoice is issued at the moment of payment, not when the goods arrive or ship.
| Charges members meet most often | Invoiced? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Consolidated shipping bill (freight plus service fee) | Yes | Issued instantly once the online payment completes |
| Parcel photo service work order | Yes | Issued by a background job after payment, usually within a minute |
| Parcel item-count service work order | Yes | Issued by a background job after payment, usually within a minute |
| Parcel return service work order | Yes | Issued by a background job after payment, usually within a minute |
| Import duty and customs-collected business tax paid on your behalf | No | Collected and passed on for you, not our sales revenue; only noted as an amount in the invoice remarks field |
| Handling fee charged separately when import taxes are paid on your behalf | Yes | NT$40 per parcel; this is our own service revenue and is counted separately from the tax itself in the row above |
As required by the National Taxation Bureau, every e-invoice issued by this site uses the single line item “consolidated shipping service fee”; it does not change according to whether you paid freight, a work-order service fee or any other service item. The amount is what was actually collected in that payment, less any taxes and duties collected and passed on. You will therefore not see an itemized breakdown on the invoice — for that, see the billing page.
① Payments not denominated in New Taiwan dollars are not invoiced automatically; ② no invoice is issued where the amount actually received is zero or negative; ③ no invoice is issued where the amount is zero after deducting taxes and duties collected and passed on. In these three cases the system does not issue anything automatically; accounting has to review and handle them manually.
Online payment channels (credit card, LINE Pay and so on) are invoiced automatically by the system. Among offline transfers, only the payment method “bank transfer to the company (TWD)” is currently included in invoicing, and it is carried out manually by accounting rather than automatically. For any other offline payment method, please contact customer service to confirm.
For a shipping bill, the remarks field carries the corresponding bill number so you can match invoice to bill (for a work-order service fee the remark is the internal work-order code). If that payment also included taxes collected and passed on, the remarks field additionally states that taxes collected and paid on your behalf are not included in sales revenue.
Which one did I get? Cloud invoice versus certificate copy
These three terms are often used interchangeably, yet their official definitions are completely different, and getting them wrong affects whether you can enter the lottery and whether you can claim the expense. All three are uniform invoices, not receipts.
| Official term | What it is | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| E-invoice | A uniform invoice issued, transmitted or received over the internet or by other electronic means. It must comprise three files: the stub file, the receipt file and the filing file. | Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, Article 7, paragraph 1, subparagraph 5 |
| Cloud invoice | A subset of e-invoices: one the buyer requested using a carrier approved by the Ministry of Finance, or donated by specifying a donation code, and for which no e-invoice certificate copy has been printed. Both conditions must be met. | Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, Article 7-1; E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions, point 2 |
| E-invoice certificate copy | A paper printout, not a separate kind of invoice. It is for those who need paper, serving as an original voucher or as the document for claiming a prize, and is downloaded and printed in the prescribed format and on the prescribed paper. | Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, Article 7, paragraph 3; Operating Directions, point 2, subparagraph 4 |
| Filing file | The copy the issuer transmits to the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform for filing; it is also the reason you can look the invoice up on the platform later on. | Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, Article 7, paragraph 1, subparagraph 5, item 3 |
Because only cloud invoices take part in the cloud invoice exclusive prizes. Article 3-1, paragraph 4 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards writes “no e-invoice certificate copy has been printed” into the definition of a cloud invoice itself, so printing a certificate copy before the draw takes the invoice outside that definition and out of the exclusive prizes. Conversely, printing a certificate copy for a cloud invoice that has already won changes nothing — paragraph 5 of the same article provides that “where a winning cloud invoice has an e-invoice certificate copy printed, the provisions of the preceding paragraph concerning non-printing of the e-invoice certificate copy shall not apply”.
The five issuing options at checkout: which one should you pick?
The checkout and the work-order payment page offer the same set of five options, three of which are mutually exclusive (a company tax ID takes precedence over a carrier, and a carrier takes precedence over a donation). The formats in the table below are what the fields on this site actually accept. Incidentally, what people call a “triplicate or duplicate e-invoice” is trade usage: it refers to whether the buyer's company tax ID is stated on the invoice. Article 7 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices in fact lists the e-invoice alongside the triplicate and duplicate forms as separate types.
| Issuing option | What to enter | Who it suits | Points to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile barcode | A leading slash plus 7 characters, drawn from 0-9, A-Z and ., -, +; for example /ABC1234 or /AB.C-12 | Ordinary personal purchases, where you want your invoices in one place and entered in the lottery | This is a common carrier. Once stored, no paper is printed and the invoice is a cloud invoice, eligible for the cloud invoice exclusive prizes |
| Citizen Digital Certificate barcode | 2 uppercase letters followed by 14 digits | People used to consolidating invoices under their Citizen Digital Certificate | Also stored in a carrier, with no paper printed. That is 16 characters in all, so it is worth saving it in advance under Invoice Settings |
| Company tax ID | An 8-digit tax ID (the check digit is verified); the invoice title is optional and limited to 60 characters | Company accounts that need the expense recorded or the input tax credited | If a tax ID is given, no carrier is attached and the invoice is flagged as having its certificate copy printed, which by law keeps it out of the lottery; you still download the paper copy yourself |
| Donation code | 3 to 7 digits | People who would rather not keep the invoice and want to donate it outright | Once donated, the prize is claimed by the recipient organization and you can no longer redeem it yourself; no certificate copy is printed at issuance |
| Duplicate-form paper certificate copy | Leave everything blank (the default) | Anyone unsure what to choose, or who needs to keep the paper copy | You can download the PDF yourself later in the member center or on the billing page |
Do keep these apart: if the company tax ID is not 8 digits, or the donation code is not 3 to 7 digits, the payment is stopped and an error appears next to the field. But if the format looks valid while the value is in fact wrong — a tax ID with the right number of digits but a bad check digit, say, or a mobile barcode whose characters break the rules — the system does not stop the payment. It skips that whole field and issues an ordinary consumer duplicate-form invoice instead, with no on-screen warning. The checkout runs a front-end format check first; the work-order payment page does not, which is all the more reason to save the correct carrier in advance under Invoice Settings. One more caveat: this site currently validates only the format of a carrier and is not yet connected to the Ministry of Finance mobile barcode verification API, so a mistyped carrier will not be caught here and the invoice will be issued into a carrier that does not exist.
Want the Details? There's a Separate Guide for Prize Checking and for Mobile Barcodes
How Do I Know If My Consolidation Invoice Won? HowBridge Automatic Prize Checking and Claiming
HowBridge doesn't send winning notifications—the Ministry of Finance does. How to claim prizes for each of the five invoice types, and how draw dates and claim deadlines are calculated.
Saving Consolidation Invoices to a Mobile Barcode: HowBridge Carrier Settings, No Membership Carrier Linking Needed
HowBridge has no membership carrier, so no separate membership carrier linking is needed. How to apply for a mobile barcode and set it once on the billing page so it is filled in automatically.
Set it once and have it filled in automatically every time
There is no need to retype it at every checkout. Once logged in, click the Invoice Settings gear icon on the right of the billing page's tab bar to open the settings window (the Invoice carrier settings button in the e-invoice block on the homepage also takes you to the same window), and save the carrier, company tax ID or donation code you normally use; from then on it is filled in automatically on every payment:
1Open Invoice Settings
After logging in, go to the billing page (/my-bills) and click the Invoice Settings gear icon on the right of the tab bar, and the settings window opens directly; entering the address /member/invoice-settings directly also takes you to the same window. New members who have not yet had a bill can set it up the same way, without waiting for their first bill.
2Choose an issuing option and enter the number
Pick one of the five options. If you choose the company tax ID, entering the 8-digit number makes the system look the company title up in the Ministry of Finance business registration data and fill it in automatically; if nothing is found it simply is not displayed and you are not prevented from saving, so please check the number yourself.
3It takes effect the moment you save
Once saved, these settings are pre-filled at checkout and when paying for parcel photo, item-count and return work orders. You can still switch to a different option for any individual payment.
4Your choice at payment time is remembered too
At checkout there is a "Remember my choice" checkbox: if you tick it, the carrier, tax ID or donation code you enter this time is written back as the default and filled in automatically next time; if you leave it unticked, it is used only for this one payment and your existing settings are left untouched. The work-order payment page has no such checkbox — it always remembers your choice for that payment; choosing "paper" is likewise recorded as the default, so an old carrier will no longer be filled in next time.
Where can I see the invoices, and can I download the certificate copy?
There are three places to look, and you can download the certificate copy PDF yourself:
After logging in, click My invoices in the e-invoice block on the homepage, or enter the old address /member/invoices directly, and either way you are taken straight to the "Docs" tab of your most recent bill, switched to the "Freight invoices" sub-tab (as of September 2026, the member center's navigation bar no longer lists this item). Invoices are kept in one place, under the bill's Docs tab, and a separate list is no longer maintained; the list is scoped to your account, so whichever bill you enter from, you see the same list.
On the billing page (/my-bills/{bill number}), the "Docs" tab has a "Freight invoices" sub-tab that lists the issue date, carrier, amount and status, and offers the certificate copy for download; the parcel cards also show an invoice number badge. Coverage: the e-invoices issued for online payments, the offline "bank transfer to the company (TWD)" batch, work-order service fees, and paid-tax-on-your-behalf handling fees are all here. This tab appears as soon as you have customs documents under your name, or have any e-invoice issued by this site; the button for requesting an invoice correction is in the same block.
Once the invoice has been transmitted and filed, you can also look up cloud invoices with your mobile number and a verification code on the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform, in the Ministry of Finance uniform invoice redemption app, or at a multimedia kiosk. Under point 24 of the E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions, a business entity must enable the buyer to query invoice details, return and allowance details, winning invoices, voiding, donations and carrier consolidation on that platform.
First, we do not send you an invoice notification email. Under Article 7, paragraph 4 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, where the buyer is not a business entity it is enough for the seller to transmit the invoice data to the platform for filing within the prescribed time limit and to enable the buyer to query and receive it on that platform; paragraph 6 of the same article provides that “an issuer who complies with the preceding two paragraphs shall be deemed to have delivered the e-invoice to the buyer”. The rules do not require delivery by email, and our approach is to offer lookup and download on the billing page and in the member center.
Second, the download button appears only after the platform confirms filing, so it cannot be clicked in the first few minutes after an invoice is issued. That is normal.
Third, about reprinting. The principle in point 26 of the E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions is that a certificate copy may be printed only once; the “reprint” allowed by that point is a narrow exception, limited to cases where the original copy is damaged or illegible and the seller has verified it against the stub file, and the reprint must be presented together with the original copy to claim a prize. Our approach is still to let you download it again, but from the 2nd time onward the PDF is marked “reprint” for your own records and checking, and it does not automatically stand on its own as a prize-claiming document. If you intend a cloud invoice to enter the exclusive prizes, do not download and print it before the draw; and anyone who has set up automatic remittance of winnings on the Ministry of Finance platform is likewise barred from printing the certificate copy.
Can I add a company tax ID and title? Can a mistake be corrected?
Yes. Choose “company tax ID” when paying and enter the 8-digit tax ID and the invoice title (optional, up to 60 characters); the system issues an e-invoice stating the buyer's tax ID, flags it as having its certificate copy printed, and it then serves as your accounting voucher and the basis for crediting input tax. The tax ID is checked against its check digit, so not just any 8 digits will be accepted.
1Filling it in before you pay is the least trouble
On the checkout page choose “company tax ID” → enter the tax ID → the system queries the Ministry of Finance business registration data and fills in the company name automatically (only when the title field is blank) → confirm and pay. If that tax ID is registered as not using uniform invoices, the page will tell you.
2Forgot the tax ID? You can file a correction request online
Go to the "Freight invoices" sub-tab on the "Docs" tab of the billing page, click Request correction, fill in the correct buyer details and submit. The conditions are: the bill is your own, the invoice was issued under an official invoice track number, it was an online payment, the invoice has not been voided, filing has been confirmed by the Ministry of Finance platform, and no other request is already being processed. Invoices issued for the offline bank-transfer batch cannot currently be corrected online; please contact customer service and accounting will handle it.
3Every correction is reviewed by a person and never runs automatically
This is deliberate. If the sales amount for that period has already been filed, Article 20 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices bars taking the invoice back and voiding it; the only route left is a sales return or allowance certificate, and that calls for human judgement rather than an automatic decision by the system. Once a request is approved, we void the original invoice and issue a new one with the corrected buyer details; the outcome shows up in your invoice list, so please go back to the list to check rather than waiting for a notification email.
Article 11, paragraph 1, subparagraph 9 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards provides that no award shall be given where the buyer is a government agency, a public enterprise, a public school, the armed forces or a business entity. An invoice stating a company tax ID therefore does not enter the lottery — this is not our rule but a nationwide one. Enter the tax ID if you need the expense recorded, use a personal carrier if you want a chance at a prize; it is one or the other.
How do I claim a prize, and which invoices are not eligible?
Which Prize Path Does Your Invoice Take? Comparing the Five Issuing Options
Even for invoices issued by HowBridge, the issuing option you choose at payment determines which prizes you are eligible for, who checks for wins, and how you claim a prize. The table below is compiled from the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Prize Awards and the Ministry of Finance's “Mobile Barcode Application, Use, and Related Notes” (Ver 1.3, July 1, 2026):
| Issuing option | Eligible prizes | How you find out you won | How to claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile barcode | Regular prizes + cloud invoice special prizes (only if no certificate copy was printed before the draw) | Checked automatically by the Ministry of Finance platform; if you win, the E-Invoice Integrated Service Platform emails the address you verified when applying for the mobile barcode | Set up a prize account on the platform by 23:59 on the day before the draw, and the prize money is automatically deposited on the 6th of the month following the draw (after setup, the certificate copy may no longer be printed). If you haven't set one up, you can set up prize collection in the Ministry of Finance uniform invoice redemption app, or print a winning certificate copy at a multimedia kiosk (KIOSK) and claim the prize |
| Citizen Digital Certificate barcode | Regular prizes + cloud invoice special prizes (only if no certificate copy was printed before the draw) | Log in to the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Integrated Service Platform with your Citizen Digital Certificate to check; the Ministry of Finance's public guidance does not state whether a separate email notification is sent for this type of carrier | Under Article 8 of the prize regulations: if you provided identity and account details in the manner announced by the Ministry of Finance before the draw, the prize money, minus tax due, is deposited directly; if you cannot claim this way, bring the e-invoice certificate copy to a counter to claim the prize |
| Company Unified Business Number | Not eligible for prizes (Article 11, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 9 of the prize regulations: buyer is a business entity) | — | — |
| Donation code | Regular prizes + cloud invoice special prizes | After the draw, the platform notifies the recipient organization or group (Point 22 of the E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions) | The prize is claimed by the recipient organization or group; the donor can no longer redeem it |
| Duplicate-form paper certificate copy (nothing entered) | Regular prizes only (not stored in a carrier and not donated, so it is not a cloud invoice and not eligible for special prizes) | You must check it yourself: download the certificate copy from the billing page and compare its number with the winning numbers the Ministry of Finance announces on the 25th of every odd-numbered month | The winner is the holder of the certificate copy, who must claim the prize at a designated prize-paying institution within 3 months starting from the 6th of the month following the draw. PDFs downloaded from the 2nd time onward are marked “Reprint”, so we recommend printing and keeping it safe on the first download |
What HowBridge does and doesn't do on its end: Our system retrieves the winning numbers announced by the Ministry of Finance every day and compares them against the e-invoices issued by our system (excluding donated invoices; cloud invoice special prize numbers cannot be derived from the published numbers), but we currently do not send winning notifications—only the Ministry of Finance platform will notify you. Invoices issued in September 2026 belong to the September–October 2026 period, which under Article 3 of the prize regulations is drawn on November 25, 2026. For prize-checking details, claim deadlines, and automatic deposit setup for each type of invoice, see How Do I Know If My Consolidation Invoice Won? HowBridge Automatic Prize Checking and Claiming.
Uniform invoices are drawn on the 25th of every odd month for the preceding period, and the cloud invoice exclusive prizes are drawn the same day. The prize categories and amounts follow Articles 3 and 3-1 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards:
| Prize | How it matches | Amount (NT$) |
|---|---|---|
| Special Grand Prize | All 8 digits identical | NT$10,000,000 |
| Grand Prize | All 8 digits identical | NT$2,000,000 |
| First Prize | All 8 digits identical | NT$200,000 |
| Second Prize | Last 7 digits identical | NT$40,000 |
| Third Prize | Last 6 digits identical | NT$10,000 |
| Fourth Prize | Last 5 digits identical | NT$4,000 |
| Fifth Prize | Last 4 digits identical | NT$1,000 |
| Sixth Prize | Last 3 digits identical | NT$200 |
The Million-dollar Prize of NT$1,000,000, the Thousand-dollar Prize of NT$2,000 (that is what the regulation says; the mismatch between name and amount is not a typo), the Eight-hundred-dollar Prize of NT$800 and the Five-hundred-dollar Prize of NT$500; each requires the cloud invoice track and all 8 digits to match the winning track and number exactly. The winning tracks and numbers for each period, and the claim deadline, are published on the websites of the Ministry of Finance and the regional National Taxation Bureaus on the day after the draw. The number of prize sets issued each period is announced period by period by the Ministry of Finance's Taxation Administration: for the July–December 2026 (ROC 115) period, each period carries 30 sets of the Million-dollar Prize, 16,000 sets of the NT$2,000 prize, 100,000 sets of the NT$800 prize, and 4.35 million sets of the NT$500 prize (500,000 more sets added to the 3.85 million sets of the first half of the year), for a total of 4,466,030 sets.
Article 8, paragraph 1 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards requires winners to claim from the paying institution within 3 months starting from the 6th of the month following the draw date. It is not “3 months from the draw”: the clock starts on the 6th of the following month.
Article 8, paragraph 3 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards provides that where the winner of a cloud invoice is a national of this country, a foreign national or a national of the mainland area holding a residence permit, or a resident of Hong Kong or Macau, and has set up a prize-receiving account on the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform before 23:59 on the day preceding the draw date, the paying institution will deduct any tax due and remit the winnings automatically on the 6th of the month following the draw date (postponed if that falls on a holiday). Anyone who changes the account after 24:00 is covered only from the next drawing period onward, and once the account is set up the e-invoice certificate copy may no longer be printed. The prize-receiving account can also be set up in the Ministry of Finance uniform invoice redemption app, which was comprehensively redesigned on 1 July 2026 (ROC 115); the official guidance notes that doing so saves the time of claiming the prize yourself each period and the 4‰ stamp duty.
Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Regulations Governing Uniform Invoice Awards lists the cases in which no award is given; the ones that matter most to readers of this site are: an amount of zero or a negative amount, an invoice already marked as voided, one subject to a zero business tax rate under the law, one issued as a daily aggregate, one whose buyer is a business entity (including any invoice stating a company tax ID), and one not claimed within the prescribed period.
This site has no winning-notification function and will never call or message you to say that your invoice has won. If you receive a prize notice claiming to come from HowBridge, do not hand over personal data or bank account details and do not make any payment. You can verify it with us on our customer service line 03-3936426, or call the 165 anti-fraud hotline. To find out whether an invoice has won, always check for yourself on the Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform or in the Ministry of Finance uniform invoice redemption app. The Ministry of Finance's anti-fraud zone also warns that scammers impersonate the "Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform" and send emails saying "your invoice has won" or "your carrier is abnormal, please update your account binding" to lure you into clicking a link and entering personal data — the official platform's website and email addresses always end in .gov.tw; do not click unfamiliar links and do not enter personal data such as credit card details. For more ways to spot a scam, see our complete guide to avoiding cross-border shopping scams.
Refund or cancellation: is the invoice voided or credited by allowance?
Both come into play. The statutory test is whether the sales amount for that period has already been filed — under Article 20 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, where the buyer is not a business entity the seller takes the original invoice back and marks it “void” if the sales amount has not yet been filed, and must obtain a sales return or allowance certificate if it has. Business tax is filed in periods of 2 months, so in practice this site takes the conservative view and looks at whether the refund crosses into another month and whether it is a full refund:
| Situation | How it is handled | What you will see |
|---|---|---|
| Full refund within the same month | The original invoice is voided | The invoice status changes to “voided” and the certificate copy is no longer available for download |
| Refund in a later month, or a partial refund | A sales return or allowance certificate is issued | The original invoice remains, alongside a separate allowance certificate |
| The original invoice has no filing confirmation from the platform yet | Handed over for manual handling | It takes a little time; once done it shows up in your invoice list |
Under Article 20-1 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices, an electronic sales return, purchase return or allowance certificate likewise comprises a stub file, a receipt file and a filing file, and the filing file must be transmitted to the Ministry of Finance platform. Point 9 of the E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions further provides that the issuance, correction, voiding, sales return or allowance of an e-invoice requires the buyer's consent, and the business entity must retain that consent message and the related supporting documents for at least 5 years for inspection by the tax authority — which is also why voiding and allowances cannot be turned into a one-click self-service flow. We accept your request; the work itself is done by a person.
Why are the customs duty and business tax paid on your behalf not on this invoice?
This is the part most often misunderstood. Business tax on imported goods is collected by Customs, and the taxpayer is the consignee — that is, you — not the platform. The platform pays it on your behalf, as you instruct, and passes it on unchanged, with no difference between the amount collected and the amount paid; where the two conditions below are met it is not counted as the platform's sales revenue, so it does not appear on our invoice.
| Customs duty and business tax on imported goods | The uniform invoice for HowBridge service fees | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxpayer / issuer | The consignee or holder of the imported goods (you) | HowBridge (the business entity selling the services) |
| Legal basis | Business Tax Act, Article 41: business tax payable on the importation of goods shall be collected by Customs on behalf of the tax authority | Business Tax Act, Article 32: a uniform invoice must be issued to the buyer within the time limits in the table for issuing sales documentation |
| Tax base | The customs value plus import duty (Business Tax Act, Article 20) | The consideration this site actually charges for its services |
| The document you receive | The customs duty and tax payment certificate, or the statement an express carrier issues to you after paying on your behalf | An e-invoice (a cloud invoice or an e-invoice certificate copy) |
| Duty-free threshold | Exempt where the customs value of the consignment is at or below the limit announced by the Ministry of Finance, except where imports are frequent or the goods are of a specific kind announced by the Ministry of Finance (Customs Act, Article 49, paragraph 2) | No such threshold |
Article 8, paragraph 3 of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices: “Where a business entity is entrusted to collect and pass on a payment, with no difference between the amount collected and the amount passed on, and the voucher obtained for the payment passed on names the principal as the buyer, that voucher may be delivered to the principal, no separate uniform invoice need be issued, and the amount need not be included in sales revenue.” Everything turns on the two conditions: “no difference” and “the voucher names the principal”. Note carefully: this means “it is not our sales revenue”, not “this money is tax-free” — import duties and taxes are still charged as they should be, only the voucher comes from Customs rather than from us. One distinction to keep clear: the tax itself is not invoiced, but the handling fee we charge for taking care of this on your behalf (NT$40 per parcel) is our own service revenue and is included in that period’s e-invoice. To understand how import tax is calculated, see our complete guide to import declarations and business tax.
What does the Ministry of Finance platform do in all this?
The Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform is the hub of the whole system: we issue an invoice and transmit the data there for filing, and you query it, consolidate it under a carrier and check it against the draw from there. The transmission deadlines are a statutory duty, and they are also how you judge how soon an invoice will show up on the platform:
| Information to be transmitted | Buyer is not a business entity | Buyer is a business entity |
|---|---|---|
| Issuance, correction and voiding of invoices, and sales return, purchase return or allowance certificates | Within 2 days counted from the day after issuance | Within 7 days counted from the day after issuance |
| Carrier identification data, invoice random code, and donation or certificate-copy printing data | Same deadline as for filing the issued invoice; where the donation or printing status changes after issuance, within 2 days counted from the day after the change | — |
| Unused blank invoice track numbers and number allocation data | Each period covers 2 months; within 10 days of the start of the following period | Each period covers 2 months; within 10 days of the start of the following period |
Article 7, paragraph 4 of the 22 October 2021 (ROC 110/10/22) version of the Regulations Governing the Use of Uniform Invoices did expressly require transmission for filing within forty-eight hours after issuance; the amendment of 12 December 2024 (ROC 113/12/12), in force from 1 January 2025 (ROC 114/1/1), changed this to “within the time limit prescribed by the Act”, moving the actual limits into the table announced by the Ministry of Finance on the same day, which reads “2 days / 7 days counted from the day after”, and where the final day of the filing period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, national holiday or other rest day, no extension is granted. Sources online that still describe it as “48 hours” are mostly outdated.
Article 48-2 of the Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act (added on 7 August 2024 (ROC 113/8/7) and in force from 1 January 2025 (ROC 114/1/1)) provides that a business entity which fails to transmit filing data within the time limit or fails to transmit it truthfully shall be notified to make correction within a set period and may be fined not less than NT$1,500 and not more than NT$15,000, with repeated fines if the correction is not made in time or is itself untrue. The Ministry of Finance's Taxation Administration further explained on 18 December 2024 (ROC 113) that failing to transmit allowance notes for filing within the deadline carries a six-month grace period, from 1 January to 30 June 2025 (ROC 114), during which no penalty applies, with full enforcement starting 1 July 2025 (ROC 114); the Legislative Yuan's legislative history also gives examples of what counts as not transmitting truthfully, such as "entering a blank value in a field that is required to be transmitted" or "the transmitted data not matching the actual transaction data." This is our duty and our liability as the issuer; the buyer is not penalised for it.
“Carrier consolidation” means taking cloud invoice data already linked to another carrier and linking it to your identity data or to a common carrier. Under the Ministry of Finance document on applying for and using the mobile barcode, a carrier may be consolidated either to a mobile barcode or to a Citizen Digital Certificate, but only to one of them; a carrier that has not been consolidated can only be set to consolidate to a single mobile barcode.
Point 21 of the E-Invoice Implementation Operating Directions provides that where a buyer uses a common carrier to request a cloud invoice at the time of the transaction, neither the business entity nor the platform operator may refuse, except for business entities defined in Article 6, subparagraph 4 of the Business Tax Act — that is, foreign e-commerce operators with no fixed place of business in this country that sell electronic services online to domestic individuals, who mostly issue cloud invoices using the cross-border e-commerce email carrier.
Some websites issue their own membership carriers; once invoices are stored there, you must go to the Ministry of Finance platform and link them to your mobile barcode before you can view them in one place and have them checked automatically. HowBridge does not issue a membership carrier and only accepts the two common carriers: mobile barcodes and Citizen Digital Certificates. Invoices are stored directly under the barcode you provide, so there is no need to link a membership carrier for HowBridge. For how to apply for a mobile barcode, how to set it once on the billing page so it is filled in automatically, and what happens if the format is wrong, see Saving Consolidation Invoices to a Mobile Barcode: HowBridge Carrier Settings, No Membership Carrier Linking Needed.
Taiwan's e-invoice system: how far has it actually come?
If you are curious why the system is designed this way and how well it works, here are verifiable official statistics and academic studies:
| Cloud invoice adoption rate (official statistics) | The share of invoices stored by the public in a carrier as cloud invoices rose from 47.19% in September 2022 (ROC year 111) and 53.22% in September 2023 (ROC year 112) to 63.65% in August 2025 (ROC year 114) (press release of the Fiscal Information Agency, Ministry of Finance) |
| How the system evolved (official) | A B2B e-invoice pilot began in December 2000 (ROC 89/12); the E-Invoice Platform went live in December 2006 (ROC 95/12); in June 2018 (ROC 107/06) the award regulations were amended to rename the “paperless e-invoice” the “cloud invoice” (Fiscal History Exhibition Room, Ministry of Finance) |
| Where Taiwan stands internationally | Taiwan has run its uniform invoice lottery since 1951 and is widely regarded as the first place in the world to mobilise consumers against indirect tax evasion through a lottery mechanism; the study by Hemels and Fabbri in Intertax, volume 41, issue 8/9 (2013) takes precisely this kind of invoice lottery policy as its subject |
| Evidence for “consumers as tax auditors” | Writing in the American Economic Review, volume 109, issue 9 (2019), Naritomi used the Nota Fiscal Paulista scheme in São Paulo, Brazil, and found that reported firm sales rose by at least 21% within 4 years, with net tax revenue up 9.3% after deducting the cost of the rewards |
| Adoption once it becomes mandatory | Lee, in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7592 (2016), records that after Korea made electronic tax invoicing mandatory from 2011, adoption measured by transaction value reached 99.8% in the first year (against roughly 15% before the mandate), and notes that invoice-related costs already accounted for more than half of firms' total business tax compliance costs |
| The international mainstream | In Tax Administration 3.0 and Electronic Invoicing: Initial Findings (2022), the OECD draws on a survey of 71 tax administrations to show that e-invoicing has become the main route to digitalising tax administration |
| The effect of comprehensive mandatory e-invoicing in Europe | Italy has mandated e-invoicing across the board since 2019; a study by Heinemann and Stiller published in International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 32, no. 1 (2025) estimates that the 2019 VAT gap fell by roughly €2.2–2.6 billion compared with 2018. The European Commission's 2022 VAT in the Digital Age impact assessment separately estimates that, among member states that had introduced digital reporting requirements between 2014 and 2019, annual VAT revenue rose by 2.6%–3.5% |
| Causal evidence from Latin America | A study by Bellon et al. published in Journal of Public Economics, vol. 210 (2022), uses Peru's phased e-invoicing mandate to estimate that reported sales, purchases and VAT payable rose by more than 5% in the first year after adoption, with the effect concentrated among small firms and less-compliant industries |
| A comparison with China's Golden Tax Project | A study by Fan et al. published in Tax Policy and the Economy, vol. 38 (2024), estimates that China's Golden Tax reform, which had VAT special invoices issued by computer and cross-checked electronically, contributed about 13.7% of VAT growth between 1998 and 2007 by curbing fraudulent input-tax credit claims |
| The latest randomized experiment on invoice lotteries | A randomized experiment by Buluba et al. run with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (CMI Working Paper 2025:02) finds that an invoice lottery raised the monthly reported sales of VAT-registered businesses by 61% and VAT payable by 66% relative to the control group, though businesses partly offset the effect by printing fewer receipts on their own initiative |
| The actual distribution of winning cloud invoices (official statistics) | Among the 113 winners of the Special Prize, Grand Prize, First Prize and the cloud-exclusive Million-dollar Prize for e-invoices in the May–June 2026 (ROC 115) period (drawn 25 July 2026), 83 had their cloud invoices stored in a carrier, most often a mobile barcode (49 invoices). The four major prizes paid out NT$249.2 million in total, and the other prizes paid out more than NT$3,694.48 million (press release of the Fiscal Information Agency, Ministry of Finance) |
| Local evidence from Taiwan | Huang You-Jun (National Chengchi University, 2021) uses time-series regression on 2005–2020 business tax revenue, the number of uniform invoices issued, and the winning probability, finding that a higher winning probability is associated with higher business tax revenue per invoice, and that the rate of increase in the number of invoices issued falls short of revenue growth — supporting the view that the Award Regulations do raise business tax revenue (a master's thesis, not a peer-reviewed journal) |
Note the kinds of sources above: Hemels and Fabbri (2013), Naritomi (2019), Bellon et al. (2022), Fan et al. (2024) and Heinemann and Stiller (2025) are journal articles; Lee (2016) and Buluba et al. (2025) are working papers; the OECD study (2022) is a research report by an international organisation; the European Commission study (2022) is an official impact assessment; and Huang (2021) is a master's thesis. The official percentages cited on this page are each tied to a point in time; the latest figures published by the Ministry of Finance prevail.
Glossary: how the official terms are phrased
Get these few terms straight and everything on the Ministry of Finance platform becomes readable:
- E-invoice
- A uniform invoice issued, transmitted or received over the internet or by other electronic means; it must comprise a stub file, a receipt file and a filing file. It is a uniform invoice, not a receipt.
- Cloud invoice
- An e-invoice requested with a carrier approved by the Ministry of Finance, or donated with a donation code, and for which no e-invoice certificate copy has been printed. Both conditions must be met, and only such invoices take part in the cloud invoice exclusive prizes.
- E-invoice certificate copy
- A paper printout, downloaded and printed in the prescribed format and on the prescribed paper, for those whose work requires paper, serving as an original voucher or as the document for claiming a prize. Under point 26 of the Operating Directions it may be printed only once; the “reprint” allowed by that point is an exception limited to cases where the original copy is damaged or illegible, and it must be presented together with the original copy to claim a prize.
- Carrier
- A number approved by the Ministry of Finance that can record or link cloud invoice data. Its statutory scope covers the national ID number, the Citizen Digital Certificate card number, telephone numbers and membership numbers, as well as the numbers of payment instruments such as credit cards, debit cards, stored-value cards and electronic payment accounts.
- Common carrier
- A carrier approved by the Ministry of Finance that works with every business entity issuing cloud invoices; the mobile barcode is one. Where a buyer uses a common carrier to request a cloud invoice, a business entity may not refuse, apart from foreign e-commerce operators.
- Carrier consolidation
- Taking cloud invoice data already linked to one carrier and linking it to your identity data or to a common carrier. A carrier can be consolidated either to a mobile barcode or to a Citizen Digital Certificate, but only to one of them.
- Donation code
- A number set up on the Ministry of Finance platform by a recipient organization or group, allowing the buyer to name the beneficiary of a donation. According to the Ministry of Finance eTax Portal, a donation code represents a recipient group as 3 to 7 digits. It is commonly called a “love code”, but the official term is donation code; once an invoice is donated, any prize is claimed by the recipient organization.
- E-Invoice Platform
- The Ministry of Finance E-Invoice Platform, the single official entry point for invoice filing, lookup, carrier consolidation, donation and prize-account setup.
Frequently asked questions
Further reading
How Do I Know If My Consolidation Invoice Won? HowBridge Automatic Prize Checking and Claiming
Saving Consolidation Invoices to a Mobile Barcode: HowBridge Carrier Settings, No Membership Carrier Linking Needed
HowBridge Payment Methods: LINE Pay, JKOPAY, Credit Card, Taiwan Pay, ATM, and Convenience Store Codes
How to Read an Import Declaration: Field-by-Field Guide and Customs Duty Bill Explained
How to Read a Customs Duty Bill: Understanding Import Tax Documents
How Are Consolidation Shipping Costs Calculated? Formulas, Rates, and Money-Saving Tips
Complete Guide to Cross-Border Returns and Refunds: What to Do When Something Goes Wrong
Complete Guide to Avoiding Cross-Border Online Shopping Scams
Save your carrier now and it will be filled in automatically every time
Spend a minute setting up your mobile barcode or company tax ID and you will never have to type it at checkout again, nor end up with a paper invoice because of a typo. (You need to be logged in.)
Go to Invoice Settings