E-Invoicing in Europe 2026: EU Mandates, Formats and ViDA

Short answer: e-invoicing is now mandatory for domestic sales between businesses in a growing list of EU countries, including Italy, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Greece and France, with Germany, Spain and others following by 2028. An e-invoice is structured data, not a PDF. If you’re a US or UK seller with no office in the EU, most of these rules don’t apply to you yet, because they cover businesses established in the country. But your EU business customers are now set up for e-invoices, and from 1 July 2030 the EU’s ViDA reform makes e-invoices the default for cross-border sales between businesses.

This guide explains what an e-invoice legally is, which countries require one and when, and how to tell whether any of it applies to your business. For country detail, see the guides for Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Does e-invoicing apply to you? Find your situation

Your situation	Do you have to issue e-invoices?	What to do now
Based outside the EU, selling only to consumers (OSS or IOSS)	No	Nothing for e-invoicing. Keep charging VAT through OSS or IOSS
Based outside the EU, selling to EU businesses (reverse charge)	Not under today’s national mandates	Be ready to send an EN 16931 invoice when a customer asks. Watch the 2030 ViDA rules
Based outside the EU, with a local EU VAT number but no office there	Usually not	Check the country’s rule for non-established businesses (see the timeline)
You have an office, branch or staff in an EU country with a mandate	Yes, in that country	Your sales from that establishment to local businesses must be e-invoices
Established in an EU country with a live mandate, selling to local businesses	Yes	Issue and receive e-invoices in the required format and channel
Selling to public bodies (B2G) anywhere in the EU	Often yes	Most EU public buyers require or accept e-invoices. Check the tender terms

“Established” means your head office, or a fixed establishment with staff and equipment that takes part in the sale. Holding a VAT number on its own usually isn’t enough. The Does this apply to me? section goes through each case.

What is an e-invoice?

In everyday language, any invoice sent by email is “electronic”. EU VAT law is stricter. Since the ViDA reform, the EU VAT Directive defines an electronic invoice as one that is issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format which allows for its automated and electronic processing.

In practice that means a data file, usually XML, where every field has a fixed place: seller, buyer, VAT numbers, line items, rates, totals. Accounting software reads it without a human typing anything in.

• The European standard is EN 16931. It defines which data an invoice contains and what each field means. It can be expressed in two main syntaxes: UBL (Universal Business Language) and UN/CEFACT CII (Cross Industry Invoice). Most national formats are built on one of them.
• A PDF is not an e-invoice. Neither is a scan, a photo or a Word file. Where a mandate applies, sending a PDF alone doesn’t meet it.
• Hybrid formats count. ZUGFeRD and Factur-X are PDFs with a structured XML file embedded inside. People read the PDF, software reads the XML, and the XML is the legal invoice.

E-invoice formats in Europe

Format	What it is	Where you’ll meet it
Peppol BIS Billing 3.0	The UBL format used on the Peppol network, built on EN 16931	Belgium (mandatory), the Netherlands, Nordic countries, many public bodies, Slovakia and Latvia from 2027 to 2028
XRechnung	Germany’s national EN 16931 format (UBL or CII)	German public sector, German B2B
ZUGFeRD / Factur-X	PDF with embedded CII XML. ZUGFeRD 2.x and Factur-X are the same standard	German B2B (most profiles), French B2B
FatturaPA	Italy’s national XML format, cleared through the SdI platform	Italy, all domestic B2B and B2C
Facturae	Spain’s national XML format, long used for public sector invoices	Spain (public sector, and accepted for B2B)
KSeF schema	Poland’s own structured XML, issued through the KSeF platform	Poland

Spain’s Verifactu is often mentioned alongside these but is a different thing: it’s a set of rules for invoicing software, which must record each invoice in a tamper-proof way and can send the records to the tax authority. It applies to businesses in Spain whatever format they invoice in. See the Spain guide.

How the systems work: clearance, post-audit and Peppol

EU countries use three broad models. Which one a country uses changes how invoices travel and what the tax authority sees.

Model	How it works	Examples
Clearance	The invoice goes through a government platform, which checks it and passes it to the buyer. No clearance, no valid invoice	Italy (SdI), Poland (KSeF), Romania (RO e-Factura)
Post-audit	Seller and buyer exchange e-invoices directly or through providers. The tax authority sees them only in an audit	Germany
Peppol “4-corner”	Seller and buyer each use an access point (corners 2 and 3). The access points exchange the invoice over the Peppol network	Belgium since 2026
”5-corner” (Peppol plus reporting)	The 4-corner exchange, plus each invoice’s data reported to the tax authority as the fifth corner	Planned in Belgium for 2028, Slovakia from 2027. France uses a similar model with accredited platforms

The trend is clear: countries that start with exchange only, like Germany and Belgium, are adding reporting to the tax authority later. ViDA pushes everyone in that direction by 2030.

B2G vs B2B vs B2C

• B2G (to public bodies): every EU public buyer has had to be able to receive EN 16931 e-invoices since 2019 or 2020, under Directive 2014/55/EU. Many countries also force suppliers to send them, for example Germany’s federal government (orders of €1,000 net or more) and the Dutch central government (new contracts since 2017).
• B2B (to businesses): this is where the new national mandates are. Each country sets its own scope and dates, usually only for sales between two businesses established in that country.
• B2C (to consumers): largely outside e-invoicing mandates. Italy is an exception: its residents issue B2C invoices through the SdI too. Some countries regulate receipts or cash registers separately, but those rules apply to local businesses.

EU e-invoicing mandates: master timeline

This table covers domestic B2B mandates. Dates are for issuing e-invoices unless stated. Almost all of them only cover businesses established in the country.

Country	Status (Oct 2026)	Who must issue, and from when	Model / channel
Italy	Live	All resident VAT businesses since 1 January 2019. Flat-rate (forfettario) businesses since 1 January 2024	Clearance via SdI, FatturaPA
Romania	Live	Romanian businesses, B2B, since 1 January 2024	Clearance via RO e-Factura
Germany	Phasing in	All must receive since 1 January 2025. Issue from 1 January 2027 if prior-year turnover is over €800,000, everyone from 1 January 2028	Post-audit. XRechnung, ZUGFeRD. Germany guide
Belgium	Live	All Belgian VAT businesses since 1 January 2026. Fines since 1 April 2026	Peppol, 4-corner. E-reporting planned 2028. Belgium guide
Croatia	Live	VAT-registered businesses since 1 January 2026. Non-VAT businesses issue from 1 January 2027	Exchange plus real-time reporting (Fiscalisation 2.0)
Poland	Live	Sales over PLN 200 million (2024): 1 February 2026. Everyone else: 1 April 2026. Smallest businesses (up to PLN 10,000 of invoices a month): 1 January 2027	Clearance via KSeF
Greece	Phasing in	Revenue over €1 million (2023): 2 March 2026. Everyone else: 2 November 2026, with a transition until 31 January 2027	Certified providers plus myDATA
France	Phasing in	All must receive since 1 September 2026. Large and mid-sized companies issue since 1 September 2026, SMEs and micro-businesses from 1 September 2027	Accredited platforms plus e-reporting. France guide, scope checker
Slovakia	Enacted	Slovak VAT payers from 1 January 2027	Peppol, with reporting
Spain	Enacted	Turnover over €8 million: 6 October 2027. Everyone else: 6 October 2028. Verifactu software rules from 1 January 2027 (companies) and 1 July 2027 (others), with a further delay proposed but not yet law	EN 16931 formats via public or private platforms. Spain guide
Latvia	Enacted	B2B from 1 January 2028 (postponed from 2026)	Peppol BIS, with reporting
Slovenia	Enacted	B2B from 1 January 2028	e-SLOG, no reporting
Ireland	Announced	Large corporates from 1 November 2028 (all VAT businesses must receive). Intra-EU traders from November 2029	EN 16931, real-time reporting
Netherlands	Announced	Planned 1 July 2030, with reporting from 1 July 2031. Bill not yet in parliament	EN 16931. Netherlands guide
Portugal	No B2B mandate	Mandatory for public sector suppliers. PDFs count as electronic invoices until 31 December 2026, and a 2027 budget proposal would extend that to 31 December 2027	B2G via public platforms
All EU	Adopted (ViDA)	Cross-border B2B sales: e-invoices and digital reporting from 1 July 2030	EN 16931

Spain’s dates run from Orden HAC/1028/2026, which came into force on 6 October 2026 (BOE). France’s dates are set by the French government (economie.gouv.fr). Poland’s Ministry of Finance announced in September 2026 that it wants to push KSeF penalties back from 2027 to 2028. That needs a law change and hadn’t passed at the time of writing. Rules in Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Slovenia and Ireland are summarised here at a high level only. Check the local tax authority before relying on a date.

ViDA: VAT in the Digital Age

ViDA is the EU package that turns e-invoicing from a country-by-country experiment into an EU-wide system. The Council adopted it on 11 March 2025. It was published in the Official Journal on 25 March 2025 as Council Directive (EU) 2025/516, with a regulation and an implementing regulation alongside, and entered into force on 14 April 2025. The European Commission keeps the official ViDA timeline.

Date	What changes
14 April 2025	EU countries can require businesses established in their territory to issue e-invoices for domestic sales, and can drop the buyer’s consent, without asking the EU for a special derogation
1 January 2027	Small clarifications for OSS and IOSS users
1 July 2028	Platform rules for short-term rentals and passenger transport (countries can delay to 2030). “Single VAT registration”: OSS extended to more cases, and mandatory reverse charge when a non-registered supplier sells to a VAT-registered business
1 July 2030	E-invoices become the default. Cross-border B2B sales must be reported to the tax authorities digitally, invoice by invoice
1 January 2035	Countries that already run domestic real-time reporting must align their systems with the EU model

What changes on 1 July 2030

• E-invoices become the default. The Directive says invoices “shall be issued as electronic invoices”. Countries can still allow paper or PDF for transactions outside the new reporting rules.
• EN 16931 is the reference. E-invoices must follow the European standard. Countries may allow other national formats for domestic sales.
• No buyer consent needed for an EN 16931 e-invoice sent to a business. Today, in most countries, you need the customer’s agreement to invoice electronically.
• Faster invoicing for cross-border B2B. For intra-EU supplies of goods and for reverse-charged sales, the invoice must be issued no later than 10 days after the supply.
• Digital reporting. For intra-EU B2B sales, the data is sent to the tax authority at the time the invoice is issued. This replaces the recapitulative statements (EC Sales Lists) businesses file today.

What ViDA means for US and UK sellers

If you’re based outside the EU, ViDA affects you in three ways:

1. Your EU customers’ systems change first. As mandates go live, EU finance teams move to receiving e-invoices through Peppol or national platforms. Even when you’re not obliged to send one, a structured invoice gets processed and paid with less friction.
2. The 2030 reporting rules are written around EU VAT registrations. The cross-border reporting duty applies to “every taxable person identified for VAT purposes”. A non-EU seller with no EU VAT number selling to EU businesses under the reverse charge is not obviously caught. A seller with an EU VAT registration may be. National laws and Commission guidance will settle the detail before 2030, so treat this as open.
3. Mandatory reverse charge from July 2028 means fewer non-EU sellers will need a local VAT registration for B2B sales in the first place.

Does this apply to me?

You’re registered only for OSS or IOSS

If your only EU registration is the non-Union OSS (for digital services to consumers) or IOSS (for low-value goods to consumers), no e-invoicing mandate applies to you today. OSS and IOSS cover sales to consumers, and the mandates cover sales to businesses. You don’t need Peppol, an access point or a national platform.

Keep doing what you do now: charge the right VAT rate at checkout, issue a receipt or invoice if the customer wants one, and file your OSS or IOSS return. The OSS guide covers the invoicing rules that do apply.

You have a local VAT registration but no office there

Many non-EU sellers register for VAT in one EU country, often Germany, because they store stock there (Amazon FBA, a 3PL) or import goods themselves. A VAT number is not the same as being established:

• Germany: the e-invoice obligation only applies when both seller and buyer are established in Germany (head office, management or a fixed establishment involved in the sale). The Finance Ministry says a VAT registration alone doesn’t make you established. See the Germany guide.
• Belgium: non-established businesses without a fixed establishment are outside the mandate for sending and receiving, even with a Belgian VAT number. The Belgian authorities say this point is still being looked at. See the Belgium guide.
• Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia also exclude foreign businesses that are only VAT-registered there, as far as current guidance goes.
• Romania has its own rules for non-resident VAT registrations, and guidance has changed several times. Check before you sell there.
• France and Spain: see the France and Spain guides for how they treat non-resident businesses.

If you do have a branch, office or staff in the country, assume you’re in scope for sales that establishment takes part in.

Your store sells only to consumers

A Shopify, WooCommerce or Etsy store selling to EU consumers doesn’t need e-invoicing, wherever you’re based. Two things to watch:

• If some customers are businesses that give you a VAT number, those sales are B2B. Under today’s mandates that only matters if you’re established in the customer’s country.
• If you later set up an EU company or warehouse with staff, you become an established business there. From then on your local B2B sales follow that country’s mandate.

Your EU business customers must be able to receive e-invoices

The receiving side is where mandates bite first, and it affects your customers rather than you:

• Belgian businesses must be able to receive Peppol e-invoices since 1 January 2026.
• German businesses must be able to receive e-invoices since 1 January 2025. An email inbox is enough.
• French businesses must be able to receive e-invoices through an accredited platform since 1 September 2026.

None of this forces a foreign seller to send e-invoices to them. But expect more customers to ask for a Peppol ID, an XRechnung or a structured invoice, especially larger ones whose accounts payable teams now run everything through one channel.

Worked example: a UK SaaS selling to a Belgian and a German business

A London SaaS company sells annual subscriptions. It has no office or staff in the EU and isn’t registered for VAT in any EU country. It sells to consumers too, which it handles through the non-Union OSS. This year it signs two business customers:

	Belgian design agency (Ghent)	German tax advisory firm (Munich)
Annual plan, invoiced	€6,000.00	€4,800.00
VAT on the invoice	€0 (reverse charge)	€0 (reverse charge)
VAT the customer accounts for	21% × €6,000 = €1,260.00	19% × €4,800 = €912.00
Customer reclaims it on the same return	Yes, normally in full	Yes, normally in full
Is the UK seller in the local e-invoicing mandate?	No. Not established in Belgium	No. Not established in Germany
Is the customer in the mandate?	Yes: must be able to receive Peppol invoices	Yes: must be able to receive e-invoices

What the UK company must do today: issue a normal VAT invoice showing both parties’ details, the customer’s VAT number, no VAT and a reverse-charge note. A PDF by email is legally fine for both customers. The rules for this are in Selling to EU businesses.

What it will probably be asked: the Belgian agency’s accounting software now expects invoices over Peppol. It can’t require the UK seller to use Peppol, but its finance team may ask, because PDFs need manual entry. If the UK company’s billing tool can send a Peppol BIS invoice through an access point, the invoice gets processed faster. The German firm may ask for an XRechnung or ZUGFeRD file for the same reason.

From 1 July 2030: ViDA’s cross-border rules apply. Each customer reports its side of the purchase to its tax authority. How far the seller-side rules (EN 16931 e-invoice, issued within 10 days, reported at issue) reach a non-EU company depends on its EU VAT registrations at the time and on national laws not yet written. Being able to produce an EN 16931 invoice before 2030 removes the question.

What to ask your billing or invoicing provider

Billing tools such as Stripe, Chargebee, Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho, and the tax engines behind them, vary in what they support, and support changes often. Don’t assume. Ask your provider these questions in writing, and check the answers against the countries you actually sell to:

1. Can you produce an EN 16931 invoice? In which syntaxes: UBL, CII, or both? Is it validated against the national rules (for example XRechnung’s or Peppol BIS’s business rules)?
2. Can you send and receive over Peppol? Directly, or through a partner access point? Who is the access point, and is it certified? What does it cost per invoice?
3. Which national formats do you support? XRechnung, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X (and which profile), FatturaPA through the SdI, KSeF, French accredited platforms.
4. Is the structured file the invoice, or an extra? Some tools attach XML next to a PDF. Under a mandate, the structured file is the legal invoice and must contain every required field.
5. Do you handle receiving? If you set up an EU company, you’ll need to receive e-invoices from suppliers, not just send them.
6. What happens to archiving? Many countries require you to keep the structured file itself, in its original form, for 8 to 10 years.
7. What’s on your roadmap for 2027 to 2030? Ask specifically about Germany’s 2027 and 2028 dates, France’s platform model, Spain’s 2027 and 2028 dates and ViDA’s 2030 reporting.

GoodVat is not a Peppol access point or a certified e-invoicing platform. We work out which obligations apply to you and handle the VAT side.

How GoodVat helps

Knowing which e-invoicing rules apply means knowing where you’re established, where you’re registered and who your customers are, for every country you sell to. GoodVat Global Tax Compliance keeps that picture in one place:

• Maps your obligations, VAT and e-invoicing, country by country, from your actual sales
• Registers you where you need to be, for OSS, IOSS or local VAT
• Calculates the right VAT at checkout, including reverse charge for business customers
• Files your returns, in the EU, the UK and US states

Not sure which e-invoicing rules apply to you?

Tell us where you’re based, where your customers are and how you sell. We’ll map which VAT registrations and e-invoicing obligations apply in each EU country, and what can wait until 2030. Then we handle the registrations and filings for you.

Ask a tax expertor email hello@goodvat.com

A real person replies within one business day

FAQ

What is an e-invoice?

An e-invoice is an invoice issued, sent and received as structured data that software can read automatically, such as an XML file following the European standard EN 16931. A PDF, a scan or a Word file is an electronic invoice in the everyday sense, but it is not an e-invoice under EU VAT law.

Is a PDF invoice an e-invoice?

No. A PDF is a picture of an invoice, so software can’t reliably read the data from it. Where a country has an e-invoicing mandate, a PDF on its own doesn’t meet it. Hybrid formats such as ZUGFeRD and Factur-X do count, because they embed a structured XML file inside the PDF.

When does e-invoicing become mandatory in the EU?

Each country sets its own date for domestic sales. Italy has required it since 2019, Belgium and Croatia since January 2026, Poland since February 2026 and France since September 2026, with Germany following in 2027 and 2028. For cross-border sales between EU businesses, the EU’s ViDA rules make e-invoices the default from 1 July 2030.

What is ViDA?

ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) is an EU reform package adopted on 11 March 2025. It lets EU countries impose domestic e-invoicing without asking Brussels for permission, makes structured e-invoices the default for invoicing from 1 July 2030, and introduces near real-time digital reporting of cross-border B2B sales from the same date.

Do non-EU companies have to issue e-invoices in the EU?

Usually not yet. Most national mandates only cover businesses established in the country, through a head office or a fixed establishment there. A US or UK business with no EU office, even one holding an EU VAT number, is generally outside them. Your EU business customers may still ask for e-invoices, and the 2030 ViDA rules may widen the net.

What is Peppol?

Peppol is an international network for sending e-invoices between businesses through certified access points, a bit like email for invoices. Belgium uses it as the mandatory channel for B2B e-invoicing, and many public bodies across Europe accept invoices through it. The standard Peppol invoice format is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, which follows EN 16931.

Do I need e-invoicing if I only sell to consumers?

Usually not. The EU’s e-invoicing mandates cover sales to businesses and public bodies. If you only sell to consumers and pay VAT through OSS or IOSS, you keep issuing invoices or receipts as you do now. A few countries have separate rules for receipts or cash registers, but those apply to businesses established there.

Related guides

• E-invoicing in Germany: the 2025 to 2028 rollout, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD
• E-invoicing in France: the September 2026 and 2027 deadlines and accredited platforms
• E-invoicing in Spain: B2B e-invoicing and Verifactu
• E-invoicing in Italy: the SdI and FatturaPA
• E-invoicing in Belgium: the Peppol mandate, fines and e-reporting
• E-invoicing in the Netherlands: the current rules and the 2030 plan
• Selling to EU businesses: reverse charge and VAT number checks
• The EU One-Stop Shop (OSS): how OSS works for sales to consumers