Belgium Will Make The B2B Electronic Invoice Mandatory

B2B e-invoicing in Belgium

The Belgian Ministry of Finance has announced the intention to implement mandatory B2B e-invoicing from July 2024 in a phased manner.

Most likely the e-invoice model used will be via Peppol, but this is yet to be confirmed.

For the time being, the ministry has proposed a phased implementation of B2B e-invoicing consisting of three phases, yet to be confirmed:

• July 2024: taxpayers established in Belgium with an annual turnover, excluding VAT, during the calendar year 2023, of more than €9,000,000;
• January 2025: taxpayers established in Belgium with an annual turnover, excluding VAT, during the calendar year 2023 of more than €700,000 but not more than €9,000,000 or more than €700,000, excluding VAT, during the calendar year 2024; 
• July 2025: Small taxpayers under €700,000.

e-Reporting in Belgium

The proposed reform considers the introduction of an electronic VAT reporting system. This electronic VAT reporting system will probably be almost in real-time (Continuos Transactions Control).

For the development of this system, Belgium intends to follow the proposals of the European Union published in the VAT in Digital Age - ViDA project to promote interoperability of information exchange between the countries of the Union.

Objectives of the tax reform

From the outset, the objective of adopting electronic invoice and VAT reporting models is to combat tax fraud, which in 2018 accounted for 10.8% less revenue than estimated, about 3.6 billion euros. Specifically, the objectives of the current tax reform presented are:

• Increase the employment rate.
• Encourage entrepreneurship
• Stimulate investments
• Combat poverty
• Increase the purchasing power of families.

The digital plan looks to embrace digital transformation with a particular interest in the dematerialization of transactions and relations between the government, citizens, and companies. 

The electronic invoice for B2B transactions results in major improvements in VAT collection by the government and provides major upgrades for companies in terms of cost reduction, efficiency and security. The electronic invoice is also a gateway for business digitalization making them more competitive.

B2G e-Invoicing in Belgium

All suppliers of public entities in Belgium must issue electronic invoices and public entities must be able to receive electronic invoices.

Electronic invoices in Belgium are sent to the public administrations following the Peppol interoperability model. The reception of invoices is conducted through the Mercurius platform which gives access to government entities or directly to the Peppol AP of the public entity. 

Electronic invoicing solutions are scalable, and for those companies that have begun the process of digitization of B2G invoices, issuing B2B electronic invoices will not be a major leap. 

EDICOM’s Global e-Invoicing Platform

EDICOM has an international e-invoicing and e-reporting solution that opens the door to over 70 public countries: EDICOM’s Global e-Invoicing Platform.

Among the many capabilities of EDICOM’s Electronic invoicing platform, the connection with the Peppol network stands out. This is thanks to its certification as a Peppol Access Point which makes it the ideal solution for invoicing in the Belgian market.

EDICOM coordinates GOVEIN2019 project (Action No: 2019-EU-IA-0046)

*The contents of this publication belong solely to EDICOM GROUP and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.