Belgium since January, Poland since February, France since the first of this month. The European wave stopped being a planning exercise some time ago, and the reason it arrived all at once is worth understanding.
The headline dates are 2030 and 2035. The consequential change happened in 2025.
VAT in the Digital Age was adopted by the Council on 11 March 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 25 March 2025. Most coverage led with the intra-EU reporting obligations arriving in 2030, which are genuinely significant and comfortably far away.
The part that mattered immediately was quieter. Before ViDA, a Member State wanting to mandate domestic B2B e-invoicing had to obtain a derogation from the European Commission first — a slow process that held several countries back for years. ViDA removed that requirement.
That is why the mandates arrived in a cluster rather than a queue. Countries that had been waiting for permission stopped needing it, and legislated.
Dates below are the published national positions. Formats and channels differ by country — that is the point, not a detail.
Mandatory from January 2026, with a tolerance period that ended 31 March 2026. Structured e-invoices over the Peppol network in Peppol BIS, aligned to EN 16931.
Belgium applied it to all VAT-registered businesses at once, with no size phasing — unusual, and worth knowing if you assumed a runway.
KSeF became mandatory for large taxpayers, above PLN 200 million turnover, in February 2026, and for most other VAT-registered businesses in April 2026. Micro-enterprises follow in January 2027.
Invoices go through the state platform in FA(3) XML and are not legally delivered until KSeF has them. This is a clearance model, not an exchange network.
From 1 September 2026, every business must be able to receive e-invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must also issue them. SMEs must issue from 1 September 2027.
The receiving obligation lands on everyone simultaneously regardless of size, which is the part smaller businesses tend to miss.
Businesses have had to be able to receive e-invoices since January 2025. The obligation to send is phased by revenue: larger companies from 2027, all businesses from 2028.
Receiving first, sending later, is a pattern worth recognising — France follows it too.
Phased from around October 2027 for companies above €8 million turnover, extending to all businesses and freelancers by October 2028.
Spain accepts several formats and permits both public and private platforms, which makes it more flexible than Poland and less predictable than Belgium.
From 1 July 2030, intra-EU B2B supplies require e-invoicing in a common format, with the data reported to national tax authorities in near real time.
Member States running their own digital reporting before 2024 must align to the EU standard by 1 January 2035.
EN 16931 gives Europe a common semantic core for an invoice, and Peppol BIS is widely used to carry it. That genuinely helps: the data model does not have to be rebuilt per country.
What differs is everything around it. Poland requires submission to a state platform before an invoice is legally delivered. Belgium routes over Peppol between trading partners. France operates through its own approved-platform model. Same semantic standard, three different architectures, three different failure modes.
If that sounds familiar, it is the same lesson APAC teaches from the other direction. Whether the tax authority sits on the network → is the question that determines what you build, in Europe exactly as in Singapore.
Belgium · Denmark · Finland · France · Germany · Greece · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Slovakia · Sweden · United Kingdom.
We are a certified Peppol Access Point provider, and these are the European markets we deliver to today. Where a country requires a direct route to its tax authority rather than Peppol alone, that leg is handled alongside the network connection.
Not on the list? Tell us where you need to trade. Coverage moves, and we would rather answer precisely than generally. How our access point works →
Belgium's mandate went live in January 2026 for all VAT-registered businesses at once. Poland's KSeF became mandatory for large taxpayers in February 2026 and most other VAT-registered businesses in April 2026. France's obligation to receive e-invoices applies to all businesses from 1 September 2026, with large and mid-sized companies also required to issue from that date.
VAT in the Digital Age is an EU package adopted by the Council on 11 March 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 25 March 2025. Its most immediate effect was removing the need for a Member State to obtain a derogation from the European Commission before mandating domestic B2B e-invoicing. That is why so many national mandates arrived at once.
From 1 July 2030, e-invoicing becomes mandatory for intra-EU B2B supplies in a common format, with digital reporting of that invoice data to national tax authorities in near real time. Member States that already ran their own digital reporting before 2024 must align with the EU standard by 1 January 2035.
Partly. EN 16931, the European standard, gives a common semantic core, and Peppol BIS is widely used to carry it. But national mandates differ in format, channel and timing — Poland's KSeF uses FA(3) XML through a state platform, while Belgium routes Peppol BIS over the Peppol network. A single European rollout is realistic; a single configuration is not.
Last reviewed 24 September 2026. Sources: the ViDA package as adopted by the Council of the European Union on 11 March 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 25 March 2025, and published national mandate timelines for each country named. E-invoicing rules change, sometimes at short notice — this page is general information about published requirements, not tax advice. Check your own position with your tax adviser, and tell us if you spot something out of date.
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