E-invoicing compliance and regulatory updates - Belgium

Electronic Invoicing Belgium

Belgium has adopted a post-audit invoicing model, but it is giving clear signs to move towards electronic invoicing.

For Business-to-Business (B2B) invoicing, true electronic invoicing is not mandatory. However, the Belgian Government has announced the upcoming  mandate on B2B e-invoicing. 

After the bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 1 February 2024, the legislation enforcing mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Belgium has been officially gazetted. The implementation date is set for January 1, 2026.

However, Belgium is still awaiting approval from the European Commission to enforce mandatory e-invoicing and to derogate from the EU VAT Directive (articles 218 and 232). The application for this was submitted in October 2023.

Under the approved Bill, all companies except for the micro-enterprises must send, receive, and process their invoices in a structured electronic manner, based on the European Standard EN 16931. The default standard for this process will be via the Peppol network.

The mandated e-invoicing will be based on the Peppol 4-corner model initially. Other exchange platforms may be utilized by mutual agreement, as long as they comply with EU requirements.

Scope of Application: The new regime primarily targets Belgian-resident companies, local subsidiaries of foreign companies, and non-resident businesses with VAT registration and a Fixed Establishment in Belgium. Additionally, potentially non-resident customers will be required to accept e-invoices from resident Belgian suppliers for domestic supplies.

Future Developments: In the mid-term, an e-reporting regime is expected to be introduced for B2C transaction reporting.

Regarding B2G, after introducing the mandate for public entities to receive and process e-invoices in 2019, Belgium has imposed electronic invoicing on both a Federal and Flemish level to invoice the government.

Currently, the Belgium government pursues to expand the obligation to issue electronic invoices to all suppliers of public institutions. The Royal Decree of 9 March 2022 materializes it in the context of public contracts and concession contracts. It will be a gradual rollout based on the value of the public contracts, starting as of October 2022.

The Business-to-Government (B2G) invoicing standard is Peppol based which is the national adaption of EU Directive 2014/55/EU.  A Belgian initiative around e-invoice standardisation is driven by the non-profit organisation UBL.be that has developed a message standard based on the European Standard EN 16931.

Want to learn more about e-Invoicing compliance?

Download our Global e-invoicing and Tax Compliance fact sheet here for more information.

Archiving

Digital invoice archiving is allowed in Belgium and the default retention period is 7 years. The server on which the documents are archived needs to be accessible from Belgium, but is not required to be located in Belgium.

The readability, integrity, and authenticity need to be guaranteed for stored invoices. Basware provides compliant invoice archiving in Belgium through the Basware Vault service.

Want to know more about Basware’s archiving services?

Download our Basware Vault fact sheet here to learn more about our flexible and scalable solution.

Basware Services

Basware supports all methods to receive invoices: paper, portal, PDF, and true e-invoicing. Receiving through the Peppol network is supported by Basware as well, as are point-to-point EDI connections. We operate local scan centres to scan and capture data from paper invoices using optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

All methods are also available to send invoices, including the delivery to recipients on the Peppol network and government entities. We can deliver invoices as true invoices, via email with attached PDF, on our portal or printed locally.

We can capture data from Dutch, French and German invoices. We also provide supplier and buyer portals in Dutch, French and German.

Want to find out how we can help in your specific case?

Speak to a member of our team to learn more.

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Interoperability

At Basware, we are passionate about delivering the benefits of open interoperability to our customers. So, we have partnered with more than 220 e-invoicing networks around the world to ensure the Basware Network remains the largest open commerce network of buyers and suppliers.

We have developed connections to:

• 3E consultancy solutions
• Advalvas
• B2Boost
• Babelway
• Brain2
• efactuur.belgium
• Dynatos
• Unified Post

These connections, among others, allow us to deliver invoices over the Basware Network to customers across Belgium and beyond.

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Our advice

Belgium allows various invoicing methods: paper, PDF, electronic, and portal key-in invoices. 

Due to the governments push to true electronic invoicing more organisations can send and receive true electronic invoices. Adequate enablement campaigns can result in high levels of true electronic invoices.

We advise both invoice receivers and invoice senders to reach out to their customer/supplier base and discuss the possibility to deliver invoices electronically. This will drive cost reduction, increased automation and improved collaboration.

The Basware Network provides access to a large existing buyer/supplier base in Belgium. Our experts are here to support you in your e-invoicing transformation.

Want to understand how we can help in your case?

Get in touch with our experts.

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