Where is eInvoicing compulsory?

European Compliance

Italy distinguished itself by becoming the first country to make B2B eInvoicing obligatory from 1 January 2019.

In France and Spain, where the automotive, retail and pharmaceutical sectors are highly developed, a mixed scheme for eInvoicing was preferred over a centralized model like Italy’s.

In these countries, it will therefore be sufficient to communicate VAT data to the government.

In Germany, EDI has always been widely used by the leading companies in the automotive, retail, and pharmaceutical sectors comprising the strong industrial fabric of the country.

The recently introduced ZUGFeRD initiative aims to extend the dissemination of eInvoicing to SMEs in Germany, too. The ZUGFeRD format is also compatible and interchangeable with the French FacturX standard.

SAF-T Reporting in Europe

In Europe, the SAF-T system is widely used for VAT compliance, but also for other electronic accounting data.

The countries currently using the SAF-T system are Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Hungary.

In Lithuania from 2016 i.MAS VAT returns became obligatory for large organizations.
The obligation includes recording, sending, and analyzing tax and accounting declarations in the SAF-T format.

Norway introduced SAF-T reporting in 2017 and it became mandatory from January 2020. The information is sent to the government portal Altinn in SAF-T financial format.

Poland uses the SAF-T JPK_VAT system for electronic VAT returns. As of 1 January 2018, it became obligatory for all tax payers to submit returns on a monthly basis.

In Portugal the adoption of the SAF-T system began in 2013 with a legislative change obliging companies to migrate to the electronic SAFT-PT system.
In 2015, e-Factura, a system for approving invoices with NIF numbers via digital signature was introduced.

The SAF-T system in Romania became mandatory for large companies in 2022.
The National Agency for Tax Administration (ANAF) requires the submission of tax and accounting information through the SAF-T D406 system embedded in a PDF.

Hungary also recently joined the list of countries that require the issuance of a SAF-T report.
The SAF-T HU was introduced by the National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV)
Companies must be ready to send SAF-T files whenever requested by the tax authority.

USA

The promotion of eInvoicing in the US was initiated during 2022 by means of a pilot project with 80 organizations.

The United States is the only major economy in the world without a federal VAT system.