The past, present and future of eInvoicing in Denmark

The first legislation requiring electronic invoicing for working with European public administrations came into force in February 2005. Denmark became the first European country to impose the mandatory sending and receiving of electronic invoices in B2G relations.

Digitaliseringsstyrelsen is the tax authority in charge of electronic invoicing, and the legislation that requires the use of B2G e-invoicing is the Bekendtgørelse om elektronisk afregning med offentlige myndigheder. Likewise, to facilitate the interchange of invoices, the Digitaliseringsstyrelsen has developed the NemHandel platform, aimed exclusively at Danish companies, and the OIOUBL format, based on UBL 2.0.

Today, the European Union has established Directive 2014/55/EU which comes into effect on 16 April 2019, and as a result the Danish Digitisation Agency must adapt to the rest of the European Union to facilitate the interchange of electronic invoices.

For this adaptation, the Digitaliseingsstyrelsen or Danish Digitisation Agency is integrating NemHandel into PEPPOL. Therefore, foreign economic operators will be able to invoice Danish institutions through the international network PEPPOL. The next step is for the Danish government to replace the NemHandel platform with the OpenPEPPOL infrastructure.

Thanks to the positive response to the implementation of the mandatory system since 2005, Danish electronic invoicing has been adopted in the relationships between national companies, making Denmark one of the most digitised and advanced countries in the use of eInvoicing.