In Poland, 1.5 billion electronic invoices are issued every year by approximately 1.7 million companies. Although these are significant numbers, the implementation of e-invoicing in this country is far behind most other European states. In fact, regardless of how large these numbers might seem, only 3% of Polish businesses issue electronic invoices.
Electronic invoicing is nowadays used worldwide and is being increasingly implemented in all industries and for all kinds of transactions. In particular, in Germany, nearly 32,000 million e-invoices are exchanged every year. The German Government has legislated to promote their use, given the benefits they bring to both companies and the state itself. Moreover, the European Union has made them mandatory in certain transactions and the private sector makes an increasing use of them.
From 18th April, 2019, the public administrations of all EU Member States are compelled to electronically receive and process their invoices. This concerns any B2G (Business-to-Government) and G2G (Government-to-Government) trades and transactions within the European Union.
The 2014/55/EU regulation is aimed at standardise a common European e-invoicing format, so that any public or private supplier is able to work with European public administrations seamlessly. Developing cross-border trade falls under the main EU goals.
Estonia, like many other European countries, has decided to implement mandatory eInvoicing for the country’s public procurement. This decision is included in the modification of the Accounting Act that was published on 27 December 2016, which established that all contracting authorities (central, regional and local) must accept and process machine-processable invoices as of 1 March 2017.
Mandatory electronic invoicing with Czech institutions was established in the country on 1 October 2016, the year in which European countries such as Switzerland and Croatia also made it mandatory.
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.
Electronic invoicing has been a reality in Sweden since 2008, when Ekonomistyrningsverket - ESV (Sweden’s National Financial Management Authority) established mandatory electronic invoicing for the agencies of Sweden's central government.
From 1 January 2019, less than a month away, all companies that want to work with the Portuguese public administration will have to do so electronically, which entails the digitisation of the country's B2G relationships.
When we talk about the format for electronic invoicing, this refers to the structure of the file which supports the invoice itself and its legal content. In the case of Spain, the Tax Agency has established XML, which is used in the Facturae structure, previously known as AEAT-CCI, as the official format.
The European Digital Agenda has been promoting eInvoicing as a priority technological development within the common market for many years, as it is considered a driving force which facilitates internal relations between the different countries.
