Posts about:
After the changes in the Fourth Red Tape Reduction Act (Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz) and the Annual Tax Act 2024 (Jahressteuergesetz 2024), there will be a few key updates.
On 23 September, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announced the commencement of a consultation process with the objective of promoting the adoption of e-invoicing by government administrations and businesses.
Mandatory electronic invoicing has become increasingly prevalent in Europe in recent years, with a number of countries embracing this method to modernise and simplify their invoicing processes. The transition to e-invoicing has been gradual but steady, with a range of European nations passing legislation and regulations to encourage the uptake of mandatory e-invoicing.
Since the publication of Directive 2014/55/EU, e-invoicing has spread to all countries on the European continent.
European countries lose 825bn euros from tax evasion every year. This represents a loss of 16.5% of their tax take, according to a report by the socialists and democrats group. This is a major problem for governments and for which action has already been taken at both global and local levels.
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.
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.
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.
