E-Invoicing Mandates by Country: Law vs Proposal in 2026

An e-invoice is a structured data file that one system sends and another reads directly, often with a copy or a summary going to the tax authority, instead of a PDF someone has to read and retype.

A caution before the dates. Timetables in this area move. Several of the dates below have already been postponed at least once. Treat this as a map of the position in September 2026, and confirm the current rule with your tax authority or adviser before acting.

How can you tell an e-invoicing law from a proposal?

Ask three questions of any announcement:

Has the legal text been adopted and published? A finance act, a directive in the Official Journal, a ministerial decision in the gazette.
Does it state who is covered and from which date?
Has the technical specification been published? Without it, nobody can comply, which is often a sign that a date may move.

If the answer to the first question is no, it is a proposal, however confidently it is reported.

Is EU e-invoicing (ViDA) already law?

Yes, with a long fuse. The EU's "VAT in the Digital Age" package was adopted by the Council on 11 March 2025. The main instrument, Council Directive (EU) 2025/516, was published in the Official Journal on 25 March 2025 and entered into force on 14 April 2025.

What it does, in stages:

From entry into force, member states may require domestic e-invoicing without first obtaining EU permission, which previously required a derogation.
From 1 July 2030, e-invoicing and near-real-time digital reporting become the standard for intra-EU business-to-business supplies, based on the European standard EN 16931.
By 1 January 2035, national systems introduced earlier must be aligned with the EU framework.

The 2030 date is for cross-border trade within the EU. Domestic obligations come from each country's own law, and several countries have moved well ahead of the EU.

Which countries require e-invoicing, as of September 2026?

Country	Status	Who and when
Belgium	Law, in force	Structured e-invoicing for almost all domestic B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses since 1 January 2026. Peppol is the default network. Sales to consumers are outside scope.
France	Law, phased	Since 1 September 2026, every VAT-registered business must be able to receive e-invoices. Large and mid-sized businesses must issue them from the same date; small and micro businesses from 1 September 2027. France pairs this with "e-reporting" of transaction data for sales to consumers and cross-border sales.
Germany	Law, phased	All businesses must be able to receive structured e-invoices since 1 January 2025. Issuing becomes mandatory from 1 January 2027 for businesses with prior-year turnover above 800,000 euros, and for all from 1 January 2028, with transition rules and exemptions such as small invoices under 250 euros. The skilled crafts federation (ZDH) asked parliament in July 2026 to move the 2027 step to 2028; at the time of writing that is a request, not law.
Poland	Law, in force	The national KSeF system became mandatory for the largest taxpayers on 1 February 2026 and for other VAT-registered businesses on 1 April 2026, with micro-businesses following from 1 January 2027 and transition relief during 2026.
United Kingdom	Announced policy	At Budget 2025 the government confirmed that VAT invoices between businesses and to the public sector are to be e-invoices from April 2029. The detailed design and legislation are still to come.
United Arab Emirates	Law, phased	Ministerial Decisions No. 243 and 244 of 2025 set the framework. Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more must go live by 1 January 2027, after appointing an accredited service provider; smaller businesses by 1 July 2027. Some commentators report later changes to the service-provider deadline, so check the current decision.
Saudi Arabia	Law, in waves	ZATCA's "integration phase" connects taxpayers' systems to its platform in waves by revenue. Wave 25, announced in July 2026, covers taxpayers whose VAT-taxable revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, with a deadline of 1 February 2027.

The direction is unmistakable. The detail differs in almost every country: who is covered, which format, which network, whether the tax authority sees every invoice in real time or a periodic summary, and how sales to consumers are treated. Where only a professional firm's summary was available (France, Poland, the UAE), confirm with the official source.

What does e-invoicing change in the books?

The invoice becomes data, not a picture

A PDF must be read and keyed in. A structured e-invoice arrives with the supplier, tax number, invoice number, date, lines, quantities, unit prices, tax rates and totals already in fields. The work moves from typing to matching: does this invoice correspond to a purchase order and a delivery, and to which items and accounts does it belong?

Corrections must be documents

When the tax authority, or a platform reporting to it, holds a copy of each invoice, an invoice cannot be quietly edited afterwards. Errors are corrected with credit notes and new invoices, which must themselves be e-invoices. Systems that let you overwrite a posted invoice become a compliance problem. (The full method, with a worked VAT example, is in how to correct an invoice.)

Your master data must be right

E-invoices are matched on identifiers: tax numbers, registered names, addresses, item codes. A supplier set up twice in your system, or a customer with an outdated VAT number, causes rejections and mismatches that used to be invisible.

Receiving is as important as sending

Many of the earliest obligations, in Germany and France for example, are about being able to receive. A small shop that only sells to consumers may still receive e-invoices from its distributors, landlord and utilities.

A worked example: a phone shop in an e-invoicing country

A phone and electronics shop sells mostly to walk-in customers, but also supplies a local company with handsets for its staff, and buys stock from a national distributor.

Its till sales to consumers are, in most of the countries above, outside the B2B e-invoicing mandate, though some countries, France among them, require separate reporting of consumer sales data. The receipts keep working as before.

Its sale of 15 phones to the local company now needs a structured e-invoice through the required network or platform. The invoice must carry the buyer's VAT number exactly as registered. If one phone is returned, the shop issues an e-credit note referencing the original invoice. It does not edit the invoice.

Its purchases from the distributor now arrive as e-invoices. The shop's system can read the lines automatically, but someone still has to match them: 20 handsets of model A at the agreed price, received on the delivery note, serial numbers captured. If the distributor has charged 21 handsets, the e-invoice does not fix that; it just makes the discrepancy easier to see.

The shop's real tasks are therefore: cleaning up customer and supplier records, choosing a provider or network connection that meets its country's rules, and putting a matching routine in place between orders, deliveries and incoming invoices.

How this looks in GrowMore

GrowMore does not transmit invoices to any tax authority and does not connect to Peppol or any e-invoicing platform; where your country requires that, you need a provider that does. What it gives you is the clean record an e-invoicing obligation builds on: double-entry sales and purchase invoices with the tax rate frozen on each line, a tax report that groups documents by rate, and posted documents that are never edited, only corrected by an opposite document linked to the original. The features page lists the rest.

What to do this month

Find your country's official e-invoicing page and note the date you must receive and the date you must issue.
List your business customers and confirm each one's tax number and registered name.
Do the same for your top 20 suppliers.
Ask your accounting system provider which e-invoicing formats and networks it supports, and in which countries.
Check that your system corrects invoices only by credit note, never by editing a posted invoice.
Ask your three biggest suppliers when they will start sending structured e-invoices.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need e-invoices for sales to consumers?

In most of the countries listed, the B2B e-invoicing mandates do not cover till sales to consumers. Some countries, France among them, require separate e-reporting of consumer sales data, so check your own country's rule.

When does e-invoicing become EU-wide?

Under the ViDA directive, e-invoicing and near-real-time digital reporting become the standard for intra-EU business-to-business supplies from 1 July 2030. Domestic obligations come from each country's own law, and several countries started earlier.

Can I fix a wrong e-invoice by editing it?

No. Once a tax authority or its platform holds a copy, issue an e-credit note that references the original invoice, then a new e-invoice with the right figures.

Sources

Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of 11 March 2025 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age (ViDA), OJ 25 March 2025, in force 14 April 2025. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2025/516/oj/eng
Norton Rose Fulbright, 'VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package finally adopted'. https://nortonrosefulbright.com/de-de/wissen/publications/7f7569e5/vat-in-the-digital-age-vida-package-finally-adopted
Forvis Mazars Belgium, 'Mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Belgium: are you ready for 2026?'. https://www.forvismazars.com/be/en/insights/newsletters-client-alerts/newsletters/mandatory-b2b-e-invoicing-in-belgium
CMS France, 'Electronic invoicing: what does the reform entail?'. https://cms.law/en/fra/news-information/electronic-invoicing-what-does-the-reform-entail
Previssima, 'Facturation électronique : ce qui change pour les entreprises dès le 1er septembre 2026'. https://www.previssima.fr/actualite/facturation-electronique-ce-qui-change-pour-les-entreprises-des-le-1er-septembre-2026.html
PwC Germany newsletter on the BMF letter on e-invoicing (receipt from 1 January 2025; issuing 2027/2028). https://newsletter.pwc.de/umsatzsteuer/nl0029-2024-10-29/bmf-e-rechnung
ZDH (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts), statement to the Bundestag asking that the 2027 issuing step move to 1 January 2028 (lobby register, July 2026). https://www.lobbyregister.bundestag.de/media/a8/3e/806181/Stellungnahme-Gutachten-SG2607060021.pdf
EY Global Tax Alert, 'Poland signs into law mandatory national e-invoicing system'. https://www.ey.com/en_gl/technical/tax-alerts/poland-signs-into-law-mandatory-national-e-invoicing-system
ICAS, 'Autumn Budget 2025: E-invoicing will go ahead from 2029'. https://www.icas.com/news-insights-events/news/tax/autumn-budget-2025-e-invoicing-will-go-ahead-from-2029
Deloitte Middle East, 'Release of UAE eInvoicing legislation' (Ministerial Decisions No. 243 and 244 of 2025). https://www.deloitte.com/middle-east/en/services/tax/perspectives/release-of-uae-einvoicing-legislation.html
KPMG, 'Saudi Arabia: E-invoicing mandatory for taxpayers with revenue above SAR 187,500' (Wave 25). https://kpmg.com/us/en/taxnewsflash/news/2026/07/saudi-arabia-e-invoicing-mandatory-for-taxpayers-with-revenue-above-sar-187500.html
ZATCA, announcement of Wave 24 of the integration phase. https://zatca.gov.sa/en/Pages/news_1426.aspx