Be prepared! The future of e-invoicing mandates

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Be prepared! The future of e-invoicing mandates

Sponsored by

sponsored-firm-vertex-logo.png
technology-3435575.jpg

Against the backdrop of a domino effect in the introduction of mandatory e-invoicing among EU member states, Gunjan Tripathi of Vertex says businesses should future-proof themselves by proactively addressing the transition

As 2023 draws to a close, now is an opportune moment to consider what the next year has in store for tax professionals. And e-invoicing mandates are sure to be high on the agenda for tax jurisdictions everywhere in 2024.

Over 50 countries, including Italy and Greece, have already introduced business-to-business (B2B) e-invoicing mandates, and more are being announced on an almost daily basis. EU member states have witnessed something of a domino effect in relation to e-invoicing; Romania is the next EU country to introduce mandatory domestic B2B e-invoicing, due to come into effect on January 1 2024. Additionally, Belgium looks highly likely to follow suit later in 2024. Conversely, some other EU countries – including France and Spain – have announced a delay to their implementation of B2B e-invoicing (France has already implemented business-to-government e-invoicing).

However, any delay in implementation should not deter businesses from delaying their transition to e-invoicing. This is especially true in Germany, which will introduce e-invoicing in January 2025. There is no doubt that e-invoicing will ultimately become mandatory across all EU member states, as it already has in some regions, including in Latin America. This delay is increasing the pressure on businesses to be as prepared as possible, to ensure a smooth transition to e-invoicing that will allow all transactional processes to continue to run efficiently.

Far-reaching benefits

E-invoicing is not just about going paperless in a digital age; e-invoicing represents much more than this and can be seen as a fundamental shift in how businesses handle their financial transactions.

Continuous transaction controls – involving real-time validation, monitoring, and reporting of business transactions – are giving tax authorities greater capabilities to effectively combat VAT fraud and improve tax collection. This is encouraging the move to e-invoicing, enabling businesses to enhance their compliance capabilities, but also providing the added benefits of e-invoicing, which are well documented. From streamlining processes, expediting payment cycles, and accelerating cross-border trade, to improving supplier relationships, the benefits are clear. But when to start the implementation is something that businesses across the world are grappling with.

Avoiding roadblocks

The transition to e-invoicing is happening fast, yet despite this, the process should not be rushed. Ensuring that all stakeholders – partners, employees, suppliers, and vendors – are aligned with invoicing processes, in order for interoperability to be retained, is vital. The key is time – time is needed to ensure testing can be carried out and that business-critical operations will be maintained.

However, the issue with many multinational businesses is that, historically, their approach to new tax obligations has been reactive – driven by regulatory need on a country-by-country basis – as opposed to a strategic operation that is future-proofed. The current system can often result in a web of disparate systems and solutions using misaligned data and running across overlapping software. This can be complicated for tax teams to manage and costly to continually have to update.

Being able to ensure continuous indirect tax compliance within one centralised returns and reporting platform affords businesses the streamlined processes they crave. And because regulations differ between jurisdictions, businesses will need to adopt agile systems that are capable of handling both e-invoicing and traditional invoicing, and have the capacity to scale as your business grows, coping with increased demand.

There is no escaping the fact that e-invoicing is the future. It is incumbent on forward-thinking businesses to be prepared and to plan to implement changes now to future-proof themselves.

You can read more about Vertex e-Invoicing, partnering with Pagero, here.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

APAs should provide a pragmatic means to agree to an arm's-length outcome for an Australian entity and for the ATO, the tax authority said
Overall revenues and average profit per partner also increased in the UK, the ‘big four’ firm revealed
Increasingly complex reporting requirements contributed towards the firm’s growth in tax, it said
Sector-specific business taxes, private equity tax treatment reform and changes to the taxation of non-residents are all on the cards for the UK, authors from Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer predict
The UK’s Labour government has an unpopular prime minister, an unpopular chancellor and not a lot of good options as it prepares to deliver its autumn Budget
Awards
The firms picked up five major awards between them at a gala ceremony held at New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Club
The streaming company’s operating income was $400m below expectations following the dispute; in other news, the OECD has released updates for 25 TP country profiles
Software company Oracle has won the right to have its A$250m dispute with the ATO stayed, paving the way for a mutual agreement procedure
If the US doesn't participate in pillar two then global consensus on the project can’t be a reality, tax academic René Matteotti also suggests
If it gets pillar two right, India may be the ideal country that finds a balance between its global commitments and its national interests, Sameer Sharma argues
Gift this article