Website European Commission on EU and National VAT invoicing rules

• EU & national rules
• When is an invoice compulsory?
• What information must an invoice contain?

EU & national rules

Taxable persons doing business in the EU are subject to:

• a single set of basic EU-wide invoicing rules (Articles 217-240 VAT Directive), and
• in certain areas, national rules set by the individual EU country.

Basic principles of the EU-wide rules

The EU rules can be found in the VAT Directive:

• Electronic invoices are equivalent to paper – national tax authorities cannot require businesses to provide any notification or to receive authorization.
• Businesses are free to issue electronic invoices subject to acceptance by the recipient. However, e-invoicing will become obligatory in public procurement.
• Businesses can outsource invoicing operations to a third party or to the customer (i.e. self-billing), in some circumstances.
• Businesses are generally free to store invoices where and how they like (paper/electronic, in a different EU country to where they are based, etc.)

A detailed explanation of EU-wide invoicing rules is provided in Explanatory notes

Source ec.europa.eu

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