Circular 2026/C/65: VAT Deduction, Corrective documents and Rounding rules on E-Invoices

Circular 2026/C/65 regarding the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 amending Royal Decrees Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 18, 19, 22, 27, 41, 44, 53 and 59 regarding value added tax

Key changes include:

• Mandatory Structured Electronic Invoices: As of January 1, 2026, most VAT-identified taxable persons in Belgium will be required to issue and receive structured electronic invoices, largely replacing traditional paper or simple electronic invoices.
• Technical Amendments (Articles 8 & 9):
  • Corrective Documents: Article 8 amends Royal Decree No. 1 to extend the obligation for issuing corrective documents (credit/debit notes) to structured electronic invoices, ensuring consistency with existing VAT Code provisions.
  • VAT Deduction Rights: Article 9 amends Royal Decree No. 3 to clarify that taxable persons must possess a structured electronic invoice to exercise their right to VAT deduction for transactions where such invoices are mandatory. This applies whether the supplier or the counterparty is the tax debtor. It also acknowledges that if a supplier issues an invoice in another form (e.g., paper) due to the recipient’s technical limitations, the recipient can still claim deduction based on that invoice, aligning with the “substance over form” principle and EU case law.
• Rounding Rules (Articles 10 & 11):
  • These articles amend Royal Decree No. 8 to specifically address rounding rules for VAT amounts on structured electronic invoices.
  • The aim is to align Belgian rounding rules with the European standard for electronic invoicing (as per Directive 2014/55/EU and Article 13ter of Royal Decree No. 1) and prevent conflicts with future amendments to these standards.
  • Article 11 repeals a previous amendment, and Article 10 inserts a new paragraph into Royal Decree No. 8, providing a general rule for rounding levels on structured electronic invoices that directly references the European standard. This ensures consistency with Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 regarding VAT rules for the digital age.

Source fgov.be

---

Briefing Document & Podcast: E-Invoicing in Belgium: Scope, Regulations & Future Outlook – VATupdate

---

Unofficial translation

3. Structured electronic invoices

3.1. Regulatory provisions

Article 8 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 reads as follows:

The following amendments are made to Article 12, § 1, of Royal Decree No 1 of 29 December 1992 concerning the rules for the payment of value added tax, as amended by the Royal Decree of 19 December 2012:

1° in the first paragraph, the words “or § 2bis, third paragraph,” are inserted between the words “53, § 2, third paragraph,” and the words “of the Code”;

2° in the second paragraph, the words “or § 2bis, fourth paragraph,” are inserted between the words “53, § 2, second paragraph,” and the words “of the Code ” .

Article 9 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 reads as follows:

The following changes are made to Article 3, § 1, of Royal Decree No 3 of 10 December 1969 concerning the deduction scheme for the purposes of value added tax, as last amended by the Royal Decree of 18 December 2015:

a) in provision 1°, the words “or § 2bis” are inserted between the words “53, § 2” and the words “and 53decies, § 2”;

b) in provision 7°, the words “or § 2bis” are inserted between the words “53, § 2” and the words “and 53decies, § 2”.

Article 10 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 reads as follows:

Article 1 of Royal Decree No 8 of 12 March 1970 laying down the method of rounding of the value added tax due, deductible or refundable, as last amended by the Royal Decree of 20 February 2004, is supplemented by a paragraph reading:

“Notwithstanding the first to third paragraphs inclusive, the rounding rules applicable to structured electronic invoices issued pursuant to Article 53, § 2bis, of the Code are those that form part of the standards referred to in Article 13ter of Royal Decree No 1 of 29 December 1992 concerning the rules for the payment of value added tax. “

Article 11 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 reads as follows:

Article 4 of the Royal Decree of 8 July 2025 amending Royal Decrees Nos . 1, 8 and 44 regarding value added tax as regards structured electronic invoices is repealed.

3.2. Commentary

3.2.1. Technical changes

Articles 8 and 9 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 introduce technical amendments to, respectively, Article 12 of Royal Decree No. 1 and Article 3 of Royal Decree No. 3. These amendments are necessary due to the introduction, as of 01 January 2026, of the obligation for most taxable persons established in Belgium and identified for VAT purposes to issue and receive structured electronic invoices.

This obligation largely replaces the current obligation to issue and deliver an invoice (on paper or in a simple electronic form subject to the agreement of the parties) for transactions between taxable persons.

In that context, Article 8 of the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 introduces two identical amendments to Article 12, § 1, of Royal Decree No. 1. That article establishes the obligation for the supplier or service provider (or their co-contractor, when the parties have opted for the self -billing mechanism ) to issue a corrective document (‘credit note’ or ‘ debit note ‘) when the original invoice needs to be amended. This principle, which is recognized in Article 53, § 2, third paragraph, of the VAT Code with regard to invoices, must be extended to structured electronic invoices and to documents issued in the same format to amend them pursuant to Article 53, § 2bis, third paragraph (corrective document issued by the supplier or service provider) or fourth paragraph (corrective document issued by the co-contractor of the supplier or service provider).

Article 9 of this Decree, in turn, introduces two similar amendments to Article 3, § 1, of Royal Decree No. 3. This provision lays down the conditions that a taxable person must observe in order to exercise his right to VAT deduction in accordance with Article 45 of the VAT Code.

One of these conditions is that he possesses an invoice issued in accordance with Articles 53, § 2, and 53decies, § 2, of the VAT Code and which contains the particulars referred to in Article 5, § 1, of Royal Decree No 1.

Applied in the context of the obligation to issue and receive a structured electronic invoice, that condition entails that the taxable customer, with regard to the transactions for which such a structured electronic invoice must be issued, must in principle possess such a structured electronic invoice in order to exercise his right to deduction. That condition applies both in the case where the supplier or service provider is the debtor of the tax (Article 3, § 1, 1°, of Royal Decree No 3) and in the case where the counterparty-taxable person is the debtor of that tax (reverse charge mechanism – Article 3, § 1, 7°, of Royal Decree No 3).

Article 3, § 1, 1°, of Royal Decree No 3 is amended so that, in order to exercise his right to deduction, the taxable person in respect of the tax levied on goods supplied to him and services rendered, must be in possession of an invoice issued in accordance with Articles 53, § 2 or § 2bis and 53decies, § 2, of the VAT Code, bearing the particulars referred to in Article 5, § 1, of Royal Decree No 1 concerning the arrangements for the payment of value added tax.

Article 3, § 1, 7°, of the same Royal Decree No 3 is amended so that, in order to exercise his right to deduction, the taxable person in respect of the tax levied on transactions for which he is required, pursuant to Article 51, § 2, first paragraph, 1°, 2°, 5° and 6° or § 4, or Article 55, § 6, of the VAT Code, to pay the tax due himself, must be in possession of an invoice issued in accordance with Articles 53, § 2 or § 2bis and 53decies, § 2, of the VAT Code and must include the tax due in the return relating to the period in which it becomes due. For the sake of completeness, it is pointed out that, in the absence of such an invoice, the taxable person may exercise his right to deduction under the same condition pursuant to the document referred to in Article 9, § 1, of Royal Decree No 1 concerning the rules for the payment of value added tax or in Article 5, § 2, of Royal Decree No 31 concerning the modalities of application of value added tax with respect to transactions carried out by taxable persons not established in Belgium.

The amendment made thus enables the taxable customer to exercise his right to deduction when he holds a structured electronic invoice issued by his supplier, and therefore avoids limiting that formal condition to the delivery of an invoice (on paper or in another electronic form) pursuant to Article 53, § 2, of the Code.

However, account must be taken of the situation in which, despite the principle obligation to issue and receive a structured electronic invoice, the supplier or service provider has nevertheless issued an invoice in another form, in particular because his counterparty does not have the technical means to receive such an invoice. In that case, the recipient may exercise his right to deduct based on the invoice issued to him by his supplier or service provider in another form (on paper or in another electronic form).

Having regard to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the principle of ‘ substance over form’, non-compliance by one of the parties with the obligation to issue and receive structured electronic invoices cannot, in fact, prevent the taxable person holding an invoice (drawn up in a different form) containing all the legally required particulars from exercising his right to deduction, even though such non-compliance may give rise to certain administrative sanctions.

In that context, and taking into account the fact that not all transactions necessarily need to be the subject of a structured electronic invoice, the reference to possession of an invoice ‘issued in accordance with Articles 53, § 2 (…) of the Code ‘ must be retained in Article 3 of Royal Decree No 3.

3.2.2. Rounding rules

Articles 10 and 11 of this Decree amend the rounding rules contained in Royal Decree No. 8, insofar as they relate to the VAT due stated on the structured electronic invoices that must be issued pursuant to Article 53, § 2bis, of the VAT Code and which, therefore, pursuant to Article 13ter of Royal Decree No. 1, must comply with the European standard for electronic invoicing and the list of syntaxes thereof pursuant to Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on electronic invoicing in public procurement (depending on the circumstances, whether or not specified in the Peppol BIS format in the UBL version).

Article 1, paragraph 1, of Royal Decree No. 8 first determines how rounding must be performed, i.e. to how many decimal places it must be rounded: when the amount of tax due contains a fraction of a euro with more than two decimal places, that fraction must be rounded up or down to the nearest cent, depending on whether or not the third decimal place reaches five.

Subsequently, paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 1 of Royal Decree No. 8 determine at which level that rounding must or may be carried out.

Article 1, paragraph 2, point 1°, of that decree first establishes a general rule regarding the VAT due that must be stated on invoices or other documents: the rounding of the VAT due referred to in the paragraph 1 of that article must be carried out ‘per item’ (and thus per invoice) whenever the amount of tax must be stated on an invoice.

Article 1, paragraph 3, of that Decree subsequently provides for an (optional) derogation from that level of rounding: for reasons of accounting organization, the amount of VAT due on the invoice may be rounded in particular per good or per service, per rate or otherwise. However, pursuant to the amendment introduced by Article 4 of the Royal Decree of 08.07.2025 amending Royal Decrees Nos . 1, 8 and 44 regarding Value Added Tax as regards structured electronic invoices, that derogation would not apply to a structured electronic invoice issued in a format that complies with the European semantic and syntactic standards for electronic invoicing.

Articles 10 and 11 of this Decree aim to clarify and nuance the scope of the special scheme for the rounding of the VAT due stated on structured electronic invoices. At the same time, the intention is to ensure that no conflict can arise between the rounding rules applicable in Royal Decree No 8 and any future amendments to the rounding rules inherently contained in the standards referred to in Article 13ter of Royal Decree No 1, in particular the aforementioned European standard for electronic invoicing and the list of syntaxes thereof pursuant to Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on electronic invoicing in public procurement, whether or not concretized in Peppol BIS. For this reason, a deviation is made from both the first paragraph (rounding method) and the second and third paragraphs (rounding level) of Article 1 of Royal Decree No. 8, even though the aforementioned European standard currently also provides for rounding to two decimal places regarding the rounding method.

Consequently, Article 11 of the Royal Decree of 17.12.2025 repeals the amendment to Article 1, paragraph 3, of Royal Decree No. 8 introduced by the Royal Decree of 08.07.2025 amending Royal Decrees No. 1, 8 and 44 regarding value added tax as regards structured electronic invoices, while Article 10 of this Decree inserts a new paragraph 4 into Article 1 of Royal Decree No. 8.

The text of the third paragraph of Article 1 of Royal Decree No 8, inserted by Article 10 of the Royal Decree of 17.12.2025, thus reverts to a general wording of the derogating rule regarding the rounding level (in accordance with the wording applicable prior to the aforementioned amendment of that paragraph), while a new fourth paragraph is added which, regarding the rounding level, applies in general terms to structured electronic invoices issued pursuant to Article 53, § 2bis, of the VAT Code.

In this regard, a more abstract but direct reference is made to the rounding rules contained in the aforementioned European standard. The opportunity is also taken to fully align the wording of the reference terminologically with the terminology used in Article 13ter of Royal Decree No 1, which itself derives from the wording used in Council Directive (EU) 2025/516 of 11 March 2025 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards VAT rules for the digital age.

 

---

---