All of Europe moving to equal treatment

The EU-commission proposal to simplify and unify - and thus speed up -migration to electronic invoicing – especially for SMEs – has now gained EU-wide support. A key element in the new VAT directive is equal treatment of paper and e-invoices.

This developement has been in high demand from enterprises and is naturally especially gratifying for the 30 members in the EC Expert Group on e-Invoicing – who in last year’s work on the Final Report unanimously supported DG Taxud in this matter (minus one non-participating member).

Now it is time to implement in all countries. The Netherlands already showed a good example by spelling it out very clearly and with immidiate effect – now additional demands on e-invoices – the business control process is sufficient – irrespective of transport mode or format used.

Countries that have advanced far with e-invoicing have done so based on equal treatment. In these countries it is a bit consternating to see how such a simple and secure practise can be made to look very complicated. But of course there is a migration path – and there the Netherlands is the best example.