EU e-invoicing in 2026: what ViDA means for your invoices

If you bill a business in the EU, the PDF you email at the end of a project has a deadline. Under the EU's VAT in the Digital Age package (ViDA), a plain PDF will stop counting as an e-invoice for cross-border business-to-business trade from 1 July 2030, and several countries are moving much sooner.

What ViDA changes

ViDA is a package of VAT reforms. The Council adopted it on 11 March 2025, according to Norton Rose Fulbright's summary, and it became law as Council Directive (EU) 2025/516.

The part that reaches small businesses is e-invoicing. From 1 July 2030, e-invoicing becomes the standard for cross-border business-to-business supplies in the EU, and the invoice has to follow the European standard EN 16931. In Norton Rose Fulbright's words, unstructured formats such as a PDF will not qualify as an e-invoice. A hybrid file (a PDF with structured XML embedded in it) should still be acceptable.

A second change explains why national deadlines arrive early. Member states no longer need permission from Brussels to require e-invoicing for domestic trade, so they can set their own dates. That is why you will hear about 2025, 2026 and 2027 deadlines long before 2030.

The reason is money. The European Commission puts the EU VAT compliance gap at 128 billion euros in 2023, which is 9.5% of the VAT that was due, on its VAT gap page. Structured invoices let tax authorities see transactions close to real time, and that is how governments plan to shrink the gap.

The dates that matter in 2026

The 2030 date is the backstop. These are the national dates you are more likely to meet first.

Germany. Since 1 January 2025, German businesses must be able to receive structured e-invoices in the EN 16931 format. Issuing is phased in: businesses with turnover above 800,000 euros stop issuing paper or unstructured invoices from 1 January 2027, and all businesses follow from 1 January 2028, according to the European Commission's page on eInvoicing in Germany. Transitional rules run until the end of 2028.

Belgium. The domestic business-to-business mandate started on 1 January 2026. Belgian businesses now exchange structured invoices, usually over the Peppol network, rather than emailing PDFs.

France. The French system starts on 1 September 2026. The government's August 2025 announcement kept that date and simplified the reporting rules, as described in EY's tax alert. For example, it dropped the line-item e-reporting of incoming international invoices and pushed the e-reporting duties of non-established taxpayers to September 2027. The obligation to issue is phased by company size, so check which stage your French client falls into.

The EU. 1 July 2030 is the cross-border date. Countries that already ran digital reporting before 2024, such as France, Italy and Poland, have until 1 January 2035 to converge with the EU rules, so expect a patchwork of local formats until then.

Are you obliged, or only your client?

Most of the national mandates bind businesses established in that country. If you are based in the UK, the US, the UAE or India and you invoice a German company, the German rule does not directly force you to issue a structured invoice. The legal duty sits first with EU-established suppliers.

That is not the same as being unaffected. Two things reach you anyway.

First, your client needs the data. A finance team that has rebuilt its accounts payable around structured invoices does not want to re-type a stray PDF from one supplier. Sending a complete invoice, with every field the client needs, makes you easier to pay.

Second, ViDA is slowly pulling cross-border billing into the same system. From 1 July 2028, a domestic reverse charge becomes mandatory for business-to-business supplies by suppliers that are not established or registered in the country where the VAT is due, when the customer is VAT registered. The customer then reports the VAT, not you. The rules differ by case, so ask your accountant how it applies to your sales.

If you are an EU-based business, the national mandate is a direct duty and the dates above apply to you.

What a structured e-invoice actually is

A structured e-invoice is not a nicer-looking PDF. It is invoice data in a machine-readable format built to EN 16931, so another system can read it without a person typing it in. A PDF is made for a human to read. A structured invoice is made for software and for tax authorities.

Many countries send these over Peppol, a standard network that connects accounting systems across borders. You do not need to become an expert, but you should know the word, because an EU client may ask whether you can deliver over it.

Whatever the delivery method, a structured invoice needs the same substance. That means both parties' VAT numbers, a sequential invoice number and date, itemised lines, tax rates and amounts, the currency, and payment details. Invoices that are loose on substance fail before they ever fail on format.

What to do in 2026

You do not need to rebuild your billing this quarter. A short list is enough.

1. Sort your clients by country. Note where each EU client is established and look up that country's date. A Belgian client is already live, a German client is in the receive phase, and a French client starts in September.
2. Ask the question. On your next invoice to an EU business, ask their finance contact whether they need invoices in a structured format or over Peppol. The answer tells you exactly what that client needs, and asking it shows you keep up.
3. Fix the content first. Check that every EU invoice carries your tax number, the client's VAT number, a clear number and date, itemised lines, the currency and your payment details.
4. Keep the numbering clean. Sequential numbers, credit notes for corrections and a voided copy instead of a deleted one make an audit trail that a structured system can follow later.
5. Ask your accountant. Which format you must use depends on where you and your client are established, so check it with your accountant or lawyer before the dates arrive.

For the wider rules facing people who work with EU clients, see the guide to the EU Platform Work Directive. If your clients sit in the Gulf, the plain guide to Saudi ZATCA e-invoicing covers a similar shift, and the UAE e-invoicing mandate covers the UAE side.

How Delivvo keeps invoices complete for e-invoicing rules

Delivvo gives you invoices with the fields a structured system looks for, so moving to a stricter format later does not mean starting over.

Here is what happens when you bill an EU client:

1. Put your business identity on every document once: name, address, and your tax and registration numbers.
2. Add the client and their VAT number to the client record, so it is on file before you invoice.
3. Create the invoice in invoicing. It gets a sequential number in the format you choose, itemised lines, tax rates, currency and payment details. The title reads Tax Invoice where your tax setup calls for it, and reverse charge is available when it applies.
4. Correct mistakes with a credit note or by voiding the invoice, so the numbering stays unbroken.
5. Send it from the client portal. The client views it with a one-time code, no password, and pays through your own gateway.

Every invoice, receipt, contract and quote also carries a verification code. A client's accountant can enter it on the verify page and see the issuer, number, dates, amount and status. That is useful when a finance team wants proof that the PDF it holds matches the original.

Be clear about the limit. Delivvo gives you complete, well-numbered invoice data, but it does not make you a Peppol access point. If an EU client requires delivery over Peppol, you will need an accounting tool or provider that handles it, and your accountant can tell you which. The tax details are covered on the invoices and tax page.

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