e-Invoicing deadlines in 2021

In times of digitalization, automated and digitized invoicing processes have become indispensable. The switch to electronic invoicing enables costs to be cut by up to 80% compared to paper invoices. In addition, resources such as personnel, time and raw materials can be saved and errors minimized.

On July 1, 2011, the Federal Ministry of Finance decided that electronic invoicing will be put on an equal footing with paper invoices. Since then, an e-invoice can also be sent by email and does not necessarily have to be signed.

Every year there are new requirements in different countries regarding e-invoicing, as more and more countries in the public sector switch to e-invoicing and digitize their invoice processes.

In this overview you can see which countries have committed to switch to e-invoicing in 2020. This year, Hungary, Greece, Chile, India, Italy, and Portugal will also continue their journey towards digitization.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Hungary has taken rapid steps towards extensive digitization in 2020. The Hungarian government wants to maintain this pace in 2021 and announced in October 2020 that the new XML schema 3.0 XSD will be introduced from January 1, 2021. Despite a three-month changeover phase without sanctions, Hungarian companies have to change over to 3.0 just three months after the previous update to version 2.0. The special feature of the update is that the XML schema has been further developed so that it is now considered an electronic invoice. In addition to this, from version 3.0 onwards, invoices from community transactions, export transactions and sales to private individuals must also be reported electronically.

Greece already has an eBook reporting obligation. This obligation covers all reports of accounting data to the myData platform. From 1 January 2021, the digital transmission of documents to the myData platform will come into force and will cover the electronic reporting of all sales and purchase invoices. However, this means that there is no e-invoicing obligation in Greece. You can read the exact difference between eBook reporting and e-Invoicing in our blog post on the subject.

Originally it was planned that a B2C e-invoicing mandate would come into force in Chile on September 1, 2020. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, this deadline has now been postponed by an update of the law for modernizing taxes (Ley de Modernización Tributaria). This means that as of January 1, 2021, all taxpayers will have to process all B2C invoices electronically and as of March 1, 2021, all non-tax payers. As Chile’s economy was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the relaxed timetable is intended to give companies more leeway in the changeover.

The B2G e-invoicing obligation has already come into force in India in 2020. From 2021, a B2B e-invoicing obligation will also be added. From January 1, however, this will only apply to companies with annual sales of more than 100 crore (approx. EUR 12 million). The deadline for all other companies, i.e. all B2B transactions, will only become relevant from April 1, 2021.

B2G (business-to-government) e-invoicing will be mandatory in Portugal from January 2021. The sending of electronic invoices in public administration (B2G) in Portugal is also based on existing models in other European countries. For the time being, this will only affect suppliers to large companies; in July 2021, small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will follow in their footsteps, and in 2022, micro-enterprises will eventually be introduced.

Portugal uses the invoice format UBL 2.1 “CIUS-PT” and CEFACT “CIUS-PT” to transmit signed electronic invoices to public administrations. eSPAP (Entidade de Serviços Partilhados da Administração Pública) serves as the coordinating body for the implementation of electronic invoicing.

Since 1 September 2019, all invoices in Italy have been sent via a central interface, the SdI – the Sistema di Interscambio. The invoicing format used in Italy is FatturaPA, an XML invoicing format for electronic invoices according to article 21, paragraph 1 of Presidential Decree 633/72.

FatturaPA stands for Fatturazione Elettronica verso la Pubblica Amministrazione and translates to “Electronic Invoice to the Public Administration”. The term covers all the technical and organizational measures for electronic invoicing to the public administration.

What is new?

A new regulation issued by the Italian tax authorities on April 20, 2020 has delayed the introduction of the new FatturaPA requirements for the time being. This is now the current timetable for B2B and B2G:

• The new procedure will come into force on 1 January 2021
• The new process will be available in production from October 1, 2020

The specifications associated with this change have also been updated:

• The new version 1.6.1 for the B2B specifications
• The new version 1.3.1 for B2G specifications
• The new version 1.8.1 for the technical specifications for the SDI platform

Please note that the procedures are identical for B2B and B2G.

The EU project PEPPOL enables international companies to handle their communication in the procurement process electronically – from the public sector to private companies. Meanwhile, over 32 countries are connected to the PEPPOL network and more and more are following. In 2019, countries such as Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania, Slovak Republic and Australia have been certified as PEPPOL Access Points. However, electronic invoices can also be transmitted beyond Europe to Singapore, Canada, the USA and New Zealand.

INPOSIA as a PEPPOL Access Point connects you to the OpenPEPPOL network and exchanges data securely and without roaming charges via the recipient’s access point. INPOSIA is a PEPPOL Access Point and is authorized to connect customers to the PEPPOL network.