In force
B2B e-invoicing mandatory since 1 January 2026 — all VAT-registered businesses at once.
| 1 Jan 2026 | B2B structured e-invoicing mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses ("big bang", no phase-in) |
| 1 Jan 2028 | Near-real-time e-reporting over Peppol 5-corner |
| 1 Jan 2030 | Intra-EU B2B brought in, aligning with ViDA |
Format: EN 16931 via Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 — UBL 2.1 or CII D16B, both accepted
Transmission: Peppol (4-corner)
Belgium is the mandate that is already biting, and penalties are being applied. There is no phase-in by company size, and delivery is over Peppol, so an invoice that is valid EN 16931 but breaks a Peppol rule simply does not arrive. Validate against the Peppol profile, not the core. Either syntax is acceptable — UBL 2.1 or CII D16B — so a Factur-X shop is not shut out, though the CII has to be extracted from the PDF and sent structurally. What comes next is reporting rather than invoicing: Peppol 5-corner e-reporting from January 2028, and intra-EU B2B from January 2030 alongside ViDA.
Validate a Belgium invoice against the profile that applies here — Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (+ national rules).
Nothing is stored, and the whole invoice is checked, not just this rule. A PDF only works if it is Factur-X / ZUGFeRD — a PDF with the invoice XML inside it.