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Executive summary

Each year, nearly 1 billion invoices are issued in Belgium. Market practitioners estimate that of these invoices, approximately 40% are business-to-consumer (‘B2C’) and 60% are business-to-business (‘B2B’) invoices.

Of these, the Federation of Belgian Companies (VBO-FEB) estimate that only 1% of these invoices are exchanged electronically. Other estimates measure penetration levels as being as high as 4%.

The penetration of e-Invoicing in Belgium is most predominant amongst the large buyers and their tier one suppliers in the main industry sectors such as automotive, electronics, chemical and retail sectors.

Since the introduction of e-invoicing into Belgian legislation back in 2004, the adoption rate of e-invoicing has remained sluggish. This can be explained by the complex and rigid technological and security requirements imposed by the 2004 legislation, which appeared to be a blocking issue for many businesses.

In 2010, the legislation pertaining to electronic invoicing was simplified and harmonized which is expected to substantially facilitate e-invoicing penetration. In addition, the Belgian government aim for a 50/50 split between electronic and paper invoices by 2015.

The benefits of mass adoption of e-Invoicing would be significant and could potentially lead Belgian companies to savings of up to €3.5 Billion, according to the Belgian e-Invoicing Task Force.

Legal aspects

Electronic invoicing was first introduced into Belgian legislation back in 2004 with the advent of the Belgian law of the 28/01/2004 (Belgisch Staatsblad - Moniteur Belge vanaf-du 10/02/2004) which brought modifications to Value Added Tax legislation. As previously mentioned, the requirements imposed by this legislation were considered to be substantial and hence hindered the adoption of e-Invoicing in Belgium.

Then from the 1 January 2010 of 1/01/2010 (Belgisch Staatsblad - Moniteur Belge vanaf-du 21/12/2009) VAT legislation was again amended, with the rules and requirements relating to e-Invoicing being simplified. The aim of these amendments were to facilitate the adoption of electronic invoicing by businesses. Under the new legislation, companies are free to choose how they will exchange and archive their electronic invoices (with no specific methods being recommended by Government) and electronic and paper invoices are treated equally by the Belgian VAT administration.

However, companies must still be able to guarantee and demonstrate the authenticity, integrity and legibility of the invoices at the time of sending as well as throughout the period when the invoice needs to be legally archived. Also, just like paper invoices, electronic invoices need to include certain legally mandatory data listed under article 5 of Royal Decree no. 1 (name and address of the supplier, tax rates, total amount, description of the goods/services, etc.).

Links & Source Documents:

http://vbo-feb.be/

http://www.minfin.fgov.be

Law of the 28/01/2004