Country and European Union News January 2026

1 January 2026

Belgium to increase VAT rate on accommodation, leisure activities and takeaway meals

From March 2026, Belgium will increase the reduced VAT rate applied to accommodation, campsites, takeaway meals, and leisure activities from 6% to 12%.

This change was announced as part of the 2026 budget. Other key points included are:

• The confirmation that the standard VAT rate will not increase and will remain at 21%.
• Non-alcoholic drinks in restaurants and cafés will drop from 21% to 12%.

Slovakia confirms mandatory B2B e-invoicing from 2027

Slovakia has become the latest EU country to confirm the introduction of a mandatory electronic invoicing regime for business‑to‑business and business‑to‑government transactions, effective from 1 January 2027.

The new mandatory real‑time invoice reporting regime will apply only to resident businesses in Slovakia. Under the system, businesses will be required to submit their sales invoices to the Slovak tax authorities via a new e‑invoicing platform. The tax authority will then validate and approve the invoices before they are transmitted directly to customers through the system.

This aligns with the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiative, which will mandate intra‑community e‑invoicing and digital reporting from July 2030.

Spain confirms new timeline for the introduction of mandatory B2B e-invoicing

In December, the Spanish Council of Ministers published a revised timetable for the mandatory rollout of the new B2B electronic invoicing (“Veri*Factu”) regime.

They confirmed that the obligation will apply as follows:

• From 1 January 2027: Large businesses subject to Corporate Income Tax (Usually with turnover over €8M.)
• From 1 July 2027: All other resident taxpayers, including SMEs and the self‑employed

Currently, the Spanish tax authority receives transactional information from certain taxpayers through the “Suministro Inmediato de Información” (SII) system. However, SII only applies to companies with annual turnover exceeding €6 million, and affected taxpayers are required to upload invoices within four working days of their issue or receipt.

With the move to compulsory e‑invoicing, a much wider group of taxpayers will be required to validate their B2B invoices in real time before issuing them to clients. The Spanish government expects this to reduce common invoicing errors and help curb VAT fraud.

Update: Latvia postpones mandatory e-invoicing for B2B and B2G transactions to January 2028

Latvia’s Ministry of Finance has postponed the introduction of mandatory electronic invoicing for business‑to‑business (B2B) and business‑to‑government (B2G) transactions from 1 January 2026 to 1 January 2028.

The real‑time invoice reporting regime will apply to all VAT‑registered businesses in Latvia. Under the new system, taxpayers will be required to submit sales invoices to the Latvian tax authorities via a new e‑invoicing platform. The tax authority will validate and approve each invoice before it is transmitted to the customer.

Reminder: Lithuania raised the reduced VAT rate to 12% from January 2026

From 1 January 2026, the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance has:

• Increased the 9% reduced VAT rate to 12%. This applies to certain supplies including domestic passenger transport, tourist services, catering services, admission to cultural events, and hotel accommodation.
• Decreased the reduced VAT rate from 9% to 5% for books, medicines, and other non-periodical publications.

There is no change to the standard VAT rate, which remains at 21%.