Country and European Union News June 2026

30 June 2026

UK confirms mandatory e-invoicing from 2029

The UK government has confirmed that mandatory electronic invoicing will be introduced for from 2029. This means businesses will need to send and receive invoices in a structured digital format rather than relying on paper invoices or PDF attachments.

The rules are expected to apply mainly to business-to-business and business-to-government transactions where a VAT invoice is required. The government has not yet published all final design details, including the precise scope, technical standards or whether the rules will be phased in for different sizes of business.

The UK has also given a clearer direction on how e-invoices are expected to be exchanged. Reports following the government’s June 2026 Tax Update state that “Peppol” will be used as the core interoperability network. In simple terms, this means businesses would exchange invoices through compatible software systems or approved service providers, rather than manually emailing invoices to each other.

Importantly, the UK regime is not expected to start as a real-time reporting or clearance system where every invoice is sent directly to HMRC for approval. Instead, the initial focus appears to be on making invoice exchange between businesses digital, structured and interoperable. HMRC may consider further digital reporting in future, but the 2029 mandate is about e-invoicing rather than live invoice reporting to the tax authority.

Norway confirms mandatory B2B e-invoicing from 2027

Norway has approved new rules requiring businesses subject to Norwegian bookkeeping obligations to issue structured business-to-business (B2B) electronic invoices from 1 January 2027.

Under the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act, a person or business that is required to file a Norwegian VAT return is generally treated as bookkeeping obligated. This means that if a foreign business is VAT registered in Norway, it will likely need to comply with the new e-invoicing requirements when invoicing other Norwegian bookkeeping-obligated businesses. The detailed scope, invoice formats and exemptions will be set out in regulations by the Norwegian Tax Directorate.

The new rules will be implemented in two stages, from:

• 1 January 2027 affected businesses must be able to send structured electronic invoices in B2B transactions.
• 1 January 2030 affected businesses must use digital bookkeeping systems capable of receiving and processing e-invoices automatically.

UPDATE: France provides guidance relating to September 2026 e-reporting obligations for foreign VAT-registered businesses

France has published new guidance explaining how its e-invoicing and e-reporting reform will apply to foreign businesses without a permanent establishment in France. The key clarification is that most non-resident businesses will not be subject to French mandatory e-invoicing, because e-invoicing only applies to transactions between VAT-taxable persons established in France.

However, non-resident businesses may still have e-reporting obligations if they carry out transactions that are treated as taking place in France and for which they are liable for French VAT. E-reporting means sending certain transaction data, such as the transaction value and VAT amount, to the French tax authorities. In some cases, payment data must also be reported.

Please see our previous article for further information around the new mandatory real-time invoice and reporting regime.

EU ViDA reforms: OSS and IOSS changes from 2027 and 2028

At the end of May 2026, the European Commission published its latest VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) work programme, which sets out the legislative, technical and operational work now underway to implement the reforms. The Commission also confirmed that it is preparing draft Explanatory Notes, which are expected to be released in early 2027.

The EU’s ViDA reforms will make important changes to how businesses report VAT on cross-border EU trade. One of the main objectives is Single VAT Registration, which means reducing the need for businesses to register for VAT in multiple EU Member States. The reforms will do this mainly by expanding the existing One Stop Shop (OSS) system.

From 1 January 2027, the first changes will apply. These are mainly technical and administrative updates to the existing OSS and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) schemes. They are intended to clarify how the schemes work and make them easier for businesses and tax authorities to operate. The European Commission has confirmed that these minor legislative clarifications will affect users of the OSS and IOSS schemes from 2027.

The bigger changes will apply from 1 July 2028. From that date, the OSS will be expanded so that more transactions can be reported through a single VAT return. This is expected to include certain domestic B2C supplies by non-established sellers, some energy supplies, and the movement of a business’s own goods between EU countries. This is important because businesses that move their own stock around the EU often need multiple local VAT registrations today.

Spain publishes technical details for mandatory B2B e-invoicing

Spain has recently published technical guidance on how its mandatory business-to-business e-invoicing system will work from January 2027.

Earlier this year the Spanish Council of Ministers published a revised timetable for how the mandatory rollout of the new B2B electronic invoicing (“Veri*Factu”) regime will work, confirming that this would apply in a phased approach 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.