Where E-Invoicing Is Mandatory: Country Overview 2026-2030

E-invoicing is no longer a choice. Poland, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain each have either a live mandate or a fixed deadline. Above them sits EU-wide ViDA. If you invoice into multiple countries, you are not dealing with one system but several different ones — with different formats, deadlines and delivery methods.

This overview is a reference. It sticks to verified dates from national tax authorities and the EU. Where a deadline has shifted historically or is not yet final, I say so plainly. Tax legislation changes — before a production decision, re-verify the dates against the current source material for the country in question.

Poland — KSeF (mandatory, phased)

KSeF is a live mandate with the toughest rollout in the region. The law was signed on 27 August 2025.

• Receiving e-invoices: mandatory for everyone from 1 February 2026.
• Issuing, large payers (2024 sales above PLN 200 million, about 4,200 entities): from 1 February 2026.
• Issuing, other VAT payers: from 1 April 2026.
• Micro-businesses and payers below the PLN 10,000/month threshold stay outside KSeF: only from 1 January 2027. Until 31 December 2026 the smallest can invoice outside the system.

2026 carries no penalties, but two things are easy to miss. First: token vs. certificate. Tokens and KSeF certificates coexist from 1 February 2026, tokens are valid until 31 December 2026, and from 1 January 2027 the system accepts only KSeF certificates. A token-only integration will stop establishing a connection. Plan the migration of your .NET connection to certificates before January 2027. Second: attachments (załączniki) are possible from 1 February 2026, but only after prior notification via e-US. Verify the exact technical handling in the FA(3) schema against the current XSD before you start building it.

KSeF is an asynchronous, rate-limited government system with its own state. I wrote about why most integrations fail and how to make them durable in a separate article on robust KSeF integration.

Belgium — Peppol (mandatory from 2026)

Belgium launched mandatory structured B2B e-invoicing from 1 January 2026. The model is pure Peppol.

• Format: Peppol BIS 3.0, four-corner model.
• Three-month tolerance until 31 March 2026 — no penalties for good-faith mistakes.
• Near-real-time e-reporting comes later, from 1 January 2028.
• There is no B2C mandate.

If you are searching for "peppol mandatory belgium", this is it. If you already have a Peppol access point, you are mostly done. If not, it is a different kind of connection than KSeF — Peppol is a network of access points, not a single government API.

Germany — phased receiving and issuing

Germany is going in phases under the Wachstumschancengesetz law.

• From 1 January 2025, all domestic B2B companies must be able to receive an e-invoice per EN 16931 (XRechnung / ZUGFeRD).
• Issuing from 1 January 2027 for companies with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000.
• Issuing from 1 January 2028 for all domestic B2B.

In 2025–2026 a tolerance applies for EDI and other formats with the recipient's consent. The EUR 800,000 threshold and the universal 2028 date come from the adopted law. Confirm the specific EDI cutoff for your client separately.

Italy — SdI (mandatory since 2019)

Italy has the longest-running mandate in the EU. The Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) has been mandatory for both B2B and B2C since 1 January 2019.

• The EU derogation (Council decision 2024/3150 of 19 December 2024) extends SdI to 31 December 2027, unless a general EU system arrives sooner.
• For healthcare B2C, SdI is permanently prohibited.

Italy is the reference point: it shows what a mature mandatory system looks like after years of operation.

France — phased via approved platforms (deadline hedge)

France goes through approved platforms (PA/PDP), formats Factur-X / UBL 2.1 / CII per EN 16931.

• From 1 September 2026, all companies must be able to receive, and large and mid-sized companies must issue.
• From 1 September 2027, SMEs and micro-businesses must issue too.

The deadline is officially confirmed via service-public.gouv.fr. But: this mandate has shifted several times historically (originally 2024). Watch for changes in the French budget law (PLF) — a last-minute shift is not ruled out.

Spain — Crea y Crece (framework adopted, date being finalized)

Spain has mandatory B2B e-invoicing under the Crea y Crece law. Royal Decree 238/2026 was published in the BOE on 31 March 2026.

• Hybrid CTC: private platforms + public AEAT, EN 16931.
• Large companies (turnover above EUR 8 million): start around 1 October 2027.
• Other companies in scope: start around 1 October 2028.

The date is still soft. The phasing comes from a draft ministerial order (public consultation closed 8 May 2026) that anchors the deadlines to 1 October 2026. Final dates lock in only when the final order is published. The framework is certain, the exact dates are not yet.

EU ViDA — the EU-wide layer 2030/2035

ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age, directive 2025/516) has been in force since 14 April 2025. It sits above the national mandates.

• Mandatory structured e-invoicing (EN 16931) for cross-border B2B within the EU from 1 July 2030.
• Member states may mandate domestic e-invoicing for established payers without a prior EU derogation — effective immediately from 14 April 2025.
• Existing national real-time reporting regimes must align with the ViDA standard by January 2035 (the harmonization deadline moved from 2027 to 2035).

ViDA is why even countries without a mandate today are dealing with e-invoicing — the cross-border obligation reaches everyone.

Czech Republic — voluntary for now

For domestic B2B/B2C, e-invoicing is voluntary as of June 2026. No live mandate.

• Domestic: ISDOC. For B2G above EU thresholds and cross-border, Peppol and UBL 2.1 via NEN.
• Cross-border B2B within the EU falls under ViDA from 1 July 2030, domestic alignment with ViDA by January 2035.

Watch out for the mix-up: the planned EET 2.0 from 1 January 2027 is a sales-records / cash-register reform, not a structured B2B e-invoice mandate. Anyone merging the two is planning for an obligation that does not exist. A domestic B2B mandate has not been adopted and remains at an early stage.

Deadline summary

Country	What	From	Certainty
Poland	Receiving (everyone)	1 Feb 2026	high
Poland	Issuing (large)	1 Feb 2026	high
Poland	Issuing (other VAT)	1 Apr 2026	high
Poland	Issuing (micro)	1 Jan 2027	high
Belgium	B2B Peppol	1 Jan 2026	high
Germany	Receiving (everyone)	1 Jan 2025	high
Germany	Issuing (above EUR 800k)	1 Jan 2027	high
Germany	Issuing (everyone)	1 Jan 2028	high
Italy	SdI B2B and B2C	1 Jan 2019	high
France	Receiving + large/mid issue	1 Sep 2026	deadline hedge
France	SMEs + micro issue	1 Sep 2027	deadline hedge
Spain	Large companies (above EUR 8m)	~1 Oct 2027	date being finalized
Spain	Others	~1 Oct 2028	date being finalized
EU ViDA	Cross-border B2B	1 Jul 2030	high
EU ViDA	Alignment of national regimes	January 2035	high
Czech Rep.	Domestic B2B	no mandate	—

When You Need to Connect It

Each of these countries is a different kind of integration. KSeF is a government API with sessions and tokens. Belgium and France are networks of access points. Italy has SdI. They share one trait: they are asynchronous, they have their own state, and they sometimes go down. A fire-and-forget connection silently loses documents on all of them.

We build these connections in .NET, both on top of Business Central and standalone. Publicly verifiable: on KSeF we delivered over 40,000 documents with 100% success, and during forensic recovery retrieved 15,141 invoices that a previous pipeline had lost.

If you are working out which countries the obligation hits you in and when, get in touch. We will go through where your exposure is and how to build the connection so it holds up.

FAQ

Is e-invoicing mandatory in the Czech Republic?

For domestic B2B/B2C it is voluntary as of June 2026; no mandate has been adopted. Cross-border B2B within the EU falls under ViDA from 1 July 2030. The planned EET 2.0 from 1 January 2027 is a sales-records reform, not a structured B2B e-invoice — do not conflate the two.

When does KSeF become mandatory in Poland?

Receiving e-invoices is mandatory for everyone from 1 February 2026. Issuing is phased: large VAT payers (2024 turnover above PLN 200 million) from 1 February 2026, other VAT payers from 1 April 2026, micro-businesses and the smallest payers below the PLN 10,000/month threshold only from 1 January 2027.

What is EU ViDA and when does it apply?

ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age, directive 2025/516) has been in force since 14 April 2025. Mandatory structured e-invoicing for cross-border B2B within the EU starts 1 July 2030. Existing national regimes must align with the ViDA standard by January 2035.