eInvoicing in Norway

Legislation

From 2011 onward, all central authorities are required to receive and process invoices electronically.

In 2012, it became mandatory for the suppliers of central government entities to send invoices electronically, being compliant with the European standard on eInvoicing.

Regulation on electronic invoicing in public procurement (Forskift om elektronisk faktura i offentlige anskaffelser - FOR-2019-04-01-444) transposes Directive 2014/55/EU (eInvoicing Directive) into national law. Starting from 2 April 2019, it is mandatory for all public contracting authorities, at both the central and sub-central level, to receive and process eInvoices. eInvoices must comply with the definition within Directive 2014/55/EU and use the EHF/Peppol BIS Billing and the Peppol eDelivery network. Additionally, the central government contracting authorities issuing invoices are mandated to offer to send EHF/Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 invoices to business recipients.

FOR-2019-04-01-444 also imposes an obligation for suppliers to public authorities, in transactions governed by the Public Procurement Act (Lov om offentlige anskaffelser – LOV-2016-06-17-73), to only send eInvoices in the EHF norm. The Public Procurement Act covers transactions with public authorities valued over 100,000 NOK excluding VAT [1]. The Norwegian government aims to further foster the uptake of eInvoicing, however, there are no current plans to introduce mandatory eInvoicing for Business-to-Business transactions (B2B) [2].

Regulation FOR-2020-10-16-2063 introduces a monitoring mechanism of eInvoicing from 2020. eInvoicing recipients must be able to report to the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (Direktoratet for forvaltning og økonimistyring) the total number of eInvoices received.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

Norway is dependent on both the Peppol BIS 3.0 standard and the Peppol eDelivery Network – particularly for cross-border transactions. Both economic operators and contracting authorities in Norway rely on Peppol Access Point (AP) service providers to achieve compliance with national regulations. These service providers offer solutions for creating, submitting, transmitting, receiving, and processing eInvoices. A list of eInvoicing service providers is publicly available.

All transactions can be handled through a single provider. There is no need to establish new partner bilateral connections.

In the public sector, the main eInvoicing management solutions are Unit4 /Agresso, VISMA, Basware (Contempus) and SAP. There are around 60 different Peppol BIS compliant solutions used in the private sector.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Economic operators can submit eInvoices either by using their internal Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or accounting systems or by using approved eInvoicing solution providers. The Norwegian eProcurement infrastructure is built around the Peppol Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS) and the Peppol eDelivery Network.

In addition to Peppol BIS document format, EHF (Elektronisk Handelsformat) format is also recognised by Norwegian public bodies. Both are based on UBL (Universal Business Language).

The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) receives invoices on behalf of nearly 200 of the country's central government entities.

The DFØ authorises Norwegian-registered Access Points (AP) and operates the ELMA registry (a Peppol Service Metadata Publisher), with more than 300 000, 00 receivers, containing the identities and receiving capabilities of all Norwegian public entities and economic operators that communicate using the Peppol eDelivery Network.

The eInvoicing process is mostly automated. Most public entities have an economic system that can handle Peppol invoices. The electronic follow-up systems (invoice flow systems) are used for the approval of the invoice before it is paid. While most of the payments are done electronically for all sub-central levels, the use of eOrder is still in its beginning (with over 5 million transactions in the past year). The use of Peppol has made the public administration more interested in the use of electronic solutions. The possibility to automate more processes by using eOrder, and eInvoice together is a goal for public administration.

In Norway, the EHF has been implemented for other parts of the process. You can find our specifications here. The goal is to digitise the entire order to pay process.

eInvoicing implementation in sub-central level contracting authorities 

As of 2 April 2019, it is compulsory for all contracting authorities, central and non-central public bodies, to be able to receive and process eInvoices. Likewise, public entities’ suppliers of such public entities are required to send eInvoices[3].

The eInvoicing strategy is Peppol-based. The non-domestic eInvoices are received through Peppol formats and network[4]. The latest statistics on invoices that are sent in the Norwegian market (B2B and B2G) are available on the DFØ website.

The CIUS in place is the Peppol CIUS. There is no specific communication as the Peppol CIUS corresponds to the EN to be used. 

The target benefits of implementing eInvoicing at sub-central level is the cost and operational savings, the reduction of administrative burden and the contribution to process automation.

Status on the implementation of the European Standard on eInvoicing (EN)

Norway has fully implemented the European standard on eInvoicing. 

EHF is used exclusively between Norwegian organisations. Peppol BIS format is used for  cross-border transactions.

Monitoring mechanism

From 2024 all service providers in the OpenPeppol Network has to report transactions every month.  Norway display the numbers in national website [5]. The monitoring strategy is in place at both central and sub-central levels. The available data are expressed in number of invoices that are submitted electronically.

Digital reporting requirements 

There are Value Added Tax (VAT) digital reporting requirements in Norway. Norwegian businesses are required to submit VAT reports electronically to the Norwegian Tax Administration. Starting from January 2022, Norway requires VAT return based on standard SAF-T codes for companies to produce electronic SAF-T files for the purpose of submitting their accounting information. This file must be readily available for the Norwegian Tax Authority (Skatteetaten), upon request. The reporting is based on the SAF-T codes and the SAF-T standard that became mandatory from January 2020. The SAF-T format enables electronic reporting by allowing businesses to export data from their accounting books in XML format. The objective of this reporting format is to facilitate tax compliance, streamline control processes, and simplify external audits. This digital reporting is done through the Altinn portal, which is a common platform for electronic communication between businesses and public authorities in Norway.

The electronic VAT return submission is not a real-time reporting obligation. Most enterprises submit a VAT return on a bi-monthly basis[6]. The Norwegian Tax Administration has issued a discussion paper proposing that all sales and purchases shall be electronically reported on a transactional level, however, this measure is yet to be implemented.

In addition, since 2024, the annual tax return for companies must be submitted only electronically via an accounting or annual accounts system. Most accounting system providers which are capable of submitting the annual return for companies to the Norwegian Tax Administration support EHF eInvoicing.  Paper returns or the old digital form in the Altinn portal are no longer permitted[7].

In 2024, the Norwegian tax authority has participated in a pilot run by Nordic Smart Government & Business. The pilot was to report VAT based on invoices between the Nordic countries. The pilot was harmonized with EU ViDA work. This way of reporting VAT may be realized in the future.

Read more here

Additional information 

Norstella community offers the Oxalis open-source sample implementations for Peppol Access Points, which are widely used by solution providers across Europe.

At the level of the government, payments are done electronically. The government is using ISO20022 with electronic payment (ePayment) via the Peppol network.

Archiving electronically is possible in Norway. There is an ongoing study for developing an archiving solution for eInvoices via the Peppol network.

[1] (Altiin, Faktura (salgsdokumentasjon)), [2] (Kartlegging av bruk av elektronisk faktura, 2020), [3] (E-Invoicing in Norway – What do I need to know, 2023) [4] (Anskaffelser.no, E-procurement statistics), [5] (Anskaffelser.no, E-procurement statistics), [6](Altiin, Reporting and paying VAT), [7] (The Norvegian Tax Administration, Tax return for companies)

Last updated:  Jul 08, 2024 10:17