Latvia - 2019 eInvoicing Country Sheet

Legislation

There is no legislation on electronic invoicing in Latvia.  However, there is some mention of eInvoicing in the Law on Value Added Tax. VAT invoicing is regulated by Section 8 of the Law, which permits the use of electronic invoicing in Latvia if authenticity of origin is guaranteed by an electronic signature. 

eInvoicing platform and management solutions

In Latvia, economic operators can submit their eInvoices to central authorities or municipalities through the central eGovernment platform, ePakalpojumi.lv. This platform is maintained by a third party service provider ZZ Dats. Economic operators can also submit their eInvoices through individual municipality websites. The authorisation and submission process is the same whether one uses the central eGovernment platform or the websites of municipalities.

Economic operators registered to the central platform or municipality websites can submit their invoices electronically in one of the following ways:

• Manually complete the online form. This method is recommended for economic operators submitting a small number of invoices per year (up to 60 invoices);
• Upload files in XML format. In order to submit invoices in an XML format, an economic operator’s accounting system must be suitable for storing eInvoices in this standard. Submission of eInvoices in the XML standard is recommended for economic operators with a regular, small amount of yearly invoices (up to 120 invoices);
• Submission of eInvoices through WEB APIs, which allow for submission of invoices directly through the accounting system of the central authorities or municipalities. This submission option is recommended for economic operators with a large number of invoices per year (over 120 invoices).

Both the centralised eGovernment platform and websites of Latvian municipalities allow economic contractors to check the status of their eInvoices.

Customers who are not registered on the eGovernment platform can access general information on the benefits of eInvoicing and use the demo section, which allows economic operators to better understand how to submit invoices electronically. 

Approach for receiving and processing

All the economic operators that use the accounting system G-VEDIS can submit their invoices electronically via the central ePakalpjumi.lv platform or the central websites of Latvian municipalities. In order to use this central platform and the municipalities' websites, economic operators must log in using one of the following authentication methods:

• Smart card eSignature issued by the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre;
• eID card;
• Internet Banking.

Authorised economic operators can then submit their invoices online using any of the three methods mentioned in the section above. 

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

There was a proposal to amend the existing public procurement law to incorporate the mandate for the implementation of the eInvoicing Directive. Latvia will use the extra year provided by the directive to enforce its implementation at the sub-central authorities’ level. There will be no additional mandate for public authorities other than the level expected by the transposition of the directive, while B2B eInvoicing will remain optional. It is currently mandatory for public authorities to send eInvoices using the national standard.

Latvia is currently developing a technical solution to process eInvoices and integrate them in the eProcurement system.

Use of Core Invoicing Usage Specifications (CIUS) at national level 

No information is available.

Additional information

There is no additional information available. 

Last updated:  Dec 20, 2019 17:36