Netherlands - 2018 eInvoicing Country Sheet

Legislation

Although the implementation deadline for B2G eInvoicing for all public authorities in the Netherlands is April 18th 2019, the central government announced that, from January 1st 2017, all central government suppliers can only submit invoices electronically for every new procurement contract.

The Dutch government had already implemented part of the Directive 2010/45/EU in national law in 2012 (Implementation of the Billing rules Directive of 15 March 2012), simplifying rules in the field of billing regarding the levying of VAT and harmonizing the requirements for the invoicing and eInvoicing.

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

The central government provides a central hub for exchange of messages, including eInvoices, with the contracting authorities in the Netherlands (B2G, B2C). This hub is the primary eInvoicing portal used by central government and their suppliers. It is managed by Logius, which is a department of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

Simplerinvoicing was established by private parties in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. It is not a service provider as such but it is a set of agreements between eInvoicing service providers and accounting service providers, which enable the exchange of invoices between these parties. Simplerinvoicing is the Dutch PEPPOL Authority.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

Economic operators can submit eInvoices in three ways:

1. Using the Simplerinvoicing network. Simplerinvoicing is a network of accounting software vendors and solution providers that have made arrangements for exchanging standardised eInvoices. The network can be used both for B2B and B2G (central and local) exchanges. It also allows for cross-border invoicing as it is connected to PEPPOL since 2013;
2. Using market solution providers. Suppliers can submit eInvoices for central government via solution providers that have established direct link with the central hub. Logius provides a list of solution providers on their website. eInvoicing via service is suitable for suppliers: sending mid-volume invoices; to support fully automated eInvoicing process; or that have no possibility for direct connection to the central hub.
3. Using the government solutions and services provided by Logius (government service). In this way, economic operators can submit eInvoices for central government manually via webforms.

Once received by public entities, the processing of eInvoices is carried out in a semi-automated way. The processing of eInvoices by public entities depends on the maturity of their levels of automation and IT systems. Some agencies process eInvoices automatically; others manually.

Public entities in the Netherlands are able to receive eInvoices in three formats:

1. UBL-OHNL is a standard that describes the messages for public procurement of all goods and services, except hiring of temporary staff. UBL-OHNL is based on the international standard UBL. The standard UBL-OHNL will eventually be replaced by NLCIUS;
2. SI-UBL is a subset (200 elements) of all the UBL specification (2400 items). The SI-UBL standard is used by the Simplerinvoicing. The standard SI-UBL will eventually be replaced by NLCIUS;
3. SETU (HR – XML) standard describes the messages (including eInvoices) in the context of data exchange for hiring temporary staff. This is currently the highest volume of invoices to (central) government. SETU is an extention of NLCIUS.

Additional information

To meet the European eInvoicing deadline the Dutch government created a Unit Invoicing at the Public Procurement Expertise Centre (PIANOo).  PIANOo was set up to professionalise the Dutch procurement and tendering process in all government departments. The Dutch government procures around €73 billion worth of work, services and supplies every year and a standardised electronic procurement, based on the European standard on eInvoicing, aims to ensure quality in government services and a sustainable market. PIANOo’s tasks are to support local government to implement eInvoicing. The Connecting European Facility (CEF) played an inspirational role in how they set-up their organisation and defined the services they provide to their stakeholders. Further information available here.

VALIDATED BY THE EMSFEI MEMBER

Last updated:  Dec 20, 2019 17:10