Page History

Legislation

The federal federal law modifying the VAT code of 17.12.2012 puts eInvoicing  puts e-invoicing on an equal footing with paper invoicing, legalising legalizing the use of eInvoices e-Invoices as of 1 January 2013. This law links the use of eInvoices e-invoices with the willingness of the receivers to process it. This law does not mandate the use of eInvoices in B2G procurement.

The regional government of Flanders Flanders decided in 2016 to  to make the use of eInvoices e-Invoices in B2G procurement mandatory as of 1 January 2017 for all its regional entities.

The federal government decided to mandate use of B2G eInvoicing e-Invoicing since 1 January 2018 for all federal entities, for contracts above €135k.

The main entity of the Government of the Brussels Region now accepts eInvoicese-invoices, but does not make it mandatory yet.

The other regional governments in Belgium will follow and soon enable the receiving and processing of eInvoicese-invoices.

The transposition of the Directive 2014/55/EU is in process.

eI-ivoicing platform and management solutions

In Belgium, electronic invoices to the public sector can easily be submitted by any supplier able to send PEPPOL invoices. In the PEPPOL model, any supplier can send e-invoices with no restriction, as long as he, and his subcontractor/service provider, adhere to a the following basic principles: (a) nobody imposes his format to other participants; (b) if there is no common format between two participants, then they use the PEPPOL BIS common denominator format; (c) all participating service providers agree to interconnect their infrastructure, to achieve universal reach at transmission level.

Technically, these invoices are concentrated into one single e-mailroom, the Mercurius platform, where each public sector can pick up his incoming e-invoices at his own pace.  through the Mercurius platform. This platform that receives all invoices destined for all Belgian public authorities (central, regional and local), and makes them available to the receiving party. The federal government is charged with the setup, operations and maintenance of Mercurius. This platform has a a web interface interface that allows any sender to check the status of their invoices. This web interface is also accessible to intermediates/service providers and customer representatives, so that all parties share the same “track and trace” information.

The The Mercurius Platform  Platform is a B2G eInvoicing e-invoicing solution based on the ePRIOR platform, which was developed and used by the European Commission. At the end of its pilot phase, Belgium decided to to integrate Mercurius  Mercurius with the PEPPOL interoperability framework, official as of 1 April 2016, going one step further towards interoperability with the private sector. This platform has a functionality to check the eInvoices’ sending status and provide response messages from within the system. In Belgium, there are public entities at  different stages of eInvoicing maturity and this platform is a way to accommodate these differences. 

Approach for receiving and processing

Mercurius centralises centralizes the reception of eInvoices e-invoices to the public sector, so Economic operators Operators are sure to be able to send all their eInvoices e-invoices to any public institution using the same method. The processing of eInvoicese-Invoices, however, is not harmonisedharmonized. Each public contracting authority is free to apply the processing that best fits its own context. On the other hand, contracting authorities recognise recognize the value of streamlining their processing. A best practices exchange and reflection group is established for this purpose.

Economic operators can submit an electronic invoice in two ways:

1. By applying the PEPPOL interoperability framework;
2. For the ones not yet able to apply the PEPPOL framework: by using the invoice manual submission form available on the the Mercurius platform (only for Belgian operators).

As the PEPPOL interoperability interoperabilty framework gains more and more traction within the IT sector, soon more and more affordable eInvoicing e-invoicing solutions will arise. More information on the rollout of the PEPPOL framework in Belgium, including a list of active PEPPOL Access Point service providers, is available on the the official page of the Belgian PEPPOL Authority.

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

The Belgian government instances expect that the infrastructure developed between 2015 and 2017, will greatly facilitate the adoption of the EN. They intend to take advantage of the PEPPOL interoperability framework to implement the eInvoicing e-invoicing Directive, in order to offer practical solutions to economic operators, and to promote their reuse for B2B eInvoicinge-invoicing. The EN will take over the role of common denominator format. Intersectorial eInvoicing Cross-sector e-invoicing will be much easier thanks to this key asset. Indeed, B2G e-invoicing and cross-sector e-invoicing face similar challenges, B2G eInvoicing has many specificities in common with intersectorial eInvoicing.so the uptake of B2G e-invoicing should positively affect cross-sector e-invoicing. the design of the EN is aligned with this approach.

Mercurius The Mercurius platform will also facilitate the implementation of the Directive [1], offering tools and support to the private and the public sector to cooperate more effectively.

A rollout within the government instances is in preparation. Additionally, a global communication strategy is being designed. It will include an update of of www.efacture.belgium.be. There will be no need for the extra year to comply as Belgium has a introduced a harmonised approach through a central legal body for the public sector as a whole.

Belgium is currently leveraging its experience with B2G eInvoicing to attract other stakeholders in the B2B and B2C contexts and they are already taking additional measures, e.g. supporting stakeholders in the use of a structured eInvoice.

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

The use of a CIUS is not currently an issue in Belgium and it has been monitoring the latest developments to avoid interoperability issues.

Additional information

Experience gained with the inbound eInvoicing e-invoicing scenario, has lead many of the customers to extend their ambitions to other inbound and outbound flows, such as e-ordering, outbound invoicing, among others. This creates new opportunities to exploit the infrastructure that has been put in place in the past. An e-ordering pilot phase is in execution. The Flemish Government has the lead on this pilot. A new pilot, focusing on outbound invoicing, is also in preparation, in collaboration with the Government of the Brussels Region.

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