January 2026: Belgium makes E-Invoice mandatory for B2B

E-invoicing in Europe is steadily advancing and Belgium, where structured electronic invoicing for business-to-government (B2G) has already been in force since 2024, is next in line.

Now, the country is taking the next step and extending the application scope to B2B: As of January 1,  2026, all Belgian VAT-registered businesses issuing invoices to other Belgian VAT-registered businesses must use e-invoices for those B2B transactions.

Electronic invoicing differs from traditional invoicing by being entirely digital from creation to processing, eliminating the need for physical handling and enabling automated, integrated workflows that reduce manual data entry and errors.

What are the B2B e-invoicing requirements? Who is affected by the changes? And what does all of this mean in practice? Let’s have a look.

January 1, 2026: B2B E-invoicing mandate in Belgium begins

On January 1, 2026, Belgium introduced a nationwide requirement for structured electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) for business-to-business (B2B) transactions. This marks a significant shift in how companies issue, exchange and process invoices and it directly impacts POS vendors whose systems support billing and invoicing functions.

This new requirement is part of a broader trend toward mandatory electronic invoicing in Europe and globally, as many countries have implemented mandatory e-invoicing regimes to modernize tax compliance. E-invoicing adoption is being driven by government mandates to enhance tax compliance and reduce fraud.

What is changing for mandatory electronic invoicing in Belgium?

Under the new rules, all Belgian VAT-registered companies that sell to other VAT-registered businesses must issue and receive structured electronic invoices beginning January 2026.

This requirement applies to most B2B domestic transactions and means that traditional invoice formats like PDF or paper will no longer be sufficient for compliance. E-invoices are machine-readable and integrate directly into accounting systems and accounts payable departments, reducing the need for manual processing.

These structured e-invoices must be machine-readable and follow recognized formats such as those based on European standards (e.g., EN 16931 and Peppol BIS), enabling automatic processing in accounting and ERP systems.

3-month tolerance window from January to March 2026

The Belgian tax authorities announced a three-month tolerance phase covering the first quarter of 2026 that applies to

• Businesses that currently lack the technical capability to send and receive structured electronic invoices.
• Businesses that are unable to issue structured electronic invoices because their own systems, or those of third parties they depend on.

During the grace period, penalties for non-compliance linked specifically to the new e-invoicing rules generally won’t be applied ifbusinesses can show they have taken reasonable and timely steps to comply. They are still required to meet invoicing obligations by using alternative formats such as PDF or alternative delivery methods like email.

Near-real-time E-reporting of invoice data planned for 2028

While electronic invoicing refers to the exchange of invoices in a machine-readable format, e-reporting is the transmission of invoice data to the tax authority.

Belgium is planning to introduce near-real-time digital VAT reporting via structured data around 2028, where invoice data will be reported almost immediately to the tax authority through a five-corner Peppol model.