E-invoicing mandates in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal

Domestic business-to-business invoices only, as of 24 September 2026. Each row is a summary of the country guide it links to, where every date is quoted from the text that sets it.

The table covers invoices between businesses. Invoices to public bodies follow rules of their own, which the French and German guides point out, and invoices to consumers are outside the mandate in every country here except Italy, whose rule makes no difference between a business and a consumer.

The table puts five rules in one grid, which hides how differently they work. The question each country answers is not the same one.

The state system is where the invoice comes into existence: Italy and Poland

In Italy and in Poland the invoice legally exists only once it has gone through the national system. Italy's decree says that an invoice issued any other way between parties established in Italy

Poland's VAT act fixes the date of issue at the moment of transmission:

A platform of the company's choice carries it: France

France does not route invoices through the state. It requires a private platform, approved by the tax administration, chosen and paid for by the company:

What that means for a company in practice, and how to check that a platform is approved, is on its own page: choisir sa plateforme agréée (in French).

Only the format is prescribed: Germany

German law defines an electronic invoice by its structure, and says nothing about how it travels:

E-mail, a customer portal or EDI all remain possible. Which of the two common formats to send, and when a public buyer's routing identifier is needed, is on its own page: XRechnung oder ZUGFeRD? (in German).

The data is reported, the invoice is not cleared: Portugal

Portugal leaves electronic sending to the recipient's acceptance, and puts the obligation on the software and on the data sent to the tax authority instead:

Public buyers: EN 16931, everywhere, already

Since Directive 2014/55/EU, every public buyer in the EU must accept an electronic invoice that follows the European standard:

That standard is EN 16931, and the French and German formats in the table above are built on it, as their two guides set out. What it defines, and what it leaves to each country: EN 16931, the European invoice standard.

Between businesses: ViDA

The VAT in the Digital Age package, Council Directive (EU) 2025/516, changes the frame the five national rules sit in: what a Member State may impose at home without asking Brussels first, and what every business will have to do for invoices to another Member State. The dates and the articles: ViDA, VAT in the Digital Age.

The network some of them use: Peppol

None of the five countries' B2B rules names Peppol as the required channel. It appears beside them, as a network public buyers and businesses use to exchange invoices. What it is, and whether a business needs it: Peppol, the network.

• Other Member States. Several have mandates of their own, in force or announced. This site covers the five countries above and nothing else; for any other country, the only reliable source is its own tax administration.
• Tax advice. Each rule here is quoted from its text, with a link. Whether and how it applies to a particular business is a question for that business's adviser.