EU ViDA Package Sets Cross-Border Digital Reporting From 2030

The EU e-invoicing mandate will reach cross-border business sales between member states from July 1, 2030, when the VAT in the Digital Age package’s digital reporting requirements begin, the European Commission said.

The 2030 date sits on top of national rules that already bind businesses in Belgium, Germany, France and Poland. For US accounting firms, the practical question is whether a client’s European subsidiary, a European customer or a US billing system falls inside those rules. The answer turns on where a business is established, not on where its customers are.

The United States has no federal e-invoicing requirement. A US group with a German, Belgian, French or Polish entity can still find itself legally required to send and receive structured invoices in that country today.

Where each EU e-invoicing mandate stands

There is no single EU e-invoicing mandate yet. Each country runs its own timetable, formats and platforms, and the dates below are those published by each tax authority.

Belgium moved first on business-to-business invoices. The Belgian federal tax administration says that since January 1, 2026, all Belgian enterprises liable to VAT must use structured electronic invoices in dealings with each other. Invoices travel over the Peppol network. A news item on the official Belgian e-invoicing portal dated December 18, 2025 announced a tolerance period for the first three months of 2026.

Germany is phasing the rules in. Since January 1, 2025, every business established in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices from other businesses. The German Federal Ministry of Finance says an invoice counts as an e-invoice only if it is issued, sent and received in a structured electronic format that allows automated processing. A PDF on its own no longer qualifies.

The duty to issue follows later. Companies with prior-year turnover above €800,000 must issue e-invoices from 2027, and the ministry extends the deadline to the end of 2027 for issuers at or below that figure, so smaller businesses start in 2028. The file must follow the EN 16931 standard, either as pure XML or as a PDF with the XML embedded. The ministry’s questions and answers on e-invoicing set out the detail.

France began its rollout on September 1, 2026. Every company liable to VAT in France must be able to receive e-invoices through an approved platform from that date. Large companies and mid-size enterprises must also issue e-invoices and report transaction data to the tax authority from September 1, 2026. Small and medium-sized businesses and microenterprises follow on September 1, 2027.

France adds a reporting layer that the other three do not match in scope. Invoice and payment data flows to the tax authority through the same approved platforms, rather than being compiled at the end of a filing period.

Poland runs its mandate through KSeF, the national e-invoicing system operated by the Ministry of Finance. Taxpayers whose 2024 sales including VAT exceeded PLN 200 million had to issue in KSeF from February 1, 2026. Everyone else followed on April 1, 2026, unless monthly invoiced sales do not exceed PLN 10,000 gross. Receiving invoices through KSeF has been mandatory for all in-scope businesses since February 1, 2026, according to the ministry’s KSeF scope page.

When a US company is in scope of the mandate

The first rule of the EU e-invoicing mandate for US clients is that national obligations attach to establishment. A US company selling software or services to a German customer from the United States, with no branch or permanent establishment in Germany, is generally not required to issue German e-invoices. That holds even if it is registered for VAT there. The same broad logic applies in Belgium, where the obligation falls on Belgian enterprises liable to VAT.

Poland states the exclusion directly. The Ministry of Finance excludes from mandatory KSeF issuing taxpayers with no seat or fixed establishment in Poland. It also excludes taxpayers with a foreign seat whose Polish fixed establishment takes no part in the invoiced supply. Foreign entities may still issue in KSeF voluntarily.

France separates the two obligations. The French tax authority says foreign companies without a permanent establishment in France are not subject to the e-invoicing component. They are subject to e-reporting of transaction data, and payment data where applicable, on transactions on which they owe French VAT.

The e-reporting start dates are September 1, 2026 for large and mid-size sellers and September 1, 2027 for smaller sellers. Buyers liable for VAT, such as on reverse-charge and intra-EU acquisitions, start on September 1, 2027 whatever their size. Companies subject to e-reporting must pick an approved platform before their start date.

A European subsidiary of a US group is a different case. A German or Belgian subsidiary is fully in scope. It must be able to receive e-invoices now and, depending on size and country, issue them now or within the next two years.

Intercompany invoices between two entities of the same group in the same country are generally covered as well. The obligation lands on the subsidiary’s systems, and those systems are often run from the United States.

ViDA extends the EU e-invoicing mandate to 2030

The VAT in the Digital Age package was adopted on March 11, 2025 and entered into force on April 14, 2025, the European Commission said. Its digital reporting requirements will affect cross-border business-to-business transactions from July 1, 2030.

The package also lets member states act on their own. The Commission says countries can introduce mandatory e-invoicing under specific conditions, and it opens the way for national digital reporting systems for domestic trade. That is why more national mandates are expected before 2030.

Countries that already run domestic real-time transaction reporting must align their systems with the EU model and standards by January 1, 2035. France and Poland are the obvious candidates for that alignment work.

For a US group, the 2030 date matters most where it sells across EU borders from an EU entity. A French subsidiary invoicing a Spanish customer will fall under the cross-border rules. A US parent invoicing the same customer from Texas is a separate question that the national rules, and later the member states’ transposition, will settle.

Finance teams tracking the wider tax calendar can read how ViDA sits alongside Making Tax Digital and Wayfair in Accountio’s tax technology guide.

What US firms should raise with clients on the mandate

The first conversation is an inventory. Advisers should map where a client has European entities and which invoices those entities send and receive. Many groups find invoices produced in more places than expected, from the main ERP to a webshop or a field service tool.

The second is record keeping. In Germany the original e-invoice file must be retained in the format in which it was received, and a printout or image does not satisfy the requirement. Retention periods vary by country. A US document management system that stores only PDFs will not meet them.

The third is data quality. Structured invoices are only as good as the master data behind them. European buyers increasingly expect order numbers, buyer references and correct legal entity names in specific fields, and invoices without them are rejected automatically rather than queried by a person.

The fourth is ownership of rejections. Someone in the business must be responsible for invoices that a customer’s system bounces, and for resubmitting them against a payment deadline.

Clients with no legal obligation still face commercial pressure. European accounts payable teams built around structured data treat a PDF as an exception needing manual handling. For a US supplier, that can mean slower approval and later payment whatever the law says.

What comes next

The next fixed dates are in 2027. German businesses with prior-year turnover above €800,000 must start issuing e-invoices, France extends issuing and e-reporting to smaller companies on September 1, 2027, and Poland’s small-seller relief ends with 2026. Cross-border reporting under ViDA follows on July 1, 2030.