Mandatory e-invoicing is rarely an end in itself. It is the mechanism through which a tax administration obtains transaction data it previously had to ask for, and the obligations attached to that data are where most of the compliance exposure sits. This section is for the person who owns the VAT return and has realised that somebody else now holds a version of it.
It covers the digital reporting requirements in the VAT in the Digital Age package and what they replace, the national regimes already collecting ledger or transaction data, the difference between reporting an invoice and clearing it, and the practical work of making an administration's figures agree with your own. It also covers the determinations a structured invoice forces you to settle earlier than you used to: place of supply, who is liable, which category applies, the exemption reason codes and the identifiers that carry them. The invoicing obligations these regimes sit beside are in mandates and deadlines, and the fields that carry the data are in standards and formats. The library has the full list.
The ViDA digital reporting requirements explained: what the VAT in the Digital Age directive changes for intra-Community trade, national regimes and the invoice.
Digital VAT reporting is not one obligation. It is a family of regimes that differ in what the administration receives, when, and whether the invoice itself passes through it. The table sets the main ones side by side; each row links to the analysis, which names the instrument and the date.
| Regime | What the administration receives | Timing | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ViDA digital reporting requirements | Invoice data on intra-Community transactions | Transaction by transaction, from 1 July 2030 | Adopted |
| Hungary's real-time invoice reporting | Invoice data, as invoices are issued | Real time | In force |
| Spain's Immediate Supply of Information | VAT ledger records | Within a set number of working days | In force |
| France's e-reporting | Transaction and payment data the invoicing mandate does not cover | Periodic, staged with the invoicing mandate | In force for large and intermediate businesses |
| SAF-T | An extract of the accounting records in a standard audit file | Periodic or on request, by country | In force where adopted |
| Clearance (Italy, Poland, Romania) | The invoice itself, before or as it reaches the buyer | Before delivery | In force |
The difference between reporting an invoice and clearing it is set out in e-invoicing vs e-reporting. Why the figures an administration receives rarely match the return on the first attempt is the subject of reconciling reported data.
The analysis underneath the anchor piece.
E-invoicing vs e-reporting: one governs a document passed between two companies, the other data sent to a tax administration about transactions that may have no invoice.
VAT exemption reason codes on an e-invoice: why a nil rate has to say why, and where the business decision, the code list and the national profile must agree.
Hungary's real-time invoice reporting sends invoice data to the tax administration as each invoice is issued. How its scope and schema grew, and what that teaches.
VAT reconciliation once the administration holds your invoice data: why reported figures and the VAT return diverge, and how to make them agree before an audit does.
What SAF-T is: the OECD standard audit file for tax, how European administrations adopted and changed it, and what producing one demands of your accounts.
When the customer writes the invoice, a mandate's assumptions about who issues and who submits run backwards. What the VAT Directive allows and where it strains.
The Spanish regime is routinely described as electronic invoicing and is nothing of the kind. It is register reporting on a working-day clock, and it turns reconciliation into a permanent job.
VAT determination moves to the moment of issue once the invoice is structured: place of supply, liability and category, forced into coded fields before sending.
