Finland to evaluate mandatory real-time e-invoicing
Finland is set to review mandating B2B e-invoicing / digital reporting for its taxpayers. This comes as the EU VAT in the Digital Age plans progress towards implementing structured e-invoicing for intra-community supplies from 2028.
The news was included in its latest government plan.
Finland already obliges taxpayers to accept e-invoices from taxpayers since 2020. As a result, it already has very high adoption of e-invoicing. So it has till now been reluctant to follow the mandatory route – many countries are reluctant to adopt e-invoicing because of the costs and risk of stifling innovation.
April 2020 – Option to demand EU-standard electronic invoices from suppliers
Finland has permitted resident businesses with annual turnover above €10,000 the right to require B2B suppliers to provide electronic invoices only from April 2020. Invoice formats accepted in Finland are Finvoice 3.0 and TEAPPSXML 3.0.
Government – Central, regional and local contracting authorities – are mandated to use e-invoices since April 2019 at the federal level. Local authorities were included from April 2020 – although COVID-19 disruption meant the old Finnish standard invoice could still be used until mid-2021.
VAT Calc’s real-time global Calculator product produce instant and accurate tax calculations into your e-invoicing systems, which are then automatically included in your next return via our VAT Filer product, built on the same single-platform.
EU invoicing standards – EN 16931
Any invoice provided must be in accordance with the EU standard on e-invoicing, EN 16931, which covers the semantic data model. This replaced the Finnish TEAPPSXML and Finvoice – which are still accepted until mid-2021. The rules in Finland also allow customers to refuse to accept PDF-format invoices. There is no requirement for PEPPOL-registered forma invoices.
VAT Calc’s international live VAT invoice transaction and e-invoice tracker on real-time transaction-based VAT reporting details all the countries imposing invoice reporting.
Digital Reporting Requirements (DDR) part of EU VAT in the Digital Age reform proposals
The ongoing EU VAT in the Digital Age proposals includes a strand around harmonised Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) across the member states – including Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC).
