Belgium's 2026 Peppol mandate: what changed

Since 1 January 2026 Belgian VAT-taxable businesses must send structured e-invoices to each other. A general penalty tolerance ran until 31 March 2026 (until 30 June 2026 for some self-billing cases); it did not postpone the obligation itself.

Scope

• Covered: invoices between businesses established in Belgium that are VAT-taxable, including the small-business exemption scheme.
• Not covered: invoices to consumers, certain exempt activities and foreign businesses without a Belgian establishment.

Format and network

The default is Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 exchanged over the Peppol network. Parties may agree on another EN 16931 compliant structured solution, but in practice almost all Belgian businesses use Peppol. The government's free Hermes platform helps businesses without their own access point.

Identifiers

Most Belgian businesses are registered on Peppol with their enterprise number (KBO/BCE) using scheme 0208, e.g. 0208:0123456749. Some use their VAT number with scheme 9925. The enterprise number has a mod-97 check digit — a single typo makes the invoice undeliverable.

Looking ahead: 2028

Belgium plans to introduce real-time e-reporting of invoice data to the tax authority from 2028, building on Peppol's five-corner model. This still has to be transposed into law, so no exact date has been fixed yet.