Coalition agreement builds on e-invoicing obligation and introduces e-reporting by 2028

The announcement of e-reporting was no surprise as it was already mentioned in the first version of the super nota. Moreover, it is fully in line with the European ViDA or ‘VAT in a Digital Age’ legislation approved by European finance ministers a few months ago.

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About e-reporting

Near real-time reporting is a system where invoice data is exchanged directly with the Federal government department Finance. The advantage of this system is that the administrative burden on companies will decrease as VAT listings will be abolished. VAT listings are mandatory statements in which VAT registered companies report annually which Belgian VAT registered customers have bought from them for more than €250 excluding VAT. They are important for VAT audits as they help the tax authorities verify VAT declarations and detect fraud.

E-reporting will also help the government fight VAT fraud. The European Commission calculated that the VAT gap, or the difference between the VAT actually collected and the VAT the government should collect, was as much as €4.4 billion for Belgium in 2022. This means that over 11% of VAT is not collected. With e-reporting, the government will have direct and almost immediate access to invoicing. This invoice data will be stored and, by using data mining, the data will be analysed. This moves VAT administration from a so-called ‘post control’ system to a ‘Continuous Transaction Control (CTC)’ model where suspicious transactions are continuously monitored.

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Compliant thanks to Unifiedpost

Just over a year ago, on 8 February 2024, compulsory e-invoicing for transactions between VAT-registered companies was announced. A few months ago the European ViDA directive was approved and last Friday e-reporting was announced in the coalition agreement. The legislation around e-invoicing and e-reporting is changing rapidly, not only in Belgium but throughout the EU and the world. Moreover, different countries have set up different systems. Where Belgium prefers ‘Peppol’, France uses ‘PDP’, Poland ‘KSeF’, Italy ‘SdI’, Singapore ‘InvoiceNow’, etc.

Unifiedpost is an international player that closely monitors legislation and ensures that companies worldwide remain compliant with VAT legislation. Among other things, Unifiedpost has built up experience in Italy, where e-reporting has been mandatoThe federal government is introducing e-reporting by 2028 to complement compulsory e-invoicing. This reduces the administrative burden and combats VAT fraud. Find out what this means for your business!ry since 2018, and we built the e-reporting system for the Serbian government.