The Belgian e-invoicing obligation, in law: scope, format, fines and the 120% deduction

The obligation has been in force since 1 January 2026, and the grace period is over. The general tolerance FPS Finance announced in December 2025 ran only to 31 March 2026; a narrower one for self-billing ran to 30 June. Since then there has been none.

This page states what the law requires, with the article behind each claim. It does not tell you what to do — the freelancer guide does that, and the receiving obligation has its own briefing.

The three instruments

Two different laws are dated 10 February 2026 and both amend the VAT Code. The one that matters here is numac 2026001291.

Who must issue, and who need not

The duty falls on the taxable person established in Belgium. It is triggered where the customer is a taxable person required to give a Belgian VAT identification number.

Since 20 February 2026 there is one further carve-out: you need not issue a structured invoice where the recipient is technically unable to receive one. That is a statutory exception, not a general excuse.

What format the law actually requires

The Law of 6 February 2024 mandates no format at all. It delegates.

The Royal Decree does the work. Art. 13ter of Royal Decree no. 1 requires the invoice to conform to the European standard and its list of syntaxes under Directive 2014/55/EU, as given concrete form in Peppol BIS in the UBL version, transmitted over the Peppol network.

That makes Peppol the default rather than an absolute obligation: art. 13ter, second paragraph lets the parties agree on another format meeting the European standard. But art. 13quater then requires anyone using that derogation to keep the technical means to issue and receive over Peppol anyway. Agreeing on something else does not let you drop the capability.

A PDF sent by email does not satisfy the obligation. A Belgian participant is addressed with EAS code 0208 plus the enterprise number — a registration convention published by the administration, not a statutory rule. Nothing in the decree obliges you to use a certified access point.

The fines, and the three-month rule

Non-proportional VAT fines run from €50 to €5,000 per infringement under art. 70, § 4 of the VAT Code. The amounts sit in the annex to Royal Decree no. 44.

The first row is the one to notice: it is charged for not having the means, before any particular invoice is late.

It also carries a rule that is rarely reported. An infringement counts as a second or subsequent one only once the administration has established it, and at the earliest three months after it established the previous one. The Report to the King is explicit that the point is to give a taxable person a real chance to become compliant. It does not stop a second fine inside those three months — only the higher band.

Repeats are counted over a four-year lookback, and a fine is doubled where the infringement was committed to evade the tax.

The 120% deduction closes on 1 January 2028

Article 64ter of the Income Tax Code allows 120% of the cost of invoicing software for issuing, transmitting and receiving structured electronic invoices. It is a deduction of 120% of the expense, not a 20% credit.

Three limits matter. It excludes depreciation, so capitalised software gets nothing on its amortisation charge. In corporate income tax it is available only to small companies. And the same 2024 law repeals it with effect from 1 January 2028, applicable from assessment year 2029.

Four things that are not the law

Belgium did not obtain an EU derogation. No Council Implementing Decision authorising Belgium under the VAT Directive could be found. The Law of 6 February 2024 originally made its own entry into force conditional on one; that condition was repealed in 2026.

E-reporting from 2028 is not enacted. It appears in the federal coalition agreement and the administration says it still has to be transposed. The only 1 January 2028 date written into the e-invoicing law is the repeal of the deduction above.

Peppol is not, strictly, compulsory — but its capability is.

The rounding rule never took effect. Article 4 of the Royal Decree of 8 July 2025 was repealed by the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025 before it applied.

B2G is a separate and older obligation, under the Law of 17 June 2016 on public procurement, phased by contract value. It is not what changed in 2026. For what happens next at EU level, see the ViDA briefing; for what to do when a Peppol invoice does not arrive, the troubleshooting guide.