Peppol e-invoicing in Belgium: what changes in 2026

What the mandate says

Since 1 January 2026, VAT-registered businesses established in Belgium must issue and receive their B2B invoices in structured electronic form. A PDF sent by e-mail no longer counts as an electronic invoice in the legal sense.

The default network is Peppol, using the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 format. Both parties may agree on another channel, but in practice almost the entire market uses Peppol.

Who is affected

The mandate covers transactions between Belgian VAT-registered businesses. A few categories remain out of scope.

• Affected: VAT-registered companies and self-employed people established in Belgium, for their invoices to other Belgian VAT-registered businesses.
• Not affected: invoices to private individuals, VAT-exempt businesses (Article 44), certain specific transactions.
• Invoices abroad: not covered by the Belgian mandate for now, although many businesses already send them via Peppol.

The penalties

The legislator has set escalating administrative fines for repeated breaches: €1,500 the first time, €3,000 the second, €5,000 from the third onwards. A grace period has been announced for the first months of 2026, but it does not exempt anyone from getting their house in order.

What it changes for your bookkeeping

Incoming invoices arrive as structured data, which speeds up booking. But someone still has to watch the Peppol inbox, deal with rejected invoices and chase suppliers who are still sending PDFs.

It is this follow-up work, more than the technology, that causes trouble for most SMEs.

The checklist

Before you consider yourself ready:

• Your business is registered on Peppol with its company number.
• Your invoicing software can issue in Peppol BIS 3.0 format.
• Your main customers have been informed and their identifiers checked.
• Someone is responsible for rejections and incoming invoices.
• Your accountant receives invoices without re-keying them.