We re-checked nine e-invoicing mandate timelines. Five changed.

Beliq publishes a mandate calendar: for nine countries, the dates on which e-invoicing obligations start, each with the authority we checked it against and the day we checked. Dates like these move, and a summary of them goes stale faster than the dates do. So every country comes up for a re-read on a calendar, sooner the closer its next date is.

On 19 and 20 September 2026 we re-read all nine, and the Netherlands a second time on 23 September. Five timelines changed. Only one of those changes is news from a government. The other four are corrections: the law had not moved, and what we had published was wrong or looser than the source.

Netherlands: a 2030 date for domestic B2B, as a plan

This is the one real change. On 11 September 2026 the Dutch cabinet told parliament that it plans to make e-invoicing mandatory for domestic B2B from 1 July 2030. That is the day the EU’s ViDA rules make it mandatory for cross-border B2B inside the EU. From 1 July 2031, businesses would also report a selection of data from their domestic invoices to the Belastingdienst. Businesses under the small-business scheme (KOR) are exempt.

Which network domestic invoices must travel over is not decided either. Research the government commissioned advised prescribing Peppol. Until a law says otherwise, domestic B2B e-invoicing in the Netherlands stays voluntary and needs the recipient’s agreement.

We nearly missed it. Our check on 19 September read the European Commission’s country page for the Netherlands, eight days after the letter was sent, and that page does not have it. We found the letter on 23 September, when we went back to replace that page with Dutch sources.

Belgium: the 2028 reporting layer has a year and no day

Belgium’s B2B mandate has been in force since 1 January 2026 and nothing about it changed. What changed is the step after it. We had published 1 January 2028 for near-real-time e-reporting, “on the Peppol 5-corner model”. We could not find either statement in a Belgian source.

The federal e-invoicing portal says the measure “is included in the federal coalition agreement (timing: 2028) but has yet to be transposed into Belgian law”. The Council of Ministers approved a draft law on 18 July 2026 and sent it to the Data Protection Authority and the Council of State. Its announcement names no start date and no exchange model. Our timeline now says 2028, planned, and says nothing about corners. If a project plan of yours has 1 January 2028 in it, the year is the authority’s and the day is not.

Denmark: a deadline no Danish rule contains

Denmark has no obligation to exchange B2B e-invoices. Its Bookkeeping Act requires businesses to keep their books in a digital system that can send and receive structured e-invoices, and that requirement was phased in. We had the last phase as 1 July 2026, for businesses on in-house systems. That phase does not exist.

The two orders that phase the requirement in (BEK nr 1342 of 24 November 2023 and BEK nr 297 of 20 March 2025) give three dates:

The first two apply from the first financial year starting on or after the date. So in-house systems were in scope eighteen months earlier than we said. The July 2026 date came from the European Commission’s country page for Denmark, which still carries it. We had copied it, and our re-check of 24 August went further and announced it as a new milestone. That entry, dated 8 September, is still in our changelog, and so is the correction.

United Kingdom: April 2029 holds, the older dates did not

HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap update of 27 July 2026 says the government “will also mandate e-invoicing for all VAT invoices from April 2029”. That date stands. Three things around it changed on our page.

The NHS date. We had March 2022, described as a mandatory Peppol programme. The 2022 date belongs to an NHS England letter that asked suppliers to send invoices through one named platform, which is not Peppol, and asking is not mandating. The Peppol obligation is older: the NHS eProcurement Strategy of April 2014 made GS1 and Peppol adoption mandatory for NHS providers and their suppliers through conditions of contract.

A missing obligation. Since 18 April 2019, central government contracting authorities must accept and process a compliant electronic invoice, and since 18 April 2020 so must sub-central authorities and utilities (SI 2019/624). It is a duty to receive, not a duty to issue.

The four-corner model. We had presented it as confirmed. HMRC has said that Peppol “will be the core interoperability network for e-invoicing in the UK”. The consultation response says the government’s work has focused on a decentralised model, and records four-corner and five-corner as what respondents raised. Four-corner is a fair expectation given Peppol. It is not a decision anyone has published.

The detailed standards and the business-rule pack are still pending, so treat every UK specific as pre-confirmation. HMRC and the Department for Business and Trade publish the implementation roadmap at the Budget on 28 October 2026.

Germany: the dates hold, the transition is shorter than we wrote

1 January 2027 stands. From that day, businesses with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000 must issue e-invoices for domestic B2B, and all remaining businesses follow on 1 January 2028, except those under the small-business scheme (Kleinunternehmer): invoices for their supplies need not be e-invoices in any phase.

Our note on the transition was too generous. It said paper and PDF invoices stay allowed through 31 December 2027. The Federal Ministry of Finance’s FAQ (as of March 2026) splits that in two: through 31 December 2026 for every issuer, and through 31 December 2027 only for issuers with prior-year turnover up to EUR 800,000. A PDF needs the recipient’s consent in both cases. EDI that does not meet the e-invoice definition stays allowed through 31 December 2027, also with the recipient’s consent (§ 27 Abs. 38 Nr. 3 UStG). For the larger group, the end of the transition is under three months away.

What did not change

France, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden held as published: France’s 1 September 2026 and 1 September 2027, Ireland’s November 2028 start for large corporates, Slovenia’s 1 January 2028 under the ZIERDED act, and Sweden with no domestic B2B mandate and a government inquiry that reports by 30 November 2027. A date that was re-read and did not move is a result too.

What we do differently

In Belgium and the UK we had stated an exchange model the authority never stated. In Denmark we had a date from a summary page. In Germany we had folded two cut-off dates into one. The Netherlands check missed a letter that was eight days old. All five have the same cause: we read a summary and wrote it down as the authority.

The European Commission’s country pages are a good place to start, and we still read them. They are not the source for a national date. The pages for Denmark, the Netherlands and Slovenia all say “Last updated: Aug 14, 2025” as of 1 October 2026. Denmark’s still lists July 2026 for in-house systems, and Slovenia’s still gives the draft date of 1 January 2027, where the enacted law says 1 January 2028.

So each country is now checked against the document that carries the date: the gazette, the tax authority, the ministry. Every “Official source” link on the calendar points at the authority we read. The Netherlands was the last one to move, on 23 September.

Dates to watch

• 28 October 2026. The UK Budget, with the e-invoicing implementation roadmap.
• Autumn 2026. The Dutch draft bill goes to public consultation.
• 1 January 2027. Germany’s issuing obligation starts for businesses with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000.

We will write the next one of these when a round of re-reads turns something up.