On 11 September 2026 the cabinet made its choice. Domestic B2B e-invoicing becomes mandatory from 1 July 2030. Digital reporting on domestic invoices follows from 1 July 2031. That is set out in the outline letter (contourenbrief) on electronic invoicing and reporting to the House of Representatives (reference 2026D42856). It is cabinet policy, not yet law.

Two earlier papers remain the background, in this order of weight: first the letter, then the eDelivery working-group advice of 31 July 2026 (Tax and Customs Administration, NPa, RDI and market parties), and last the EY report of January 2026 as market analysis. Where those papers diverge from the letter, the letter prevails.

On top of the EU duty for cross-border trade, the cabinet also imposes a domestic B2B duty. All businesses must send electronic invoices from 1 July 2030. From 1 July 2031 they report a selection of fields from those domestic invoices to the Tax and Customs Administration. Motives: a stronger digital economy, lower administrative burden over time, and better enforcement.

Businesses in the small-business scheme (KOR) have no domestic e-invoicing duty. Existing invoicing exceptions stay in place where possible. Whether they must still report intra-Community acquisitions is not yet worked out.

ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) requires electronic invoices and digital reporting for cross-border B2B in the EU from 1 July 2030. The issue period for those invoices becomes 10 days after the supply. Reporting is per invoice, near real time. That replaces today's aggregated recapitulative statement (ICP). Member states may apply the same line nationally. The Netherlands does so.

The cabinet points to carousel fraud: it becomes visible after a cross-border step. Without national reporting, that part of the chain stays insufficiently in view. Neighbouring countries also choose reporting, including France, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Italy. Without a Dutch duty there is a risk that fraud shifts here.

Italy cites a VAT-gap drop of up to 25% over 2017-2019. Hungary is named in the same international line. The letter notes that these countries are not one-to-one comparable with the Netherlands.

Businesses feel the benefits of e-invoicing first: independent analyses put cost savings at 55 to 70% per invoice versus paper, with benchmarks around € 5 to € 6 per invoice sent and € 8 per invoice received. Digital reporting yields fewer direct benefits. The cabinet sees those mainly in a more level playing field and more targeted supervision. The Tax and Customs Administration can also use the data to flag errors before the VAT return.

Invoice data at the Tax and Customs Administration serve service delivery, supervision of returns, and detection of fraud and money laundering. The bill goes to the Dutch Data Protection Authority for advice. A Data Protection Impact Assessment follows. Access is logged, limited to those who need the data, and monitored. Risk models are tested in advance. The reporting dataset stays limited to the European subset. The intended retention period is ten years. The current fiscal retention period for VAT is twelve years.

The cabinet links this to digital autonomy: the Tax and Customs Administration should depend less on a limited number of, often non-European, technology vendors.

Sira Consulting maps the administrative burden. An SME test, a business-impact test and an implementation test at the Tax and Customs Administration follow as well.

The choice of network for exchanging e-invoices is postponed. Until October 2026 the cabinet studies interoperability, the relationship between e-invoicing and reporting, secure data exchange, competition and supervision. EY advised making Peppol mandatory, the network already required for invoicing the national government. The cabinet cites that advice, but also weighs the European Business Wallet. Peppol is therefore not mandated.

Without a prescribed network there is a risk that a business on accounting system A cannot send its e-invoice directly to a business on accounting system B.

The cabinet wants the process finished two years before go-live, so businesses and the Tax and Customs Administration can test.

On 31 July 2026 the eDelivery working group published its final advice. Participants: the Tax and Customs Administration, the Dutch Peppol Authority (NPa), the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (RDI), software vendors and Peppol providers. eConnect took part. The advice tests whether Peppol is a suitable channel for e-reporting to the Tax and Customs Administration under ViDA.

The working group finds Peppol a sound basis, subject to extra conditions. Considerations: broad European adoption, a protocol for both e-invoices and e-reports, a decentralised setup and existing governance. That remains advice. The outline letter has not mandated Peppol.

Intra-Community e-reports go to the European VIES system and are used by other member states. For that, the Tax and Customs Administration wants a qualified electronic seal. A seal belongs to the organisation, not to a person. That fits invoices and reports that software sends automatically.

Expected volumes: about 150 million intra-Community and 1,5 billion domestic e-reports a year.

The Tax and Customs Administration sees a path towards the European Business Wallet. Because uptake will still be limited when ViDA DRR starts, another channel is needed first that follows the eIDAS requirements as far as possible.

The advice lists fourteen requirements. They cover identification of sender and receiver, proving who sent the message, authority to act for the organisation, integrity of the message, legal evidential value, the audit trail, the retention duty, reliable timestamps, proof of sending and receipt, the link to eIDAS, national oversight of registration, and independent governance.

Market parties also ask for national control as a backstop, identification via eHerkenning when registering a Dutch business, unbundling of sending and receiving (no tying of those roles), a national accreditation process per role, and attention for extra cost at SMEs.

The NPa advises keeping the e-reporting dataset to the necessary minimum. A status message that only says the message was delivered is different from a substantive response from the Tax and Customs Administration. The latter needs a solution similar to Invoice Response.

Anyone using another network for invoices should still be able to send the e-report via Peppol, according to the advice. As primary identifier for Dutch businesses the advice names the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number.

The report "ViDA e-invoicing and digital reporting" (January 2026, 161 pages) remains the market analysis. The cabinet submitted it to Parliament in February 2026. The dates it proposed are outdated. EY wanted to skip ICV reporting; the cabinet does introduce it.

EY compared three models. Peppol came out as the recommended infrastructure: decentralised, via certified providers, already in use by the national government. A French model with a central government portal was judged too complex. A new national platform too costly and too slow. In the legal text EY proposed "a recognised network that meets certain requirements", with Peppol named in the explanatory notes. That formula fits the open infrastructure decision.

EY puts average savings at € 5,28 per invoice sent and € 8,40 per invoice received. At 1,8 to 2 billion Dutch invoices a year that comes to € 10 to 12 billion. Only 33 to 35% of SMEs use invoicing software structurally. 76 to 78% do not know Peppol. 66 to 72% are unaware of ViDA. Only 38,6% of invoices to large companies are paid on time.

EY wanted broader exemptions (KOR, more than 90% B2C, certain exempt supplies) and, instead of ICV reporting, a shorter VAT return period of one month. The cabinet stays with the existing KOR threshold and does choose ICV reporting from 1 July 2030. On the technical side EY already lined up with what the cabinet later adopted: EN 16931 as the only standard, both UBL and CII allowed, no recipient consent requirement, no extra fields on top of ViDA.

Belgium's start on 1 January 2026 showed bottlenecks mainly at inexperienced new providers, not in Peppol itself. The number of Peppol providers there grew to about 300.

The direction is set: structured e-invoices become the B2B standard in the Netherlands. The date is 1 July 2030, not 1 January 2030. Anyone already invoicing via Peppol already works with EN 16931, the only domestic standard the cabinet allows. The network choice follows later in 2026. The public consultation is the moment to respond to the bill.

eConnect follows the consultation and the infrastructure decision and informs customers when anything changes.

Want to prepare for mandatory e-invoicing? Start today with the free Invoice Portal and see how e-invoicing via Peppol works.