Tietoevry is proud to share that we are actively participating in the Peppol ViDA pilot
Spurred by the success of the first pilot, under the auspices of Nordic Smart Government & Business, we will in this pilot, helmed by OpenPeppol, contribute towards demonstrating that:
• the Peppol e-Invoice specifications and
• the Peppol Network,
can be used to meet the expectation of all parties impacted by the Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) of the ViDA legislative proposal and the ensuing e-Invoicing mandates that have been announced or are expected by most European countries.
A kick-off meeting was held in November, and the project will run through 2025 and into 2026.
What is ViDA?
VAT in the Digital Age is an EU Commission initiative towards a legislative proposal, aiming to modernize the European VAT-system, especially combatting VAT-fraud. The proposal reached political agreement on November 5th this year in ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs Council), consisting of the economic and finance ministers from all member states. The focus of ViDA is intra-community trade, i.e. trading flows between EU countries.
- ViDA’s approach to the modernization of VAT-reporting is to tie the reporting of VAT close to the e-Invoice and the moment of its issuance, requiring, when the invoice is sent, that invoice data extracted directly “off the back” of the e-Invoice is reported to the Tax Authority at the same time. This is sometimes referred to as “CTC” (Continuous Transaction Controls), emphasizes Sven Norin, Product Manager Tietoevry.
How does Peppol aim to support ViDA?
Peppol has succeeded in creating a spontaneous any-to-any infrastructure, where, if you can find your trading partner in Peppol’s directory, you are guaranteed that the invoice will reach its recipient – given that you have produced a technically correct invoice.
This works according to the so called “4 corner model” that we also see outside of Peppol, but within the Peppol ecosystem all certified Service Providers are obliged to carry traffic from any other certified Service Provider, without the need for bilateral interoperability agreements.
Therefore, in the well-functioning Peppol 4-corner landscape, it is straightforward to insert the Tax Authority in the flow, as a “5th corner”. The trading parties continue to exchange e-Invoices like before, but after the sender C1 submits an e-Invoice to its Service Provider C2, a copy or an extract of the invoice is passed from C2 to C5 the Tax Authority in the same moment as the invoice is being transported to C3 the Recipient’s Service Provider and onwards to C4 the final Recipient.
Why ViDA?
According to the EU Commission, the member states are losing some EUR 90+ billon in VAT revenue in the so called “VAT gap”, a substantial part of which is due to fraud. By making e-Invoices mandatory for intra-community trade, and by turning the e-Invoice into an instrument for near real-time reporting to the Tax Authority, the member states strive to be in a better position to crack down on scams like the “Missing Trader Intra-Community fraud”.
ViDA when?
- Early 2025, upon adoption of ViDA: Member states will become free in imposing domestic e-Invoicing schemes.
- 2030, ViDA enters into force: DRR for intra-community-trade with EU-standard EN 16931 e-Invoices will be mandatory.
- 2035: Countries who already had domestic e-Invoice reporting schemes in place prior to 1 January 2024, will need to harmonize their schemes with the ViDA standard.
What is ViDA not?
ViDA is not behind the domestic e-Invoice mandates or domestic DRR that may be in place in some European countries already today. ViDA will focus on intra-community trade. But, after ViDA has been formally adopted, early 2025, EU member states will be free to impose domestic e-Invoicing or digital reporting mandates, without asking for prior permission (“derogation”) from the EU. It is therefore important to remember that compliance with some early adopting country’s local e-Invoicing and/or DRR scheme may not guarantee compliance when ViDA takes effect 2030.
Is ViDA only about e-Invoicing and Digital Reporting Requirements?
No, this is one of three ViDA pillars, the other two pillars being:
- How to treat the Platform Economy (e.g. Uber, Airbnb etc.) from a VAT perspective
- Single VAT registration.
How is our Peppol ViDA piloting helping you?
- By investing efforts in the Peppol ViDA pilot, co-operating with peer Service Providers, Government Agencies and other stakeholders, we hope to contribute to a broadening appreciation for Peppol as the best choice for EU-wide Buyer/Seller-collaboration, with the Tax Authority “listening in” in an unobtrusive way, says Sven Norin Product Manager Tietoevry.
Not formally part of ViDA, but already present today in some countries, are local e-Invoice mandates and DRR. Tietoevry is working systematically at enabling you to have compliant connectivity in these markets.
Additionally, we continue to participate in forums and trade associations such as TIEKE, NEA, GENA etc., to enable you to take part of the increasing value of the digitized network economy, while at the same time protecting you from its complexity.
- At Tietoevry BIX, we're committed to supporting our customers with consulting around ViDA, helping you transition to e-Invoicing and adapt to new regulations. Contact us for assistance or any suggestions, concludes Sven Norin.
Sven Norin is a Product Manager within Business Information Exchange (BIX). In that area, he is responsible for e-Invoice offerings on the Swedish market. He is well experienced in productizing managed services for Purchase-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash, and the regulatory aspects relating to this. Sven has been working with e-Invoicing since 2003.