A Study on the Invoicing Directive (2001/115/EC) now incorporated into the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC)

This document contains the final report in the framework of the study on the Invoicing Directive (2001/115/EC) now incorporated into the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC), as applicable on 1 January 2008.

Article 237 of the VAT Directive requires that “the Commission shall present, at the latest on 31 December 2008, a report and, if appropriate, a proposal amending the conditions applicable to electronic invoicing in order to take account of future technological developments in that field.”

This study should give the European Commission an objective analysis of the current situation and the needs of all stakeholders. Thus, the study may form a strong foundation for the European Commission on which to base its forthcoming report and potential proposal for changes to the VAT Directive in order to reduce burdens on businesses and to encourage the use of electronic invoicing. The overall objective of this study and the resulting report was to review whether, for the four principal areas of invoicing, improvements can be made to the legislation in order to further harmonise and modernise those rules so as to reduce the burdens on business and stimulate the use of electronic invoicing. According to the call for tender, the four principal invoicing areas are:

  • the requirement to issue an invoice, including self-billing and outsourcing (articles 220 to 225 of the VAT Directive);
  • the content of an invoice (articles 226 to 231 and article 238 of the VAT Directive);
  • electronic invoicing (articles 232 to 236 of the VAT Directive);
  • the storage (archiving) of invoices (articles 244 to 249 of the VAT Directive).

Besides the four main invoicing areas, the study has also considered other parts of the VAT Directive that interact with the invoicing requirements and could possibly create problems or ambiguities.

In order to meet its objectives, the study was conducted in 3 main phases. As an appendix, the complete reports related to the 3 phases of the study.

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