Promotion and Facilitation of Electronic VAT Invoices

The new rules on VAT invoicing (Council Directive 2010/45/EU) have been introduced by the EU member states in their national VAT legislation from 1 January 2013. The VAT invoice requirements are a major cost and administrative burden for European businesses, and additional restrictions on electronic invoices add to this burden.

There are numerous reports and studies that support the fact that using electronic invoices can dramatically reduce costs for businesses, large and small, and creating a facilitative legal framework is a major factor in encouraging businesses to adopt electronic invoices.

IOTA considers it would be important to organise an event providing an opportunity to explain the changes and to share experiences of implementing the new rules, in particular the changes to the rules for electronic invoices and the introduction of the concept of 'business controls' as a means of ensuring authenticity of origin (who sent the invoice), integrity of content (the information on the invoice hasn't been amended or altered) and legibility (the invoice is readable).