WooCommerce E-Invoicing Compliance: Country-by-Country Calendar 2026-2028

Europe is in the middle of the largest e-invoicing rollout in its history. By 2028, every EU member state will require some form of structured electronic invoicing for B2B transactions. This page is the canonical reference for WooCommerce merchants: every country, every mandate, every date, every format. Updated quarterly — last update April 2026.

Why is this happening now?

The wave is driven by two forces. The first is the European Commission's VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package — agreed in 2024, with the cross-border real-time digital reporting components landing through 2030 — which pushes member states to harmonize on EN 16931 as the structured invoice norm. The second is national fiscal motivation: real-time invoice data gives tax authorities continuous visibility into VAT flows and dramatically shortens the audit cycle.

The format outcome is convergence on EN 16931 with national customizations layered on top. The transmission outcome is fragmentation: Germany uses email + portals, France routes through Accredited Platforms, Italy uses SDI, Belgium uses PEPPOL, and Spain uses real-time submission to AEAT.

At-a-glance country matrix

✓ = already in force. Bold = upcoming mandate deadline. Last verified April 2026.

Germany — January 2027 + January 2028

Germany's Wachstumschancengesetz (Growth Opportunities Act, March 2024) introduced a three-phase B2B mandate:

• Phase 1 — Jan 2025 (live): every German business must be able to receive EN 16931-compliant e-invoices.
• Phase 2 — Jan 2027: businesses with annual turnover over €800,000 must issue e-invoices for B2B.
• Phase 3 — Jan 2028: all remaining businesses join.

B2C, exports, and small businesses under §19 UStG (€22K turnover) are exempt. The accepted formats are ZUGFeRD 2.x (hybrid PDF/A-3) and XRechnung (pure XML, used for B2G but valid for B2B too).

France — September 2026 + September 2027

France's mandate was confirmed in April 2025 when the National Assembly rejected a proposed one-year postponement:

• Sep 1, 2026: all VAT-registered businesses must be able to receive; large + mid-sized must issue.
• Sep 1, 2027: SMBs (under 250 employees) must issue.

The format is Factur-X 1.07 (hybrid PDF/A-3 + CII XML, technically aligned with ZUGFeRD). Submission flows through an Accredited Platform (PA, formerly PDP) — direct B2B transmission is not allowed.

Italy — live since 2019

Italy was the first EU country to mandate B2B e-invoicing and is the most mature implementation. The format is FatturaPA; the transmission channel is SDI (Sistema di Interscambio), the central government gateway. Both B2B and B2C transactions are in scope.

Honest note: invoice9 does not ship FatturaPA. The best-in-class WooCommerce option for Italian SDI integration is POP, which specializes in this market. We don't compete here.

Belgium — live since January 2026

Belgium went live with mandatory B2B e-invoicing on January 1, 2026. The format is PEPPOL BIS 3.0 UBL and transmission requires a certified PEPPOL Access Point. There's no national gateway — the PEPPOL network is the channel.

invoice9 generates PEPPOL BIS 3.0 invoice + credit note documents; the merchant contracts a PEPPOL Access Point (or works with a transmission specialist like POP) for the actual delivery.

Spain — Verifactu, January 2027 / July 2027

Spain's Verifactu rollout has been postponed from its original 2025/2026 dates and now phases as follows:

• Jan 1, 2027: corporations.
• Jul 1, 2027: self-employed and other taxpayers.

The Verifactu specification requires real-time submission to the Spanish tax authority (AEAT). invoice9 has Verifactu on the Year-2 roadmap; for the immediate Spanish mandate, specialist Spanish plugins are the better choice today.

Other EU countries — quick status

• Poland (KSeF): mandatory B2B issue date pushed to February 2026 after multiple delays. Format: KSeF FA(2).
• Romania (RO e-Factura): live since July 2024; both B2B receive and B2B issue are mandatory.
• Hungary (NAV): real-time invoice reporting has been live since 2018; one of the oldest implementations.
• Greece (myDATA): phased B2B rollout completed in 2025; B2B issue is now mandatory.
• Netherlands: voluntary, but PEPPOL BIS 3.0 is the de-facto standard among Dutch B2B sellers.

PEPPOL — the EU-wide cross-border layer

PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online) is both a network and a format profile. The format is PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 UBL, which is built on top of EN 16931. The network is a four-corner model: sender → sender's Access Point → receiver's Access Point → receiver.

PEPPOL is the de-facto cross-border B2B invoice channel inside the EU. Belgium mandates it; the Netherlands and Germany increasingly use it; Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have adopted it outside the EU. invoice9 generates PEPPOL BIS 3.0 invoice and credit note documents natively — Access Point transmission stays a separate concern.

How to prepare your WooCommerce store

1. List the countries you sell to B2B (specifically B2B — most mandates exclude B2C).
2. Map each country to its mandate status and format requirement using the table above.
3. Pick a plugin that ships those formats. Most generic Woo invoice plugins ship PDF only; only a few ship ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, XRechnung, and PEPPOL BIS together.
4. Configure seller info and per-country tax mappings: VAT IDs, SIRET (FR), Leitweg-ID storage (DE B2G), tax-regime mention (FR), tax category overrides.
5. Identify transmission requirements. Some countries require an Access Point or PA contract — that's separate from generation.
6. Test end-to-end with real buyers before the mandate dates. Schematron passes are necessary but not sufficient — receiving systems sometimes reject technically-valid files for business reasons.

Plugins that ship country-specific formats

Most WooCommerce invoice plugins ship PDF only. The ones that actually generate structured EN 16931 formats are a small subset. We'll publish a full comparison shortly; in the meantime, invoice9 is the only Woo Marketplace plugin that ships all four: ZUGFeRD 2.x, XRechnung UBL + CII, Factur-X 1.07, and PEPPOL BIS 3.0 (invoice + credit note).