Belgian e-invoicing mandate

Not all digital invoices are e-invoices. A genuine e-invoice is an invoice that is issued, received and processed electronically. It is digital from its creation in the financial system by the issuer until it is received, processed and archived by the recipient. Learn more in our blog.

As electronic invoicing has long been obligatory in the public sector, taxpayers in the private sector should now prepare to issue and receive e-invoices, beginning 1 January 2026.

See our expert recommendations for preparing for the mandate in our one-page guide.

Mercurius is the platform used by government entities in Belgium to receive and process invoices. Hermes is a temporary platform that enables B2B e-invoices to be converted into PDF. Both are connected to Peppol, to enable exchange of e-invoices between governmental and private trading partners in Belgium. With both platforms, the e-invoices and credit notes must be in the Peppol BIS 3.0 format and exchanged via the Peppol Network.

An Invoice Response Message provides businesses level responses. Essentially, it is issued by the recipient of an invoice (or buyer) to the sender of the invoice (or supplier/seller) to notify whether the recipient accepts or rejects the invoice from a business point of view. If the invoice is rejected, the response will include the reason for the rejection.