Mandatory e-invoicing in Belgium from 2026: what your online shop must handle

Since 1 January 2026, invoices between VAT-registered businesses established in Belgium must be issued in structured electronic form, through the Peppol network. A PDF sent by e-mail no longer satisfies the obligation in B2B relationships.

Sales to consumers are not affected. A shop selling only to private customers changes nothing for them, but as soon as a Belgian business customer asks for an invoice, the obligation applies.

Many online shops sell partly to businesses: retailers, freelancers, associations, schools. The checkout must therefore identify a business buyer, capture its VAT number and trigger a structured invoice rather than a simple receipt.

Most platforms do not natively produce a Peppol BIS document. The link to invoicing software connected to the network becomes a component to plan into the project, not an option to bolt on later.

A structured invoice needs clean data: a valid VAT number, exact legal name, full address, lines with the correct VAT rate and order references. A free-text field typed by the customer produces rejections.

Add a live VAT number check through the European Commission’s VIES service, and show prices including VAT to consumers and excluding VAT to identified businesses.

Three approaches exist: the e-commerce platform exports orders to accounting software on Peppol; an extension handles sending directly; or a custom connector bridges the two. The right choice depends on volume and on what your accountant already uses.

Whatever the setup, test the full cycle before launch: a business order, its invoice, its receipt by a test customer on Peppol, then a credit note. That is the only way to confirm nothing gets lost.

A clean invoicing chain reduces unpaid invoices, removes re-keying and speeds up bookkeeping. It also makes the shop more credible to business buyers, who increasingly demand this format.

Treat this as part of the e-commerce project, with an owner, tests and a date. Shops that added it afterwards almost all had to rework their checkout.