As in many countries in the European Union, Portugal is getting closer to implementing the obligatory of issuing electronic invoices in a B2G environment. However, Portugal’s government had to mend their law to include the electronic invoicing update that will go into effect.
Legislative updates
After the Order 123/2018 approval, Portugal will have the next scenarios:
- Public administration: in April 18th 2019 all state administrations must be prepared to receive and process electronic invoices. The Portuguese government will issue them following the European standards. After a year, in April 18th 2020, the obligatory will be extended to local administrations.
- Private sector: once administrations will be prepared to process electronic invoices, the private sector will join them. From April 18th 2020, big companies will be enforced to issue electronic invoices to the public administration. On January 1st 2021, the obligatory will be extended to small and medium size companies.
So, from January 1st 2021 issuing electronic invoices in a B2G environment will be compulsory in Portugal.
Europe’s tendency
Portugal joins the rest of European countries that are preparing their administration to obey the European guideline 2014/55/EU which enforces public administration to receive and process electronic invoices from April 18th 2019.
Italy is leading the Europe’s tendency to implement electronic invoicing and this year the country will implement the obligatory of electronic invoices to all levels (from governments to final users and private sector). Portugal will join other countries like Spain, Norway and Finland that are already issuing electronic documents to public administrations.
