With the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) officially adopted by the EU on 11 March 2025, businesses have many questions about its rollout and impact on their operations. We answer the most frequently asked questions.
When will businesses begin to see an impact from ViDA?
ViDA is leading to changes in several areas of Value Added tax (VAT) law, starting now and going on for the coming decade.
From its entry into force on 14 April 2025, ViDA immediately removed restrictions that previously prevented EU countries from introducing mandatory domestic e-invoicing.
Therefore, Member States can now introduce both mandatory domestic e-invoicing and digital reporting requirements (DRRs), as long as they align with ViDA by 2030. By 2030 electronic invoicing and DRRs will become mandatory for so-called intra-Community transactions.
Since ViDA’s approval, we are already seeing momentum across the EU, with several countries announcing plans to introduce mandatory e-invoicing and real-time reporting within the next few years. ViDA will see the intensification of the current wave of new Continuous Transaction Control (CTC) mandates to prepare for in the short term, with many EU countries already announcing initiatives or starting rollout.
Is there likely to be a grace period for businesses to adjust and comply?
No, the ‘grace’ period for businesses was taken into account when setting the 2030 deadline for mandatory electronic invoicing and DRRs for intra-Community transactions. Member States’ domestic mandates will follow each country’s legislative process and culture but we are seeing an average period of 18-24 months for businesses to adapt, with no grace period after that.
Many businesses gravely underestimate the work required to ensure data quality, including the long adaptation cycles for their different business applications to incorporate the data and process changes required for real-time reporting and e-invoicing.
The introduction of changes of this magnitude to business and administrative processes is never without challenges on both sides of the equation. Businesses will make mistakes that may take time to fix, and this only gets harder as governments do the same thing in parallel under the pressure of political deadlines.
What business processes are likely to be impacted as part of the new regulations?
All invoicing and related processes will be impacted by ViDA including any accounts payable and accounts receivable process and the associated information systems that support them. All invoicing needs to be reviewed against this backdrop and readied for the digitization paradigm shift that will come off the back of ViDA.
How is ViDA likely to impact my business?
Whilst the reporting processes required to meet specific transmission protocols, authentication, and document exchange orchestration tend to get a lot of attention, businesses should be equally wary of the impact of CTC mandates generated or modified by ViDA on their upstream processes and data.
Many businesses have multiple ERP systems, multiple billing systems, accounts payable systems etc. for different lines of business or trading partner categories. Most of these systems process invoice data on a paper or PDF invoice manually or semi-automated which cannot be easily ‘upgraded’ to handle the data completeness and quality requirements of a stringent e-invoicing and e-reporting regime.
Beyond the headlines about mandatory e-invoicing and real-time reporting, the fine print of ViDA will drive a number of challenging modifications to business processes. This includes the very definition of what constitutes an invoice which will require billions of PDF invoices in the European Union to be converted to machine-readable formats.
To comply with ViDA, businesses will need to increasingly use software and service providers that can guarantee compliance with frameworks and laws that add up to a need for a complete rethink of invoicing processes and systems throughout most businesses.
Can businesses expect their current technology partnership to work for the new standards?
Companies that currently use EDI systems, procure-to-pay or accounts payable automation software of SaaS services, customer communications management, order-to-cash, electronic billing presentment and payment solutions etc. must ask themselves how those platforms will handle the new requirements for e-invoicing and e-reporting under ViDA and associated regulatory initiatives.
These vendors specializing in business process optimization typically have little experience with this specific area of compliance. Most of them are not set up to anticipate and address the tens or hundreds of changes that typically follow the initial rollout of a CTC regime in any jurisdiction in a timely manner.
We advise businesses to contact their enterprise software vendors and service providers now to ask these questions – are they aware of these changes as a result of ViDA, and what is their plan to keep you compliant?
How will cross-border transactions be impacted?
Under ViDA, cross-border transactions between EU countries will be subject to a new real-time reporting regime (DRR) that replaces the current requirement for a recapitulative statement. Each transaction will be reported individually to the respective national tax authority, which will then transmit the data within one day to a centralized European Commission-managed system known as “Central VIES”. This enhanced platform, launching in July 2030, will consolidate intra-EU B2B transaction data, integrate with systems like the Customs Surveillance System and the Central Electronic System of Payments (CESOP), and provide a unified interface for VAT number validation and transaction transparency across the EU.
In addition to these digital reporting sections of ViDA, intra-EU cross-border transactions are also affected by other parts of the proposal in other ways. For example, quite far-reaching changes will take place, removing administrative burdens for businesses moving their own stock between EU countries.
Take Action
Want to know more about ViDA? Get in touch with an expert here or learn more about VAT in the Digital Age with this guide.
