The United Kingdom government announced in November 2025 the implementation of mandatory electronic invoicing starting in April 2029. This new regulation will require all B2B and B2G VAT invoices to be issued in a specified electronic format. The implementation roadmap that is expected to be published with the UK Budget 2026, following stakeholder engagement.
The announcement came with the results of a government consultation that inquired 342 businesses, representatives and individuals. The “Promoting electronic invoicing across UK businesses and the public sector” study showed that although e-invoicing has been available in the UK for years, adoption by businesses is still very low.
Next steps
Although implementation dates and requirements are still pending to be published by the UK government, companies can study the results of the consultation. This will certainly impact the decisions made by the tax authorities.
Results from the first consultation showed that respondents supported the mandatory e-invoicing regulations to increase overall adoption. Also, respondents demonstrated to have knowledge about the benefits of e-invoicing, such as more efficiency, faster payments, cost savings, and reduced fraud.
An important point to highlight was that small and medium-sized businesses did mention the need for affordable, easy-to-use solutions. Moreover, most respondents favored a decentralized model, since it gives businesses more flexibility to choose their preferred software providers. Therefore, there’s a chance that the PEPPOL model, already used by the UK public sector, is a high contender as a final choice.
