Regulatory updates - Estonia

The Ministry of Finance of Estonia has previously proposed to amend the provisions of the Accounting Act by introducing the use of e-invoices in business transactions.

The proposal considers allowance for the buyers to demand e-invoices compliant with EN 16931 format from their suppliers within B2B transactions.

This draft law will be implemented presumably after 2025, as the proposed amendments to the Accounting Act have not been adopted yet.

The Act makes Estonia yet another European country to go beyond the requirements on Directive 2014/55/EU and extend the e-invoicing mandate as well on suppliers.

The timelines of the mandates will be as follows:

• From April 2019: all contracting authorities are obliged to be able to receive e-invoices that comply with the European Norm
• From July 2019: all invoices to the public sector can only be sent as e-invoices compatible with the European Norm

The Estonian Center of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) maintains the government-owned infrastructure (e-Financials) that performs the service of receiving and sending e-invoices and accompanying documents between suppliers and public contracting authorities. RIK will be accepting e-invoices that comply with EN 16931-1, i.e. UBL 2.1 or CII and the Official Estonian e-invoice standard EVS 923: 2014 / AC: 2017

Companies and institutions can use the state register “Register of E-Invoice Recipients”, where all organisations receiving e-invoices (business and non-profit associations, foundations and state and local government agencies) are registered. The register lists all necessary information to electronically transmit invoices to registered companies/institutions.

Estonia’s approach to e-invoicing is however decentralised, whereby contracting authorities can contract an e-invoicing service provider of their choosing to receive e-invoices compatible with the European Norm instead of being connected to the central platform.

Pagero offers the necessary network reach to exchange e-invoices with the Estonian public sector.