Council Directive 2001/115/EC of 20 December 2001 amending Directive 77/388/EEC with a view to simplifying, modernising and harmonising the conditions laid down for invoicing in respect of value added tax
Date: 2001-12-20
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: VAT, approximation of laws, invoicing, tax harmonisation

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2001/115/EC

of 20 December 2001

amending Directive 77/388/EEC with a view to simplifying, modernising and harmonising the
conditions laid down for invoicing in respect of value added tax

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 93 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (3),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

The current conditions laid down for invoicing and
listed under Article 22(3), in the version given in Article
28h of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17
May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the
Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common
system of value added tax: uniform basis of assess-
ment (4), are relatively few in number, thus leaving it to
the Member States to define the most important such
conditions. At the same time, the conditions are no
longer appropriate given the development of new
invoicing technologies and methods.

The Commission report on the second phase of the
SLIM exercise (Simpler Legislation for the Single Market)
recommended that a study be carried out to determine
what details should be required for VAT purposes when
drawing up an invoice and what the legal and technical
requirements are as regards electronic invoicing.

The conclusions of the Ecofin Council of June 1998
underlined the fact that the development of electronic
commerce has made it necessary to establish a legal
framework for the use of electronic invoicing to enable
tax administrations
to perform their
to continue
controls.

It is therefore necessary,
in order to ensure that the
internal market functions properly, to draw up a list,
harmonised at Community level, of the particulars that
must appear on invoices for the purposes of value added
tax and to establish a number of common arrangements
governing the use of electronic invoicing and the elec-
tronic storage of invoices, as well as for self-billing and
the outsourcing of invoicing operations.

(1) OJ C 96 E, 27.3.2001, p. 145.
(2) Opinion delivered on 13 June 2001 (not yet published in the Offi-

cial Journal).

(3) OJ C 193, 10.7.2001, p. 53.
(4) OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive

2001/4/EC (OJ L 22, 24.1.2001, p. 17).

(5)

(6)

Lastly, the storage of invoices should comply with the
conditions laid down by Directive 95/46/EC of the Euro-
pean Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995
on the protection of
individuals with regard to the
processing of personal data and on the free movement
of such data (5).

Since the introduction of the transitional VAT arrange-
ments in 1993, Greece has adopted the prefix EL rather
than the prefix GR laid down in the ISO International
Standard No 3166 — alpha 2 referred to in Article
22(1)(d). Given the consequences of amending the prefix
in all the Member States, it is important to lay down an
exception for Greece providing that the ISO Standard
does not apply in Greece.

(7)

Directive 77/388/EEC should therefore be amended
accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

Directive 77/388/EEC is hereby amended in accordance with
the following Articles.

Article 2

At Article 28h (which replaces Article 22 of
Directive), Article 22 shall be amended as follows:

the same

1. The following sentence shall be added to paragraph 1(d):

‘Nevertheless, the Hellenic Republic shall be authorised to
use the prefix “EL”.’

2. Paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following:

‘3.

(a) Every taxable person shall ensure that an invoice is
issued, either by himself or by his customer or, in
his name and on his behalf, by a third party,
in
respect of goods or services which he has supplied
or rendered to another taxable person or to a non-
taxable legal person. Every taxable person shall also
ensure that an invoice is issued, either by himself or
by his customer or, in his name and on his behalf,
by a third party, in respect of the supplies of goods
referred to in Article 28b(B)(1) and in respect of
goods supplied under the conditions laid down in
Article 28c(A).

(5) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.

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Every taxable person shall likewise ensure that an
invoice is
issued, either by himself or by his
customer or, in his name and on his behalf, by a
third party, in respect of any payment on account
made to him before any supplies of goods referred
to in the first subparagraph and in respect of any
payment on account made to him by another
taxable person or non-taxable legal person before
the provision of services is completed.

Member States may impose on taxable persons an
obligation to issue an invoice in respect of goods or
services other than those referred to in the preceding
subparagraphs which they have supplied or rendered
on their territory. When they do so, Member States
may impose fewer obligations in respect of these
invoices than those listed under points (b), (c) and
(d).

The Member States may release taxable persons
from the obligation to issue an invoice in respect of
goods or services which they have supplied or
rendered in their territory and which are exempt,
with or without refund of
the
preceding stage, pursuant
to Article 13, Article
28(2)(a) and Article 28(3)(b).

the tax paid at

Any document or message that amends and refers
specifically and unambiguously to the initial invoice
is to be treated as an invoice. Member States in
whose territory goods or services are supplied or
rendered may allow some of the obligatory details to
be left out of such documents or messages.

Member States may impose further conditions on
the issue of invoices by the customers of taxable
persons supplying goods or services on their terri-
tory. For example,
they may require that such
invoices be issued in the name and on behalf of the
taxable person. Such conditions must always be the
same wherever the customer is established.

Member States may also lay down specific condi-
tions for taxable persons supplying goods or services
in their territory in cases where the third party, or
the customer, who issues invoices is established in a
instrument exists
country with which no legal
relating to mutual assistance similar in scope to that
laid down by Council Directive 76/308/EEC of 15
March 1976 on mutual assistance for the recovery
of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and
other measures (*), Council Directive 77/799/EEC of
19 December 1977 concerning mutual assistance by
the competent authorities of the Member States in
the field of direct and indirect taxation (**) and by
Council Regulation (EEC) No 218/92 of 27 January
1992 on administrative cooperation in the field of
indirect taxation (VAT) (***).

(b) Without prejudice to the specific arrangements laid
down by this Directive, only the following details
are required for VAT purposes on invoices issued
under the first, second and third subparagraphs of
point (a):

— the date of issue;

— a sequential number, based on one or more
series, which uniquely identifies the invoice,

Member States may impose time limits for the issue
of invoices on taxable persons supplying goods and
services in their territory.

— the VAT identification number referred to in
paragraph 1(c) under which the taxable person
supplied the goods or services;

Under conditions to be laid down by the Member
States in whose territory goods or services are
supplied or rendered, a summary invoice may be
drawn up for several separate supplies of goods or
services.

Invoices may be drawn up by the customer of a
taxable person in respect of goods or services
supplied or rendered to him by that taxable person,
on condition that there is at the outset an agreement
between the two parties, and on condition that a
procedure exists for the acceptance of each invoice
by the taxable person supplying the goods or
services. The Member States in whose territory the
goods or services are supplied or rendered shall
determine the terms and conditions of the agree-
ment and of the acceptance procedures between the
taxable person and his customer.

services

— where the customer is liable to pay tax on goods
rendered or has been
supplied or
supplied with goods as referred to in Article
28c(A),
as
referred to in paragraph 1(c) under which the
goods were supplied or the services rendered to
him;

the VAT identification number

— the full name and address of the taxable person

and of his customer;

— the quantity and nature of the goods supplied or
the extent and nature of the services rendered;

— the date on which the supply of goods or of
services was made or completed or the date on
which the payment on account referred to in the
second subparagraph of point
(a) was made,
insofar as that a date can be determined and
differs from the date of issue of the invoice;

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— the taxable amount per rate or exemption, the
unit price exclusive of tax and any discounts or
rebates if they are not included in the unit price;

— the VAT rate applied;

— the VAT amount payable, except where a
specific arrangement is applied for which this
Directive excludes such a detail;

— where an exemption is involved or where the
customer is liable to pay the tax, reference to the
appropriate provision of this directive, to the
corresponding national provision, or to any indi-
cation that the supply is exempt or subject to the
reverse charge procedure;

— where the intra-Community supply of a new
means of transport is involved, the particulars
specified in Article 28a(2);

— where the margin scheme is applied, reference to
Article 26 or 26a, to the corresponding national
provisions, or to any other indication that the
margin scheme has been applied;

— where the person liable to pay the tax is a tax
representative within the meaning of Article
21(2), the VAT identification number referred to
tax representative,
in paragraph 1(c) of
together with his full name and address.

that

Member States may require taxable persons estab-
lished on their territory and supplying goods or
services on their territory to indicate the VAT identi-
fication number referred to in paragraph 1(c) of their
customer in cases other than those referred to in the
fourth indent of the first subparagraph.

Member States shall not
signed.

require invoices to be

The amounts which appear on the invoice may be
expressed in any currency, provided that the amount
of tax to be paid is expressed in the national currency
of the Member State where the supply of goods or
services takes place, using the conversion mechanism
laid down in Article 11 C(2).

Where necessary for control purposes, Member
States may require invoices in respect of goods
supplied or services rendered in their territory and
invoices received by taxable persons in their territory
to be translated into their national

languages.

(c) Invoices issued pursuant to point (a) may be sent
either on paper or, subject to an acceptance by the
customer, by electronic means.

— by means of an advanced electronic signature
within the meaning of Article 2(2) of Directive
1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 13 December 1999 on a
Community framework for electronic signa-
tures (****); Member States may however ask for
the advanced electronic signature to be based on
a qualified certificate and created by a secure-
signature-creation device, within the meaning of
Article 2(6) and (10) of
the aforementioned
Directive;

— or by means of electronic data interchange (EDI)
as defined in Article 2 of Commission Recom-
mendation 1994/820/EC of 19 October 1994
relating to the legal aspects of electronic data
interchange (*****) when the agreement relating
to the exchange provides for the use of proced-
ures guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin
and integrity of the data; however Member States
may, subject to conditions which they lay down,
require that an additional summary document
on paper is necessary.

Invoices may, however, be sent by other electronic
means subject to acceptance by the Member State(s)
concerned. The Commission will present, at the latest
on 31 December 2008, a report, together with a
proposal, if appropriate, amending the conditions on
electronic invoicing in order to take account of
possible future technological developments in this
field.

Member States may not impose on taxable persons
supplying goods or services in their territory any
other obligations or formalities relating to the trans-
mission of invoices by electronic means. However,
they may provide, until 31 December 2005, that the
use of such a system is to be subject to prior noti-
fication.

Member States may lay down specific conditions for
invoices issued by electronic means for goods or
services supplied in their territory from a country
with which no legal
instrument exists relating to
mutual assistance similar in scope to that laid down
by Directives 76/308/EEC and 77/799/EEC and by
Regulation (EEC) No 218/92.

When batches containing several invoices are sent to
the same recipient by electronic means, the details
that are common to the individual invoices may be
mentioned only once if, for each invoice, all the
information is accessible.

Invoices sent by electronic means shall be accepted
by Member States provided that the authenticity of
the origin and integrity of the contents are guaran-
teed:

(d) Every taxable person shall ensure that copies of
invoices issued by himself, by his customer or, in his
name and on his behalf, by a third party, and all the
invoices which he has received are stored.

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For the purposes of this Directive, the taxable person
may decide the place of storage provided that he
makes the invoices or information stored there avail-
able without undue delay to the competent authori-
ties whenever they so request. Member States may,
however, require taxable persons established in their
territory to notify them of the place of storage, if it
is outside their territory. Member States may,
in
addition, require taxable persons established in their
territory to store within the country invoices issued
in their
by themselves or by their customers or,
name and on their behalf, by a third party, as well as
all the invoices which they have received, when the
storage is not by electronic means guaranteeing full
on-line access to the data concerned.

The authenticity of the origin and integrity of the
content of the invoices, as well as their readability,
must be guaranteed throughout the storage period.
As regards the invoices referred to in the third
subparagraph of point
the information they
(c),
contain may not be altered; it must remain legible
throughout the aforementioned period.

The Member States shall determine the period for
which taxable persons must store invoices relating
to goods or services supplied in their territory and
invoices received by taxable persons established in
their territory.

In order to ensure that the conditions laid down in
the third subparagraph are met, Member States
referred to in the fourth subparagraph may require
that invoices be stored in the original form in which
they were sent, whether paper or electronic. They
may also require that when invoices are stored by
electronic means, the data guaranteeing the authen-
ticity of the origin and integrity of the content also
be stored.

Member States referred to in the fourth subpara-
graph may impose specific conditions prohibiting or
restricting the storage of invoices in a country with
which no legal instrument exists relating to mutual
assistance similar in scope to that laid down by
Directives 76/308/EEC, 77/799/EEC and by Regula-
tion (EEC) No 218/92 and to the right of access by
electronic means, download and use referred to in
Article 22a.

Member States may, subject to conditions which
they lay down,
invoices
received by non-taxable persons.

require the storage of

(e) For the purposes of points (c) and (d), transmission
and storage of invoices “by electronic means” shall
mean transmission or making available to the reci-
pient and storage using electronic equipment for
processing
and
storage of data, and employing wires, radio trans-

(including digital

compression)

mission, optical technologies or other electromag-
netic means.

For the purposes of this Directive, Member States
shall accept documents or messages in paper or
electronic form as invoices if they meet the condi-
tions laid down in this paragraph.

(*) OJ L 73, 19.3.1976, p. 18. Directive
by Directive 2001/44/EC (OJ

amended
28.6.2001, p. 17).

as

last
L 175,

(**) OJ L 336, 27.12.1977, p. 15. Directive as last

amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.

(***) OJ L 24, 1.2.1992, p. 1.
(****) OJ L 13, 19.1.2000, p. 12.
(*****) OJ L 338, 28.12.1994, p. 98.’

3. The following subparagraph shall be added to paragraph

8:

‘The option provided for in the first subparagraph cannot
be used to impose additional obligations over and above
those laid down in paragraph 3.’

4. The following subparagraph shall be added to paragraph

9(a):

‘Without prejudice to the provisions laid down in point
(d), Member States may not, however, release the taxable
persons referred to in the third indent from the obliga-
tions referred to in Article 22(3).’

5. The following point shall be added to paragraph 9:

‘(d) Subject

to consultation of

the Committee provided
for in Article 29 and under the conditions which
they may lay down, Member States may provide that
invoices
services
rendered in their territory do not have to fulfil some
of the conditions laid down in paragraph 3(b) in the
following cases:

in respect of goods

supplied or

— when the amount of the invoice is minor, or

— when commercial or administrative practice in the
business sector concerned or the technical condi-
tions under which the invoices are issued make it
difficult
requirements
to comply with all
referred to in paragraph 3(b).

the

In any
following:

case,

these

invoices must

contain the

— the date of issue,

— identification of the taxable person,

— identification of

the type of goods supplied or

services rendered,

— the tax due or the information needed to calculate

it.

The simplified arrangements provided for
in this
point may not be applied to transactions referred to
in paragraph 4(c).’

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6. The following point shall be added to paragraph 9:

‘(e) In cases where Member States make use of the option
provided for in the third indent of point (a) to refrain
from allocating a number as referred to in paragraph
1(c) to taxable persons who do not carry out any of
the transactions referred to in paragraph 4(c), and
where the supplier or the customer have not been
allocated an identification number of
the
invoice should feature instead another number called
the tax reference number, as defined by the Member
States concerned.

this type,

When the taxable person has been allocated an identi-
fication number as referred to in paragraph 1(c), the
Member States referred to in the first subparagraph
may also require the invoice to show:
— for services rendered referred to in Article 28b(C),
(D), (E) and (F) and for supplies of goods referred
to in Article 28c(A) and (E) point 3, the number
referred to in paragraph 1(c) and the tax reference
number of the supplier;

— for other supplies of goods and services, only the
tax reference number of the supplier or only the
number referred to in paragraph 1(c).’

Article 3

The following Article shall be inserted:

‘Article 22a

Right of access to invoices stored by electronic means in
another Member State

When a taxable person stores invoices which he issues
or receives by an electronic means guaranteeing on-line
access to the data and when the place of storage is in a
Member State other than that in which he is established,
the competent authorities in the Member State in which
he is established shall have a right, for the purpose of
this directive, to access by electronic means, download
and use these invoices within the limits set by the regu-
lations of the Member State where the taxable person is
established and as far as that State requires for control
purposes.’

Article 4

1. The words ‘or of the document serving as invoice’ shall
be deleted from the first and third indents of the third
subparagraph of Article 10(2).

2. The words ‘or on any other documents serving as invoi-
ces’ shall be deleted from Article 24(5) and the words ‘or
on any other document serving as an invoice’ shall be
deleted from Article 26a(B), point 9.

3. The words ‘or a document in lieu’ shall be deleted from

point 4 of Article 26a(C).

4. The words ‘or other document serving as invoice’ and ‘or
document’ shall be deleted from Article 28d(3) and from
the second subparagraph of Article 28d(4).

5. In Article 28g (which replaces Article 21 of

the same

Directive), Article 21 shall be amended as follows:
— The words ‘or other document serving as invoice’

shall be deleted from paragraph 1(d).

6. The words ‘or on any other document in lieu’ shall be

deleted from Article 28o(1)(e).

Article 5

Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations
and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this
Directive with effect from 1 January 2004. They shall forth-
with inform the Commission thereof.

When Member States adopt
they shall
contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied
by such a reference on the occasion of their official publica-
tion. The methods of making such a reference shall be laid
down by the Member States.

these measures,

Article 6

into force on the 20th day
This Directive shall enter
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

Article 7

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 20 December 2001.

For the Council

The President

C. PICQUÉ