Dutch central government is ready for eInvoicing but in practice relies on paper
Since 1 January 2011, companies have been able to submit their invoices to the central government by electronic means. If the central government is ready to move to electronic invoicing (eInvoicing), the dominant practice remains that of paper invoices.
All 78 central government organisations are poised to move to eInvoicing; the entire central government will receive eInvoices through
Digipoort, the electronic post office of the government.
"Electronic invoicing is faster, easier and therefore cheaper," said Mr. Verhagen, the Minister for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (Dutch acronym:
EL&I). Not only is this good for tax payers, it also makes things easier for businesses. eInvoicing is part of the Dutch Government's ambition to make government more efficient and to give companies
more time for doing business; eInvoicing saves time and costs in terms of processing and shipping. Moreover, eInvoices appear more durable than paper bills.
Minister Verhagen wants all other levels of government (provinces, municipalities) to be ready to receive electronic invoices in 2018.
According to a private news provider, there are still obstacles to be overcome before eInvoices become regularly used by government authorities. Of the 14.4 million invoices send to government authorities, only 6 % were digital and of those, 80 % are printed
and processed manually. However, compared to 2008, digitisation clearly progressed.
Further information (in Dutch only):