EU VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA): What Every EU Business Needs to Know Before 2030

On 11 March 2025 the Council of the European Union formally adopted the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package — three legal acts (Directive (EU) 2025/516, Regulation (EU) 2025/517 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/518) that overhaul how VAT is reported and how invoices flow across the 27 Member States.

If you sell across EU borders, host an online platform, or just hold an EU VAT number, ViDA is the single biggest VAT change since the introduction of the VAT system itself. This guide explains what's mandatory, when, and what it means for SMEs that already invoice in EUR.

What is ViDA?

ViDA is built around three pillars: digital reporting requirements (DRR) and structured e-invoicing for intra-EU B2B; updated rules for the platform economy (short-term accommodation and passenger transport); and a single VAT registration that lets a business sell across the EU without 27 local registrations.

Each pillar has its own timeline, but the most disruptive is pillar one — structured e-invoicing.

Key dates and deadlines

ViDA is staged across the rest of the decade. Member States can move faster, and several already have (Italy SdI since 2019, France 2026–2027, Belgium Jan 2026, Poland KSeF 2026, Germany Jan 2025–2028).

• April 2025 — entry into force; Member States may impose domestic e-invoicing without prior EU derogation.
• 1 January 2027 — platform-economy rules begin (deemed-supplier for short-term accommodation and passenger transport platforms in many Member States).
• 1 July 2028 — Single VAT Registration expansion (One Stop Shop covers virtually all B2C cross-border sales) and updates to call-off stock rules.
• 1 July 2030 — Mandatory structured e-invoicing for intra-EU B2B supplies, with near-real-time digital reporting to tax authorities. Paper and PDF invoices are no longer permitted for cross-border B2B inside the EU.
• By 1 January 2035 — Member States with existing domestic e-invoicing systems (Italy, France, Spain, Poland) must align with the EU standard.

What does "structured e-invoice" actually mean?

ViDA defines an e-invoice as one issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format that allows automatic and electronic processing. PDFs are not e-invoices under ViDA. The mandatory format is EN 16931 — the European e-invoicing standard already used in public-sector invoicing under Directive 2014/55/EU.

EN 16931 has two compliant syntaxes: UBL 2.1 (XML) and UN/CEFACT CII (XML). Hybrid formats such as Factur-X (France) and ZUGFeRD (Germany) — a PDF/A-3 wrapping an XML payload — also remain compliant.

Digital reporting requirements (DRR)

From July 2030, suppliers must transmit transaction-level data of every intra-EU B2B invoice to their tax authority within 10 days of the chargeable event. The recapitulative statement (EC Sales List) is abolished and replaced by this near-real-time feed. Buyers also report receipt-side data, enabling cross-matching at EU level.

This is a structural shift. The old quarterly EC Sales List let SMEs catch and fix errors before they were reported. ViDA reports transactions as they happen.

What this means for SMEs invoicing in EUR

Three practical implications. First, you can no longer rely on PDF-only workflows for cross-border B2B. Second, every invoice you issue to an EU customer needs a customer VAT number that you have validated (VIES is the official tool). Third, your invoicing system has to be able to emit EN 16931 XML — either UBL or CII.

• Validate every EU customer's VAT number against VIES at the time of invoice issuance — Hisabi does this automatically when you set the customer's country and tax ID.
• Choose an invoicing platform that emits EN 16931-compliant UBL or CII XML, not just PDF.
• Map every line item to the right place-of-supply and reverse-charge logic before 2030, because corrections will become harder once digital reporting is live.
• Keep your invoice archives in a way that lets you produce the structured XML on demand for at least 10 years (the typical EU retention floor).

How Hisabi helps

Hisabi already stores invoices as structured data, not just PDF blobs. EN 16931 UBL export is on our 2027 roadmap so SMEs invoicing inside the EU can be ahead of the July 2030 mandate. Reverse-charge logic for cross-border B2B services is built in: set the customer's country and VAT number, and Hisabi sets the right VAT treatment automatically.

If you also operate in the UAE, the same system prepares your PINT AE Peppol files for the UAE 2026–2027 mandate. One platform, two regimes.