The e-invoicing landscape lately has been crowded with Europe’s biggest players- France, Germany, Italy, amongst others, who have been vocal in their e-invoicing implementation plans. But the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) proposal will compel more EU Member States who have been less vocal in their plans to be more forthcoming with their e-invoicing and e-reporting strategies.

Ireland has been under the shadow of its European counterparts concerning e-invoicing, but this looks set to change, in line with the commentary outlined in the 2024 Irish budget. While ViDA may have served as the inspiration for Ireland to contemplate digitisation of its fiscal procedures, tax collection concerns closer to home will also have triggered this. The European Commission's latest estimate of Ireland's VAT gap is 1.7 billion Euros, which is lower than some other European countries but still equivalent to a sizeable 10.1% of their expected VAT revenue.

To this effect, Ireland is seeking feedback on the most constructive and feasible ways to modernise its VAT process via a public consultation. The public consultation, which opened on 13 October 2023, will seek opinions concerning how this practically can be achieved. Following the findings of the public consultation, further engagement with stakeholders will be initiated in autumn 2023.

Presently, the focus of the consultation concentrates on the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G) environment, with a specific focus on domestic transactions. Real-time (or close to real-time) reporting forms a major part of the consultation, alongside e-invoicing.

The consultation will conclude on 12 January 2024.

Further information on the Public Consultation can be accessed via the following links:

• Consultation paper: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/consultations/vat-modernisation.pdf
• Consultation questions: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=cztNvy5vyUG8KQvI6vPR6Vmx3f5D_zNCnn4HSQajHnhUNjFVRjhISkcxOEdRTE5GOFE2S0RZOEZCOC4u
• Public consultation announcement: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/consultations-and-submissions/budget-24-vat/index.aspx

It is important to stress that Ireland has not yet announced a B2B e-invoicing / e-reporting mandate in the country and is yet to define a precise inception date for such a mandate.

Ireland is a compliant territory for Kofax. We are closely following the outcome of the public consultation, with a view to establishing if Ireland follows the trajectory of its neighbouring countries in introducing an e-invoicing mandate. Kofax will assess any impact on our Irish suppliers and buyers.