Every invoice, whether paper, PDF or e-invoice, must comply with legal requirements. For e-invoices, the technical requirements of EN 16931 are added on top. This article covers both.

The Dutch Tax Authority prescribes which data must appear on an invoice. These requirements apply regardless of the format:

For invoices up to 100 euros (including VAT), simplified rules apply. For international deliveries, additional data may be required, such as the buyer's VAT number for intra-Community supplies.

The European standard EN 16931 defines the semantic model for e-invoices. It describes which information elements an e-invoice must contain and how they relate to each other. The standard distinguishes mandatory, conditionally mandatory and optional elements.

The core of EN 16931 closely aligns with the Dutch legal requirements, but adds structure. Where the Tax Authority requires "name and address of supplier", EN 16931 specifies exactly in which separate fields (legal name, trade name, address lines, postal code, city, country) this information must be entered.

More about how EN 16931 relates to UBL, BIS Billing and NLCIUS can be found in From semantics to syntax.

EN 16931 uses standardised codes for VAT categories (UNCL5305):

More about the difference between K and AE can be found in Reverse charge VAT.

• E-invoicing in the Netherlands
• From semantics to syntax
• Reverse charge VAT: when to use code K or AE?
• NLCIUS: the Dutch standard