Ansgar Mondorf’s core message is that mandatory e-invoicing should not be treated as a narrow format-conversion project, but as a regulatory and infrastructure shift that companies need to prepare for before mandates hit. He frames upcoming rules as a “wave”: companies can either react late, scrambling to understand laws and find service providers, or move proactively and avoid disruptions to invoice issuance, income, and cash flow. He also argues that e-invoicing can become a strategic advantage over time, rather than only another compliance burden imposed by government.

The session then explains the European regulatory direction. Mondorf says tax authorities are moving from post-audit processes to real-time tax reporting, also described as continuous tax controls, where invoices may need to be cleared with tax authorities before being sent. He connects this to EU Directive 2014/55, the European norm for electronic invoicing, and the second wave represented by VAT in the Digital Age regulations and directives. By 2030, he says member states have agreed to establish systems that replace paper and PDF invoices with structured invoices, but he warns that the systems are not harmonized across countries.

He illustrates the complexity with country examples. France requires companies to select an accredited platform, with reception obligations affecting 6 million companies in 2026 and further waves for small and medium-sized enterprises in September 2027. Poland uses a centralized platform and the FA3 format, which he says is not fully aligned with the European norm. Spain begins with tax reporting before invoicing, while Belgium introduced B2B invoicing from January 2026 using Peppol infrastructure, with a tax layer to follow. He also notes that similar systems are appearing outside Europe, including Malaysia, the UAE, Singapore, and Slovakia.

A major practical point is that e-invoicing is becoming an infrastructure topic, not just a format topic. Mondorf criticizes point-to-point email exchange because it is unreliable, not encrypted, lacks proof of delivery, lacks validation tools, and offers poor troubleshooting. He presents Peppol as a trusted exchange infrastructure providing acknowledgments, business events, payment-status reporting, encrypted transmission, company verification, validation, dynamic addressing, and service-provider support. In Germany, he says companies had to receive e-invoices in 2025, larger companies face issuance requirements in 2027, and issuance extends to all companies in 2028. Because Germany has not fully addressed tax reporting yet, he recommends choosing future-proof solutions instead of investing only in email-based compliance that may need to be replaced soon. The provided transcript ends as he begins discussing the “trap of the last minute.”