CEN promulgates OFS Portals Code of Practice for Electronic Invoicing in the EU

CEN constructed the Code of Practice in response to a request by the European Commission that CEN promulgate a Code of Practice that provides a framework of best practices and which are to be adopted by trading parties, service providers and public authorities. The goal of the Code of Practice is to identify steps that, when taken, have the potential to accelerate the uptake of electronic commerce in the European Union, thus increasing business efficiency.

The best practices introduced in the Code of Practice were also adopted on 15 February in Brussels

Several key concepts are advanced in the Code of Practice to further adoption of e-invoicing. First is the concept that e-invoices be formatted through the use of royalty free standards published by international standard organizations. In addition, service providers should pledge that data transmitted will be kept confidential by the service providers and used only for purposes authorized by both trading partners.

The Code of Practice also encourages all parties to implement business controls as an additional solution for compliance as permitted by the recent amendments to the EUs VAT Directive. This means that that control measures for audit and compliance will be proportionate to the taxable persons individual circumstances.