Luxembourg – Mandatory issue of electronic invoices in the context of BtoG public contracts

As part of the digitalization and automation initiative, the law of 13December 2021 has amended the law of 16 May 2019 on electronic invoicing in the context of public contracts transposing under Luxembourg law the Directive 2014/55/EU relating to the electronic invoicing in the context of public contracts.

The law of 13 December 2021, supplemented by the Grand-Ducal Regulation of the same date, establishes the obligation for economic operators to send their invoices in electronic format to the State and its institutions in the context of public contracts.

Which operations are involved?

This obligation applies to public contracts, as defined by the law of 8 April 2018 on public contracts, as paid contracts concluded in writing between one or more economic operators and one or more contracting authorities and having as their object the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services.

The contracting authorities concerned are defined by the law of 8 April 2018 as follows:

• the State organs, administrations and services,
• the territorial authorities,
• organizations governed by public law created to meet needs in the general interest other than industrial or commercial, that have a legal personality and are financed and controlled by the public authorities,
• the associations of these organizations governed by public law.

Which transactions are excluded?

The electronic invoicing obligation does not apply to the following public contracts, which are concluded:

• within the framework of development cooperation;
• or by diplomatic representations or consulates;
• or within the framework of the participation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in international exhibitions abroad;
• or in the context of State visits, official visits or working visits abroad.

The electronic invoicing obligation therefore does not currently apply to transactions involving persons other than contracting authorities, in particular between private sector operators.

What are the new obligations?

If they are concerned, economic operators shall issue and transmit to their customers electronic invoices which comply with the most recent version of the European standard on electronic invoicing, i.e. XML files or which contain the XML.

The Grand-Ducal Regulation of 13 December 2021 retains the European PEPPOL network as the common delivery network, or the possibility of using an online form if the supplier or service provider does not have its own Peppol access point. In practice, this last option should be exercised via the “MyGuichet” platform operated by the CTIE (Centre des Technologies de l’Information de l’Etat).

What is the application of the law over time?

The table below summarizes the stages of application of the law according to the profile of the supplier:

The digitization of invoices in the context of public contracts aims at reducing the administrative task on public law bodies and economic operators.

However, this approach will subsequently make it possible and very likely to generalize electronic invoicing to BtoB (Business to Business) and even maybe to BtoC (Business to Consumer) transactions. This trend towards digitization corresponds to the general trend observed in other countries of the European Union and the ongoing works and discussions at the level of the European Commission with a view to modernizing and securing the VAT environment by taking modern technologies available to operators into account.