Latvia has not made e-invoicing mandatory for ordinary business-to-business (B2B) transactions in 2026. That requirement only kicks in on 1 January 2028, under the transitional provisions of Latvia's Accounting Law. What has changed is that Latvia's official electronic address, known as eAddress (oficiālā elektroniskā adrese), has become a practical, free channel for sending e-invoices, one that automatically reports invoice data to the State Revenue Service (VID). That part of the rules took effect on 1 January 2026. If you invoice Latvian government bodies, a structured e-invoice is already compulsory. If your customer is an ordinary private company, eAddress is one available route, not yet a legal requirement.

What actually applies to B2B e-invoices in Latvia in 2026?

Most of the confusion comes from the fact that Latvia is running three deadlines at once, not one. According to VID's e-invoice page, structured e-invoicing already became mandatory on 1 January 2025 for business-to-government (B2G) transactions, meaning a Latvian company invoicing a budget-funded public body. On 1 January 2026, a second layer was added on top of that: invoice data from those same B2G, government-to-business (G2B) and government-to-government (G2G) transactions now has to be reported to VID automatically, without anyone doing it by hand. An ordinary B2B invoice, one Latvian company billing another, stays voluntary until the end of 2027. The actual B2B mandate arrives only on 1 January 2028. So in practice, you can already send structured e-invoices and VID data in 2026 if you want to get ahead of it. Nobody can force you to, though, as long as your customer is a private company.

What type of invoice are you actually dealing with?

Before you pick a channel, work out who's on the receiving end. A bill sent to a public authority (B2G) or received from one (G2B) runs on a different clock than an invoice between two private companies.

B2G and G2B invoices: already mandatory

VID explains that "government body" here covers budget-funded institutions, derived public entities partially financed from the state budget, and bodies that receive no state funding at all. You can check this against an institution's registration number in the Central Statistical Bureau's register. If your customer falls into that category, a structured e-invoice is already required, full stop. If some of your public-sector contracts were signed before 31 December 2024, a transition deadline of 1 January 2026 applies at the latest; having an old contract does not buy you an indefinite exemption.

Ordinary B2B invoices: still voluntary until 2028

Everything else, between two private companies, is ordinary B2B, and that's what the 2028 deadline covers.

What can eAddress actually do, and what can't it do?

eAddress is an official mailbox run by the Latvian state. By law, its purpose is secure electronic communication between public authorities and private parties. Companies listed in the commercial register are required to hold one, but the law itself is explicit that it doesn't govern communication between two private parties, meaning an invoice one company sends to another doesn't automatically fall under this law's general scope. That's exactly why a separate rule had to be written: Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 749 of 9 December 2025, which lets both sides of a deal agree on how an e-invoice actually gets delivered. That could be eAddress, but it could just as well be an operator's channel, or some other agreed setup, such as a direct connection from your accounting software. You and your customer decide together which channel works. eAddress isn't a legally forced single route. It's one of three permitted options.

How do you prepare a correctly structured e-invoice?

This is where most business owners trip up. A PDF invoice, no matter how tidy it looks, is not a structured e-invoice.

The XML format Latvia requires

VID defines a structured e-invoice by its file format: XML (Extensible Markup Language, a machine-readable markup format), built to match both Latvia's national standard and the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 specification, where PEPPOL stands for the Pan-European Public Procurement Online network. PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is, in turn, a technical implementation, called a Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS), of the broader European standard EN 16931. In plain terms: it's a shared template for arranging invoice data inside an XML file, so any recipient's system can read it automatically without a human retyping anything. Latvia's own Accounting Law names that same standard directly, EN 16931-1:2017, right inside its definition of a structured e-invoice.

Validate before you send

Before you send anything, run the file through a check. VID points businesses to the European Commission's e-invoice validation tool, which catches errors in mandatory fields and calculations before your customer, or VID, sends the whole thing back to you.

How do you send an e-invoice through Latvija.gov.lv's eAddress?

If you decide eAddress fits your business, the practical workflow looks like this:

  • Activate your account: if your company is registered in Latvia, you may already have an eAddress account, or you can activate one through the latvia.gov.lv portal.
  • Build or upload the XML file: use accounting software that can generate a PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0-compliant XML file, or build the invoice directly inside the portal's own form.
  • Pick a single recipient: according to the portal's own documentation, one message's e-invoice attachment is meant for one specific recipient. This isn't a bulk-sending tool for several customers at once.
  • Send it, and let VID get its copy automatically: when you send through eAddress, the Official Electronic Addresses information system forwards the message and its data to VID automatically. You don't need to do that step separately, as long as the integration is up to date.
  • Track the delivery confirmation: check the portal to see whether your customer has opened the message. Under eAddress rules, reading the notification counts as official receipt of the invoice.

Should you use free eAddress, an operator, or EDS/API?

Regulation No. 749 lists three permitted delivery channels: eAddress, an operator's channel integrated with VID's system through an application programming interface (API), or VID's own Electronic Declaration System (EDS), whether through its API or its plain file-upload function. For a small business sending a couple of dozen invoices a month, the manual eAddress form is a sensible choice. It's free, and every message reaches VID automatically. Once your invoice volume grows, or you need to bill customers registered outside Latvia, an operator already hooked into VID's API is worth a look. The Accounting Law doesn't stop you from issuing a structured e-invoice to a company registered outside Latvia, as long as both sides agree to it. Manual uploads through EDS make more sense for the odd one-off, since EDS only accepts a finished XML file, not a PDF, not an Excel sheet. A direct connection from your accounting software is the most comfortable option once volumes climb, but it depends on your software provider having already built the integration with VID's e-invoice API V2.

How do you get ready for the 2028 mandate?

Whichever channel you choose, one rule applies to everyone: an e-invoice has to reach VID exactly once, within five business days of the day you send it. If you're on eAddress with a current integration, that happens on its own. If you're using an operator or EDS, meeting that deadline is on you, or on your operator. If a system failure gets in the way, you need to report it in EDS by the next business day at the latest, then submit the invoice within three business days of the failure being fixed. Before 2028 lands, it's worth checking four things: whether your accounting software can actually generate XML that matches PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0, whether you've agreed a delivery channel with each regular customer, whether your process rules out submitting the same invoice to VID twice, and whether you're archiving the structured XML files themselves, not just a PDF rendering of them. Companies that build these habits voluntarily in 2026 and 2027 won't need to change anything overnight on 1 January 2028. By then, the system will already be running on its own.

FAQ

Will it be mandatory to submit Latvian B2B e-invoices as structured e-invoices in 2026?

A standard B2B invoice between two private companies will remain optional until the end of 2027. The obligation for B2B will only come into effect on January 1, 2028.

When will structured e-invoices be required for Latvian companies in 2026?

If the invoice is related to a government agency (B2G) or an invoice received from a government agency (G2B/G2G), the requirement applies according to the earlier deadlines. In addition, from 1 January 2026, automatic transmission of data to the VID is required for these transactions.

Is eAddress the only allowed channel for sending e-invoices in Latvia?

No. Cabinet of Ministers Regulation No. 749 of December 9, 2025 allows the parties to agree on the transmission channel for e-invoices. eAddress, operator channel, and API or file upload via VID EDS are allowed.

What file format does an e-invoice need to be in order to be sent to VID?

A structured e-invoice must be in XML format and comply with the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 (EN 16931) specification. A PDF invoice is not a format that meets the requirements for a structured e-invoice.