Which invoice needs XML in 2026?
If your Latvian company issues an invoice to a Latvian budget institution, a public-law body funded from the state or a local government budget, that invoice must be a structured e-invoice in XML format in 2026, and its data has to reach the Latvian tax authority VID within five working days of sending, as set out in Cabinet Regulation No. 749. If the invoice goes to a foreign commercial buyer, say an Estonian, Lithuanian or Finnish company, this domestic 2026 obligation does not apply to you. VID confirms that cross-border e-invoicing with foreign companies is currently planned to start from 2030. Whether your invoice needs XML depends on the buyer’s legal status, not on whether the buyer generally operates in the public or private sector.
Three dates you shouldn’t confuse: 2025, 2026 and 2028
Latvia’s e-invoicing reform moves in three separate stages, and these are exactly the dates that trip people up. The first deadline: from 1 January 2025, a Latvian company issuing an invoice to a budget institution as the recipient of goods or services must issue a structured e-invoice. This isn’t limited to public procurement contracts; it applies to every transaction with that institution. The second deadline: from 1 January 2026, the data from those invoices must also be sent to VID. The duty covers G2G, B2G and G2B transactions (government-to-government, business-to-government and government-to-business) between the state and Latvian companies. The third date is the general structured e-invoice mandate for domestic business-to-business (B2B) invoices: invoices to another company registered in Latvia. That was originally planned for 2026, but the Saeima, Latvia’s parliament, pushed it back to 1 January 2028. Until that date, you can still send an ordinary PDF invoice to a regular Latvian business client, with no requirement that it be machine-readable XML.
Budget institution: check the buyer’s status, not its name
The biggest practical mistake is assuming that anything “linked to the state” automatically triggers the e-invoice duty. Latvia’s Accounting Law places budget institutions, publicly derived legal entities partly funded from the state budget, and off-budget bodies under Latvia’s Law on Budget and Financial Management into this category, and these categories are spelled out in the law’s list of definitions. That means a company merely owned by the state, such as a state capital company operating on commercial terms, doesn’t automatically fall into this group. It’s an ordinary company, and your invoice to it follows B2B logic, not B2G logic.
Before drawing up an invoice, check two things: whether the buyer appears on the list of state or local government budget institutions, and whether it’s acting as the actual recipient of goods or services in your transaction rather than merely as an intermediary. On top of that, Latvia’s rules set no minimum invoice amount and no VAT-registration threshold for this duty, so even a €15 invoice to a small municipal office has to be a structured e-invoice.
How to send the invoice and notify VID: e-address, operator or API?
A structured e-invoice isn’t an email with a PDF attached. It’s an XML file that conforms to the UBL 2.1 standard and the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 specification, with UBL (Universal Business Language) as the common data structure and PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement OnLine) as the shared EU network and rulebook for exchanging these files. For invoices to a Latvian state body, Cabinet Regulation No. 154 requires that a Latvia-registered supplier’s invoice meet the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 specification specifically, on top of the general European standard. That’s the mandatory data format, but the same regulation allows several delivery channels: the official e-address (e-adrese, Latvia’s state digital mailbox), an email address published on the buyer’s website, or another channel agreed in the contract. The PEPPOL network itself isn’t the only route in.
The general handling rules come from Cabinet Regulation No. 749, in force since 13 December 2025. If you use the official e-address to exchange e-invoices, the system automatically forwards the invoice and its related data to VID from 1 January 2026, and you don’t have to do anything separately. If your company uses another channel agreed between the parties, such as a system integration or plain email, the company submits the e-invoice to VID through the EDS API or uploads the XML-format e-invoice directly into EDS, EDS being VID’s Electronic Declaration System, its online filing portal.
The five-working-day deadline: what to do if you miss it
Whatever the channel, one rule holds regardless: the e-invoice has to reach VID once, no later than five working days after the day it was sent. If that window closes, what happens next depends on the reason.
What if the error is an IT system failure?
If a system failure caused the delay, you or your operator must notify VID through EDS no later than the next working day after the deadline passes, stating why the filing was missed, and then submit the invoice within three working days of the failure being fixed.
What if the delay has another cause?
For any other cause, you similarly have to tell VID through EDS which period is affected and why the invoices weren’t filed, then submit them within 30 calendar days of identifying the cause. Neither route cancels the obligation; it only pushes it back.
Foreign buyer: what Latvia doesn’t require and what to check anyway
If your client is registered outside Latvia, in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland or elsewhere, a different logic applies today. Latvia’s domestic B2B structured e-invoice mandate explicitly covers invoices to another company registered in Latvia, not cross-border transactions. VID says this directly: the 1 January 2026 rule applies only to companies, entrepreneurs and state or municipal institutions registered in Latvia. The same logic runs both ways: if a foreign company invoices a Latvian state body, it doesn’t have to format that invoice in XML or file it with VID either.
That doesn’t mean every rule disappears on a cross-border invoice. When you send an invoice to a Finnish or Estonian company, check three things separately: what the buyer’s home-country law requires, for example a local VAT invoicing rule; what your contract with the buyer requires, since some larger clients already want a PEPPOL-format invoice voluntarily; and what the buyer’s own accounting system expects. Latvia simply isn’t forcing this on you in 2026; for now it stays a commercial choice, not a legal duty.
| Feature | Latvian budget institution (2026) | Foreign commercial buyer (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Structured e-invoice required | Yes, from 1 Jan 2025 | No domestic mandate |
| Data sent to VID | Yes, from 1 Jan 2026 | Not applicable |
| Standard required | UBL 2.1 + PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 | By agreement, often still PDF |
| Filing deadline | 5 working days after sending | None |
| When this could change | Domestic B2B mandate expands 1 Jan 2028 | VID is weighing cross-border rollout from 2030 |
Looking ahead to 2030: Latvia’s plan and the EU’s ViDA
Two separate things are converging on roughly the same period, and they shouldn’t get merged into one deadline in your head. First, this is Latvia’s own internal plan, not a rule already in force: VID’s guidance notes that mandatory e-invoicing with foreign companies is currently planned to start from 2030, with more detail expected as that date approaches. Second, independent of Latvia’s own timeline, the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package brings digital reporting requirements for cross-border B2B transactions into force from 1 July 2030 across the whole bloc. These rest on mandatory e-invoicing and hit every member state, Latvia included, at the same time.
The practical takeaway for 2026: your invoices to Latvian budget institutions need XML and VID notification already, your invoices to Latvian business partners need it from 2028, and your cross-border invoices stay a matter of agreement for now. Latvia has currently pencilled in 2030 for mandatory e-invoicing with foreign companies, while the EU’s ViDA requirements for cross-border B2B transactions take effect, confirmed, on 1 July 2030.
FAQ
Kas on 2026. aastal Läti e-arve kohustuse erinevus budžetiasutuse ja välisostja vahel?
Alates 1. jaanuarist 2026 peab Läti budžetiasutusele esitatav arve olema struktureeritud e-arve XML-vormingus ja andmed tuleb saata VID-ile viie tööpäeva jooksul. Välisriigi ärikliendile see kohustus ei laiene, sest piiriülene e-arvete käive on plaanis alles alates 2030. aastast.
Millal kehtib 2026. aastal B2B e-arve kohustus Lätis?
Läti-sisene B2B struktureeritud e-arve üldkohustus lükati edasi 1. jaanuarile 2028. Seega kuni 2028. aastani võib tavalisele Läti äriettevõttele saata PDF-arve ilma XML-vorminguta.
Kuidas saata struktureeritud e-arve Läti budžetiasutusele?
Arve peab vastama standardile UBL 2.1 ja PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0. Edastamiseks võib kasutada ametlikku e-aadressi (e-adrese), ostja veebilehel avaldatud e-posti või lepingus kokkulepitud kanalit. Kui kasutatakse e-adrese’i, saadab süsteem andmed automaatselt VID-ile.
Mis juhtub, kui e-arve esitamine VID-ile hilineb?
Kui viivitus on tingitud IT-süsteemi rikkest, tuleb VID-i teavitada EDS-is hiljemalt järgmisel tööpäeval ja esitada arve kolme tööpäeva jooksul pärast rikke kõrvaldamist. Muudel põhjustel hilinemise korral tuleb arved esitada 30 kalendripäeva jooksul pärast põhjuse tuvastamist.