{"id":29487,"date":"2026-09-20T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilnex.io\/en\/latvia-b2b-e-invoice\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T11:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:00:05","slug":"latvijos-b2b-e-saskaita-faktura","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bilnex.io\/lt\/latvijos-b2b-e-saskaita-faktura\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvijos B2B s\u0105skaitos fakt\u016bros: PDF iki 2027 m., e. s\u0105skaitos fakt\u016bros nuo 2028 m."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yes, you still can. If your Latvian company invoices another company registered in Latvia, a plain PDF is perfectly legal through 2026 and 2027. The duty to issue an invoice for payment as a structured e-invoice starts, under the transitional provisions of the Accounting Law<\/a>, only on 1 January 2028. From that same date the invoice data must also reach VID, the State Revenue Service (Latvia’s tax authority). The original deadline was 1 January 2026, but the Saeima’s amendment of 5 June 2025<\/a> pushed it back two years; the change took effect on 12 June 2025. So as of September 2026, Latvian domestic B2B invoicing is still PDF territory, with two years left on the clock.<\/p>\n

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Key facts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fact<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nValid from<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
B2B structured e-invoice obligation in Latvia<\/td>\nAn invoice issued for payment to another Latvian-registered company (that is not a budget institution) must be drawn up as a structured e-invoice<\/td>\nfrom 01.01.2028<\/td>\nm.likumi.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deadline postponed from 2026 to 2028<\/td>\nThe Saeima amendment of 05.06.2025 replaced the year “2026” with “2028” in the transitional provisions; the change took effect on 12.06.2025<\/td>\nin force 12.06.2025<\/td>\nlikumi.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Submitting e-invoice data to VID<\/td>\nThe e-invoice is submitted to VID once, no later than five working days after the day it was sent<\/td>\nRegulation No 749 applies from 13.12.202<\/td>\nlikumi.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Technical requirement for the XML file<\/td>\nThe XML structure of an e-invoice submitted to VID follows the UBL 2.1 and Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification (CIUS)<\/td>\nfrom 13.12.2025<\/td>\nlikumi.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Voluntary period for submitting B2B data<\/td>\nBetween 01.01.2026 and 31.12.2027 companies may submit e-invoice data to VID voluntarily<\/td>\n01.01.2026\u201331.12.2027<\/td>\nvid.gov.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
B2G invoices and data submission in the public sector<\/td>\nE-invoices are mandatory for invoices issued to budget institutions from 01.01.2025; submission of that data to VID from 01.01.2026<\/td>\n01.01.2025 and 01.01.2026<\/td>\nvid.gov.lv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

What does the timeline actually look like now?<\/h2>\n

Older explainers, and a few software vendors’ slide decks, still show 1 January 2026. That date really was in the law, right up until it was replaced. Latvia is moving to e-invoicing in stages, and VID’s e-invoicing page<\/a> sets them out like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
From<\/th>\nWhat changes<\/th>\nWho it affects<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
01.01.2025<\/td>\nAn invoice to a budget institution must be issued as an e-invoice<\/td>\nB2G, G2G, G2B<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
01.01.2026<\/td>\nThe data from those e-invoices must be submitted to VID<\/td>\npublic administration and Latvian-registered companies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
01.01.2026\u201331.12.2027<\/td>\nSubmitting B2B e-invoice data to VID is voluntary<\/td>\ncompanies invoicing each other<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
01.01.2028<\/td>\nA B2B invoice must be issued as an e-invoice and the data submitted to VID<\/td>\nLatvian-registered companies invoicing each other<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The voluntary window isn’t just a friendly gesture. Cabinet Regulation No 749<\/a>, which applies from 13 December 2025, lets companies that already exchange e-invoices with each other start submitting them to VID from 1 January 2026. The same regulation says that for invoices moving through the official e-address, data transmission to VID also goes live on 1 January 2026.<\/p>\n

Why isn’t a PDF a structured e-invoice?<\/h2>\n

The law doesn’t use “electronic invoice” to mean “an invoice that travels electronically”. Under the definitions in the Accounting Law<\/a>, a structured electronic invoice is an invoice drawn up, sent and received in a structured electronic format that allows it to be processed automatically and electronically, and that complies with the European standard LVS EN 16931-1:2017 and the technical specification LVS CEN\/TS 16931-2:2017.<\/p>\n

Take a \u20ac1,200 invoice to a client in R\u012bga. As a PDF it’s a picture of a piece of paper: a person reads it off the screen and retypes the amount, the reference number and the due date into the accounting software, or runs it through OCR (optical character recognition, which guesses at the text in an image). As a structured e-invoice, the same document arrives as a machine-readable XML file where every detail sits in its own field: seller’s registration number, invoice number, line totals, VAT, due date. Identical content, except nothing has to be guessed. That’s exactly why a PDF can’t stand in for the mandatory file after 1 January 2028, not even a tidy one attached to a polite email.<\/p>\n

Who is in scope, and who isn’t?<\/h2>\n

The obligation is written for invoices between companies registered in Latvia. VID states that e-invoice circulation covers public administration and Latvian-registered companies, including natural persons carrying out economic activity, other subjects of the Accounting Law, and subjects of the VAT Law.<\/p>\n

A few conclusions follow directly from that:<\/p>\n