Should a state intervene to decide the format of the invoices that companies issue to their customers?
At the beginning of December last year the European Commission issued a communication called Reaping the Benefits of Electronic Invoicing for Europe. Electronic invoicing is part of the Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe which assumes a single digital market. The EU wants to see e-invoicing become the dominant method of billing by 2020, not just for the Commission but for all businesses, large and small, right across the EU. Currently only 5% of all business to business invoicing is solely electronic so this is either going to be a big undertaking or an expensive waste of public money.
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