The UK government confirmed in its Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 that VAT invoices will have to be exchanged in a specified electronic format from 1 April 2029, with full technical specifications expected in April 2028 (Accountancy Age, 28 October 2026). The UK now joins the European countries making B2B e-invoicing mandatory, on a longer timeline than France.
Background: a two-stage timeline
The announcement sets two milestones. April 2028: publication of the detailed policy and technical specifications. April 2029: the mandate begins. In between, software vendors will have roughly a year to adapt their products, and businesses roughly a year to roll them out.
The Budget also touched on a neighbouring topic, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. It does not speed up the timetable, but new entrants from April 2027 will not receive late-submission penalty points for their first four quarterly updates (Accountancy Age). Bodies such as the LITRG welcomed this leniency. For the MTD programme itself, see our article on HMRC auto-enrolling 294,000 sole traders.
What it means for finance and IT leaders
The format is still unknown. Until the specifications are published, nobody can say whether the UK will build on an existing standard such as Peppol or define its own. So don’t lock in any tooling decision before April 2028, but don’t stand still either.
Customer and supplier data quality is the real workstream. Any structured invoicing relies on reliable master data: VAT numbers, addresses, legal entity identifiers, payment terms. That data is often degraded in the ERPs of SMEs that have grown through acquisitions. A review of your business-partner records can start today, without waiting for the format.
Ask your ERP and accounting software vendors where they stand. If you run Sage, Xero or NetSuite in the UK, request a written e-invoicing roadmap from your vendor, with an availability date relative to April 2029. For UK subsidiaries of European groups, also check consistency with local mandates already in force or coming, such as Peppol in Belgium or the Netherlands’ 2030 mandate.
According to an accountant quoted by Accountancy Age, businesses cannot wait until 2029 to prepare and should budget for the change now.
What to watch
Three things: the publication of the specifications in April 2028 (format, exchange channel, any link to HMRC reporting), vendor roadmap announcements, and any transitional measures for smaller businesses. The final legislation is still to be tracked.
Further reading
To place this project in the wider UK market, read our UK ERP market overview: Sage UK, Access Group, MTD and post-Brexit challenges, then our analysis of MTD auto-enrolment for sole traders.
