Invoicing a client in Belgium from the Netherlands

Belgium is the most common first step across the border for a Dutch business: same time zone, often the same language, short distance. The invoicing side has a few Belgian particularities worth knowing before you send.

VAT: usually reverse-charged

For services to a Belgian business, VAT is due in Belgium and your client accounts for it. You invoice without Dutch VAT and state:

• Your own VAT number and your client’s Belgian VAT number, which has the format BE followed by ten digits.
• The wording “btw verlegd” (VAT reverse-charged).

Validate that Belgian number in the European VIES database before you invoice, and keep the result. You also report the supply in your ICP return, on top of your regular VAT return. The general rules are in Invoicing clients outside the Netherlands.

Selling to Belgian consumers instead of businesses? Then the reverse charge does not apply and you charge VAT, Dutch VAT at first and Belgian VAT once your cross-border sales to EU consumers pass the 10,000 euro threshold, which you can report through the One Stop Shop.

E-invoicing is the norm in Belgium

Belgium requires structured electronic invoices between VAT-registered businesses, sent over the Peppol network rather than as a PDF by e-mail. The obligation is aimed at businesses established in Belgium, so as a Dutch supplier you are not caught by it directly, but in practice it changes what your client asks of you.

What that means for you:

• Expect Belgian clients to ask for a UBL e-invoice and, increasingly, for delivery over Peppol rather than by e-mail.
• The Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 flavour is the one to use for Belgium, not the Dutch NLCIUS profile.
• A PDF may still be accepted alongside it, but on its own it is often no longer enough.

What a UBL invoice is and how to send one is explained in What is a UBL invoice. To send over the Peppol network itself you need a Peppol access point provider; sending the UBL file as an attachment is the simpler route and often enough for smaller clients.

Belgian payment references

Belgian invoices commonly carry a structured communication (gestructureerde mededeling): a twelve-digit reference printed as +++123/4567/89012+++. Their accounting software matches payments on it automatically.

You are not obliged to use one, but if your client asks for it, put it on the invoice as the payment reference. Otherwise a clear invoice number does the job.

Small practical differences

• Language. Flanders is Dutch-speaking, Wallonia French-speaking and Brussels is bilingual. Ask which language your client wants the invoice in; Dutch or English is usually fine in Flanders.
• Payment terms. Belgian business clients often work with 30 days, and larger companies with monthly payment runs. Put the due date on the invoice explicitly.
• The company number is the VAT number. A Belgian company number (ondernemingsnummer) and its VAT number are the same ten digits, with BE in front. There is no separate equivalent of the Dutch KVK number to ask for.
• Late payment. Belgium has its own rules on late-payment interest and compensation. The Dutch approach in How to send a payment reminder still works as a practical sequence, but do not quote Dutch statutory amounts to a Belgian client.

In factuurmaken you can set an invoice to reverse-charged VAT and export it as a Peppol BIS UBL file, so a Belgian client can read it straight into their accounting. Cross-border VAT and the Belgian e-invoicing rules both keep moving, so check your own situation with your bookkeeper or the tax authorities.