Electronic invoice in Sweden

Comprehensive guide to electronic invoicing in Sweden – B2G mandate since April 2019 with Peppol BIS 3.0 as recommended standard

Select a country

Overview

Sweden has had mandatory B2G e-invoicing since 1 April 2019 under the Act on electronic invoicing in public procurement (2018:1277). The invoice must be structured and compliant with EN 16931; an ordinary PDF does not qualify.

For domestic B2B there is still no mandate and no continuous transaction control. In January 2026 the government appointed an inquiry to assess whether to introduce one alongside transaction-based reporting, with the final report due by 30 November 2027. Anyone quoting a fixed Swedish B2B date today is quoting something that does not yet exist.

EAS 0007

the preferred identifier — the Swedish organisationsnummer, not the VAT number

Both syntaxes

public buyers must accept UBL 2.1 and UN/CEFACT CII alike

No reporting

Skatteverket sits outside the invoice route entirely

Timeline

One mandate in force, one under investigation, one arriving from Brussels.

Already in force

1 April 2019

B2G e-invoicing becomes mandatory

Suppliers must send structured e-invoices to government agencies, municipalities, regions and other public bodies — for procurements started on or after that date. Public buyers must be able to receive them and be registered in Peppol.

January 2026

The government appoints a ViDA inquiry

A commission is tasked with proposing how to implement ViDA and assessing whether Sweden should mandate domestic B2B e-invoicing and transaction-based reporting.

1 July 2026

The Peppol Authority changes hands

Responsibility for e-commerce and Peppol moves from DIGG to Upphandlingsmyndigheten, the Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement. What this means in practice is mostly administrative — but some documentation still names the old body.

Ahead

30 November 2027

The inquiry reports

After that come a bill, parliamentary process and technical implementation. No Swedish domestic B2B mandate can realistically predate that sequence.

1 July 2030

ViDA digital reporting for intra-EU B2B

Structured e-invoices and transaction-level reporting become compulsory for cross-border B2B within the EU. This part Sweden cannot opt out of.

Do not read 1 July 2030 as the start of a Swedish domestic B2B mandate. That date belongs to the EU's cross-border rules. Whether Sweden also mandates domestic invoicing, and when, depends on legislation that has not been drafted.

The B2G mandate

The obligation covers procurements under the main Swedish procurement acts — LOU, LUF, LUFS and LUK — including direct awards, and it applies to foreign suppliers invoicing Swedish public bodies just as it does to Swedish ones.

What public bodies must do

Accept invoices compliant with the European standard

Support both EN 16931 syntaxes — UBL and CII

Be registered in Peppol as a recipient and accept Peppol BIS Billing 3

Central government agencies must also offer a supplier portal for suppliers unable to produce a structured invoice themselves

Exceptions

—Procurements started before 1 April 2019

—Transactions subject to secrecy or security requirements

—Certain payments made in cash or by bank card

The supplier portal is worth knowing about. A small supplier with no e-invoicing capability at all is not shut out of public procurement — a central government customer must provide a way in. It is a manual route, not a substitute for integration, but it removes the "we cannot bid" objection.

B2B — what is decided

Today two Swedish companies may agree on whatever they like: paper, a PDF by e-mail, EDI, Peppol BIS Billing 3 or another structured format. Sending an invoice electronically generally requires the recipient's consent. There is no reporting obligation to Skatteverket for any of it.

The inquiry appointed in January 2026 has to assess, among other things:

—Whether mandatory e-invoicing for domestic transactions is warranted

—Which companies and transaction types would be covered

—Possible exemptions and transitional periods

—The architecture of domestic transaction-based reporting

—The role of service providers

—Control measures and sanctions

Where the direction is visible

Skatteverket has publicly supported extending transaction-based reporting to domestic transactions, on the reasonable ground that one model for domestic and cross-border avoids running two. That is a stated preference from the tax authority, not a decision — the legislature decides after the inquiry reports.

ViDA does not oblige Sweden to introduce domestic reporting. That is a national option, and one Sweden has not yet exercised.

ViDA from 2030

From 1 July 2030 cross-border B2B transactions between taxable persons in different member states fall under the new EU rules. This applies to Swedish companies regardless of size, and Sweden cannot opt out of the cross-border part.

—A structured electronic invoice becomes mandatory

—Transaction-level digital reporting is derived from the invoice data

—Data goes to the national tax authority, then to a new central EU system for matching seller and buyer records

—EC Sales Lists in their present periodic form are discontinued

—Invoices must be issued within the ViDA deadline — as a rule no later than ten days after the chargeable event

—The buyer's consent to receive a standard e-invoice will no longer be required

The model is sometimes called a "fifth corner", but it is not clearance. Skatteverket receives reported data; it does not authorise the invoice or condition its legal validity. Businesses must be able to report directly, through a third-party provider or via a state solution — a member state may not force everyone through a single intermediary.

Design for two layers, not one

The sensible architecture separates invoice delivery from tax reporting. Sweden may well use Peppol for the first and a separate Skatteverket API or an accredited intermediary for the second. Nothing about the Swedish implementation — whether Peppol carries the reporting, what the API looks like, whether providers need accreditation — has been settled.

Formats and standards

Sweden implements Peppol BIS Billing 3 as its CIUS without national adaptations, taking the specification directly from OpenPeppol and playing an active part in developing it. There is no Swedish-specific variant to accommodate.

Peppol BIS Billing 3

Recommended by SFTI and the public authorities as the main specification. Implements EN 16931, uses UBL 2.1, adds Peppol validation rules, covers Invoice and Credit Note, travels over the Peppol network.

UBL 2.1 and CII D16B

Both EN 16931 syntaxes are admissible and the supplier chooses. Public buyers must accept both. In practice UBL is considerably more common.

Older local formats such as Svefaktura may survive in existing integrations, but Peppol BIS Billing 3 is the answer for anything new.

Where PDF stands

B2GA PDF, scan or image is not an e-invoice under the mandate. It may serve as a visual representation or attachment alongside the XML, or be used in an excluded transaction — on its own it does not comply

B2B and B2C todayA PDF can be a valid electronic invoice for VAT purposes, given the required content, authenticity of origin, integrity of data and the recipient's consent

Intra-EU B2B from 2030An ordinary PDF will not satisfy ViDA. A hybrid format is conceivable if the mandatory data sits in a machine-readable structured part

The distinction that causes most confusion: the broad VAT definition of an "electronic invoice" is not the same thing as a structured EN 16931 e-invoice. A PDF can be the first without being the second.

The technical model

The current B2G model is the decentralised Peppol four-corner model: the supplier creates the invoice, the supplier's access point sends it, the buyer's access point receives it, and the public body gets it in its own system. Peppol IDs, SMP and the central SML handle addressing; transport is normally AS4.

Skatteverket is not in the route at all. Nothing is sent to the tax authority for pre-checking, registration or an authorisation number. So the current model is not clearance, not a five-corner tax model, involves no real-time VAT reporting and requires no state portal to approve an invoice before it reaches the buyer.

Peppol is the main channel, not always the only one

—Your own Peppol access point

—An ERP or VAN provider

—The supplier portal provided by the public buyer

—Another agreed structured solution, where the parties accept it

Whichever route the supplier takes, the public buyer must be reachable for Peppol BIS Billing 3.

Peppol Authority and identifiers

Since 1 July 2026 the Swedish Peppol Authority is Upphandlingsmyndigheten, the Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement, which took over e-commerce and Peppol responsibilities from DIGG. It handles the development and application of Peppol in Sweden, liaison with OpenPeppol, agreements with access point and SMP providers onboarding through Swedish jurisdiction, and national rules and guidance.

Some OpenPeppol pages and documents still name DIGG, because their metadata was not updated after the handover. Treat Upphandlingsmyndigheten's own information as authoritative. A wider reorganisation is also under way: DIGG is due to cease as a standalone authority from 1 January 2027, with its remaining functions moving elsewhere in the administration.

Electronic Address Schemes

0007Use this first. The Swedish organisation number — 0007:XXXXXXXXXX

0088GS1 Global Location Number — where one organisation needs several electronic addresses, for separate units or delivery points, or for sole traders who prefer not to use an identifier derived from a personal number

VAT IDNot recommended as the primary Peppol ID in Sweden. Bank details are likewise unsuitable as an addressing identifier

Requirements for service providers

No national licence comparable to the Slovak digitálny poštár has been identified in Sweden. A provider needs OpenPeppol membership, a Service Provider Agreement with the relevant Peppol Authority, conformance testing, the required transport protocols and specifications, customer identification and network security practices, and adequate service availability. A provider established in Sweden contracts with Upphandlingsmyndigheten.

A certified access point from another EU country can serve Swedish clients: register them in an SMP, use Peppol ID 0007 or 0088, exchange Peppol BIS Billing 3 and serve Swedish companies and public bodies directly. No Swedish legal entity, office, staff, tax representative, dedicated state mailbox or Swedish-hosted infrastructure is required, and no re-certification in Sweden.

The published OpenPeppol profile for Sweden lists no separate Peppol Authority Specific Requirements — though that profile is among the documents that may still show the old authority name. National PASR apply automatically to any provider serving that country's participants, whichever authority the provider contracted with, so the profile is worth re-checking as Upphandlingsmyndigheten updates it. Note also that ViDA permits member states to accredit providers of tax-reporting services; a future Swedish reporting service could therefore require a status separate from Peppol certification.

Archiving

Under the Swedish Bookkeeping Act (bokföringslagen), accounting information must be retained for seven years counted from the end of the calendar year in which the financial year ended. Invoices are accounting information.

Material received in electronic form is in principle retained in that form — you cannot simply print an e-invoice and discard the file

Authenticity of origin, integrity of content and legibility must be preserved for the whole period

Records must be readily accessible in Sweden in readable form throughout the retention period, with limited scope for storing them abroad

There is no state archive doing this for you. Sweden's decentralised model means the tax authority holds nothing, so a complete and verifiable set of invoices is your own responsibility — whether you keep it in-house or with a provider.

Enforcement

Compliance with the B2G rules is supervised by Upphandlingsmyndigheten. There is no single fixed fine per PDF invoice or per breach.

01 The authority opens a review

02 It requires the breach to be remedied

03 It issues a binding injunction, which may be combined with a conditional financial penalty — vite

04 The injunction and penalty may be appealed to the administrative court

The amount of a vite is set individually, at a level intended to make compliance the cheaper option. For domestic B2B there is no mandate and therefore no sanction for sending paper or a PDF between two Swedish companies. Sanctions for a future mandate and for reporting are among the things the inquiry has to propose; amounts, procedure and transitional periods are undetermined.

ViDA requires member states to lay down effective and proportionate penalties, but Sweden has not yet adopted specific penalties for a late e-invoice, missing reporting, incomplete or erroneous data, or format breaches. Those will come with the implementing legislation.

Is an e-invoice the only basis for deducting VAT?

No. A taxable person generally needs a proper invoice to support the deduction, but the invoice may be on paper or electronic; a PDF can be acceptable outside the B2G mandate; and in situations such as reverse charge or intra-EU acquisition the law allows the right to be evidenced by other prescribed documents. There is no requirement today that a deduction rest on a Peppol or EN 16931 invoice.

ViDA would allow a member state to make an EN 16931 compliant e-invoice a substantive condition for deduction on reported transactions — a national option. The government's directive to the inquiry stresses that the proposed control measures and sanctions should not alter the existing substantive rules on VAT deduction, so there is no basis for saying Sweden plans to go that way.

How we help

Sweden is one of the easiest European markets to serve — and one where it pays to build the ViDA-ready data model early. As a certified Peppol Access Point we cover:

Sending and receiving via a certified Peppol Access Point — no Swedish entity or re-certification required

Peppol BIS Billing 3 in UBL 2.1, and UN/CEFACT CII

Addressing on EAS 0007 (organisationsnummer) and 0088 (GLN)

SMP registration with verification of the organisation and its authority to sign

Validation against EN 16931 and the current Peppol rules before dispatch

Migration away from Svefaktura and other legacy formats

Integration via API, SFTP and CSV, with ERP and IDoc source data

An architecture that keeps invoice delivery and tax reporting separate, ready for ViDA

Frequently asked questions

Is B2B e-invoicing mandatory in Sweden?

No. Two Swedish companies may agree on paper, PDF, EDI or a structured format; electronic delivery generally needs the recipient's consent, and nothing is reported to Skatteverket. An inquiry appointed in January 2026 is assessing whether to introduce a mandate, reporting by 30 November 2027. A bill, parliamentary process and technical implementation would follow — so no fixed date exists.

Does the Swedish B2B mandate start on 1 July 2030?

That is a common misreading. 1 July 2030 is the ViDA date for cross-border intra-EU B2B transactions, which Sweden must apply and cannot opt out of. It says nothing about domestic Swedish invoices. ViDA leaves domestic transaction-based reporting as a national option that Sweden has not exercised.

Can I invoice a Swedish public body with a PDF?

No. Since 1 April 2019 the invoice must be structured and EN 16931 compliant for procurements started on or after that date, and a PDF, scan or image does not qualify. It may accompany the XML as a visual representation. If you cannot produce a structured invoice yourself, central government agencies must offer a supplier portal you can use instead.

Who is the Swedish Peppol Authority now?

Upphandlingsmyndigheten, the Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement, since 1 July 2026. It took over e-commerce and Peppol responsibilities from DIGG. Some OpenPeppol pages still show DIGG because their metadata has not been refreshed — use Upphandlingsmyndigheten's own information as the current source.

Which Peppol identifier should I use for Swedish customers?

EAS 0007, based on the Swedish organisationsnummer, is the recommended first choice. EAS 0088 (GS1 GLN) is for cases with a genuine business need — one organisation requiring several electronic addresses, separate units or delivery points, or a sole trader who prefers not to use an identifier derived from a personal number. The VAT number is not recommended as the primary Peppol ID, and bank details are not an addressing identifier.

Does my access point need Swedish certification?

No. A certified Peppol access point from another EU country can register Swedish clients in an SMP, use 0007 or 0088 and exchange Peppol BIS Billing 3 directly. No Swedish legal entity, office, staff, representative, state mailbox or locally hosted infrastructure is required. Watch one thing for the future: ViDA allows member states to accredit providers of tax-reporting services, so a Swedish reporting service may later require a status separate from Peppol certification.

How long must invoices be kept?

Seven years, counted from the end of the calendar year in which the financial year ended. Material received electronically is in principle kept in electronic form, so printing an e-invoice and deleting the file is not a safe approach. The records must stay accessible and readable throughout, and no state archive keeps a copy for you.

What changes for us in practice when ViDA arrives?

For intra-EU B2B sales: a structured invoice becomes mandatory regardless of company size, buyer consent is no longer needed, invoices must be issued within the ViDA deadline — as a rule ten days from the chargeable event — and transaction data goes to Skatteverket and onward to a central EU system for matching. EC Sales Lists in their current periodic form end. It is reporting, not clearance: no approval is required before the invoice is valid or sent.

Summary

Sweden is a mature Peppol country with a narrow mandate. B2G has been compulsory since April 2019 and runs on Peppol BIS Billing 3 with no national adaptations; domestic B2B remains free, with no mandate and no reporting to Skatteverket. That is an unusually clean starting position.

Two things are moving. The Peppol Authority passed to Upphandlingsmyndigheten on 1 July 2026, which mainly means checking that documentation naming DIGG is not out of date. And the ViDA inquiry reports by 30 November 2027, after which Sweden decides whether domestic invoicing and reporting follow the cross-border rules that arrive in July 2030.

The useful preparation is not waiting for a date. Move to an EN 16931 data model now, address on 0007, retire Svefaktura — and design invoice delivery and tax reporting as two separate layers, because that is the shape the Swedish implementation is most likely to take.

Resources

Upphandlingsmyndigheten — Peppol The Swedish Peppol Authority's own pages, current since the handover on 1 July 2026 DIGG — announcement of the Peppol handover The official confirmation that e-commerce and Peppol moved on 1 July 2026 SFTI — Single Face To Industry Swedish recommendations on e-commerce standards, including Peppol BIS Billing 3 Skatteverket The Swedish Tax Agency — invoicing requirements, VAT and retention European Commission — eInvoicing in Sweden Country factsheet confirming the CIUS, the absence of a central platform and of real-time reporting Council of the EU — VAT in the Digital Age The source for the 2030 cross-border e-invoicing and digital reporting rules Peppol Directory Check whether a Swedish business partner is reachable on the network

Need support with e-invoicing requirements?

As a certified Peppol Access Point we provide solutions for sending and receiving electronic invoices securely across Europe — including format conversion, validation and integration with national systems.

Start your free trial