Invoice business customers abroad: EU services, EU goods and exports

When a Belgian business sells to a business abroad, it usually charges no Belgian VAT, but not for the same reason in every case: services to an EU business fall under the reverse charge, while goods shipped to an EU business and goods exported outside the EU are exempt, provided you can prove the transport. Each case needs its own mention on the invoice, its own evidence and its own place in your VAT return. The table below gives the short answer; the sections after it give the conditions.

This reference is for freelancers, consultants, small exporters and their accountants. It covers business (B2B) customers; sales to consumers in other EU countries are only flagged here. Domestic regimes are in VAT regimes on Belgian invoices, every general mention is in Belgian invoice legal mentions, and the channel question is detailed in foreign customers and suppliers on Peppol.

Short answer: what applies to each customer abroad

The grids come from FPS Finance's notice for the periodic VAT return; the listing codes from its intra-Community listing page. The table covers the general rules. Work on property, events and a few other services follow other rules: see the edge cases below.

First check that your customer is a business

Invoicing without Belgian VAT depends on the customer's status, and you must be able to show it.

• EU customer. You may treat the customer as a taxable person if it gave you its VAT number and you obtained confirmation that the number, name and address are valid (Implementing Regulation 282/2011, art. 18). In practice: check the number in the European Commission's VIES tool and keep the result. FPS Finance points to VIES or a MyMinfin certificate.
• No valid number yet. If the customer has applied for one, other proof that it is a business, backed by reasonable checks, may be enough (art. 18(1)(b)). If it gives you no number at all, you may treat it as a consumer, and for services under the general rule that means Belgian VAT.
• Customer outside the EU. A certificate from its tax authority, its VAT or business registration number, or other proof that it is a business, with reasonable checks (art. 18(3)).

Services to a business in another EU country

The rule. A service supplied to a business is located where that business is established, or at the fixed establishment that receives it (VAT Directive art. 44; art. 21 §2 VAT Code). When the supplier is not established in that country, the customer owes the VAT there (art. 196). You charge no Belgian VAT, and Belgian invoicing rules apply to your invoice (art. 219a; see also Your Europe, cross-border VAT).

Reverse charge (autoliquidation, verlegging van heffing)

The customer, not the supplier, declares and pays the VAT on the supply in its own VAT return. The supplier's invoice shows no VAT amount but must say that the customer is liable.

The invoice must show (Royal Decree no. 1, art. 5 §1):

• the customer's VAT number under which it received the service (4° a);
• ‘Autoliquidation’ in French or ‘Btw verlegd’ in Dutch, in place of the rate and VAT amount (9°bis);
• the usual mentions, including the nature of the services, the unit price excluding VAT and the taxable amount;
• the date or period of the service if it differs from the issue date (5°), for example ‘Services September 2026’.

Deadline. Issue the invoice by the 15th of the month after the month in which the service was supplied (RD no. 1 art. 4 §1; VAT Directive art. 222). The invoice is required even though it carries no VAT: every supply to another business needs one (art. 220).

Goods shipped to a business in another EU country

The rule. A supply of goods is exempt as an intra-Community supply (art. 39bis VAT Code; Directive art. 138) when:

1. the goods are dispatched or transported from Belgium to another EU country, by you, the customer or a carrier for either;
2. the customer is a business identified for VAT in another EU country and has given you that VAT number;
3. you report the supply correctly in your intra-Community listing. Under art. 138(1a) of the Directive, a missing or incorrect listing removes the exemption unless you can justify the shortcoming.

Proof of transport. Implementing Regulation 282/2011 (art. 45a) presumes the goods left Belgium if you hold two non-contradictory documents from two independent parties: transport documents such as a signed CMR, a bill of lading or the carrier's invoice, or one of those plus an insurance policy or bank proof of paying for the transport. If the customer transports the goods or has a carrier collect them on its behalf, you also need its written statement confirming arrival, which it must give you by the 10th of the following month. Outside this presumption the burden of proof stays with you: ask your accountant what else is accepted.

The invoice must show the customer's VAT number in the other EU country (4° b) and a reference to the exemption provision or another mention that the supply is exempt (10°). It cannot be a simplified invoice, and it must be issued by the 15th of the month after the supply (RD no. 1 art. 4 §2 and art. 13).

Customers outside the EU: exports and services

Exported goods are exempt when they are dispatched or transported outside the EU (art. 39 VAT Code; Directive art. 146). The customs export declaration must refer to your sales invoice, or to a shipping note with all the invoice mentions (RD no. 18 art. 2 as replaced by the Royal Decree of 17 December 2025, Belgian Official Journal, 31.12.2025). The invoice carries the exemption reference. We recommend also keeping proof from customs or your forwarder that the goods left the EU.

Services to a business outside the EU are located where the customer is established under the same general rule, so no Belgian VAT is due. They are not in the intra-Community listing; FPS Finance's notice puts operations carried out abroad that give a right to deduct in grid 47. We found no prescribed Belgian wording for these invoices. We recommend a short explanation, for example ‘Service not subject to Belgian VAT – place of supply outside Belgium (art. 21 §2 VAT Code)’, agreed with your accountant. Some services follow a use-and-enjoyment rule instead (art. 21 §4 VAT Code, for example transport of goods).

Reporting: what your accountant needs from you

OrdoGrid prepares no VAT return and no listing. Give your accountant the invoices and the customer VAT numbers per period.

Deadlines in 2026 (FPS Finance VAT calendar): monthly returns and listings by the 20th of the following month (September 2026: 20 October 2026); quarterly returns and listings by the 25th of the month after the quarter (Q3 2026: 25 October 2026). A quarterly filer must still file monthly listings once its intra-Community supplies of goods and triangular sales exceed €50,000 in the current quarter or one of the four previous ones. You file no listing for a period without listed operations.

Peppol or email for a customer abroad

The law. The Belgian structured e-invoicing obligation that started on 1 January 2026 covers invoices between businesses established in Belgium: the customer must be established in Belgium (seat or fixed establishment) and give you its Belgian VAT number. Invoices to customers abroad, inside or outside the EU, are outside it; for intra-EU transactions, e-invoicing and digital reporting come with the EU's ViDA package from 1 July 2030 (FPS Finance e-reporting FAQ). A PDF by email is a valid invoice for these customers.

Peppol is still possible. FPS Finance's FAQ says that publication on Peppol counts as agreement to receive structured invoices, and that the Peppol Directory shows which customers, even international ones, are ready to receive. OrdoGrid looks the customer up from its VAT number at send time, using the Peppol identifier schemes of its country. A customer registered only under another identifier, such as a Dutch KvK number, a French SIRET or a German Leitweg-ID, may not be found. Lookup tips are in Peppol participant lookup.

Step by step in OrdoGrid

Create the customer

1. Open Clients, click Ajouter un client (add a customer) and choose Assujetti à la TVA (VAT-registered).
2. Type the N° de TVA (VAT number) with its country prefix, for example NL854123763B01. Without the prefix, OrdoGrid cannot recognise a foreign customer.
3. Wait for the lookup. If the card shows VIES (UE), click Pré-remplir (prefill). Numéro de TVA invalide (invalid VAT number) means VIES does not confirm the number: stop and check it with the customer. Erreur lors de la recherche (lookup error) appears when VIES cannot be reached and for numbers outside the EU, such as CHE… or GB…: fill in Nom de l'entreprise, the address and Pays yourself.
4. Check Nom de l'entreprise, the address and Pays, then click Créer le client.

Issue the invoice

1. Open Invoices in the sidebar (page Factures), click Nouvelle facture (new invoice) and pick the customer with Sélectionner un client (select a customer).
2. Add every line with Ajouter un article, with the unit price excluding VAT and the service period in the Description. If the goods were delivered or the service completed on another date than the invoice date, click Date de livraison / prestation below Échéance in the Récapitulatif panel and enter that date; for a service period, the date it ends. It is printed in the document header (on Dutch, English or German documents: Datum levering / dienst, Delivery / service date, Liefer- / Leistungsdatum).
3. In the Récapitulatif (summary) sidebar, open Options de TVA. The banner Client étranger (NL) appears when your VAT country differs from the customer's.
4. Set Traitement TVA (VAT treatment) to the option from the short-answer table. All lines switch to 0%: check that each line's VAT column shows 0% and that the TVA total under Totaux (totals) is 0.00.
5. Add the legal basis to Notes (see the next callout), then check the result with Aperçu du PDF (PDF preview).

The field name (Traitement TVA, BTW-behandeling, VAT treatment or MwSt.-Behandlung), the option names and the printed texts follow Profil entreprise → Langue des documents (document language):

In the Peppol file these become VAT categories AE, K and G, with the matching VATEX exemption codes. Autoliquidation is offered only when the customer's VAT number has a country prefix other than yours. Livraison intracommunautaire and Export are always offered.

Send it

1. Click Envoyer (send). If the customer is found, Envoi électronique via Peppol is ticked. Otherwise you see Peppol — ignoré (Peppol skipped) with Le client n'est pas enregistré sur le réseau Peppol (the customer is not registered on the Peppol network): tick Email.
2. Click Sauvegarder & Envoyer (save and send). There is no automatic email fallback when Peppol is skipped.

For Livraison intracommunautaire, the Peppol rules also require an actual delivery date or an invoicing period, and a deliver-to country (BR-IC-11 and BR-IC-12). OrdoGrid always sends both: the date entered in Date de livraison / prestation, or else the invoice date (for a credit note, the date of the credited invoice), and the country of the customer's address. Enter the actual delivery date when it differs from the invoice date; the invoice can then go over Peppol when the customer is found there, and by Email otherwise. A credit note for an invoice issued outside OrdoGrid is refused until you fill in that date.

Services to a business outside the EU have no dedicated option: Export prints an export text, and Autoliquidation appears only if the customer's number carries a foreign prefix, such as CHE or GB. Agree the option with your accountant and add the explanation recommended above in Notes.

Foreign currency. An invoice may be in any currency, but if Belgian VAT is due, the total VAT must also be stated in euros (RD no. 1 art. 5 §1 9°; Directive art. 230). EU law lets you use the latest European Central Bank rate at the time VAT becomes chargeable (Directive art. 91). OrdoGrid has no currency selector and prints no euro conversion: an invoice is in EUR unless it comes from a project or a document in another currency, or from the API, and payments can be recorded in EUR, USD, GBP or JPY. On reverse-charge and exempt invoices the VAT total is zero, but your accountant still converts the amounts for the return and listing.

Worked example: a Ghent developer invoices an Amsterdam BV for September

Lotte Verhaegen is a self-employed web developer in Ghent, VAT number BE 1023.456.797, filing quarterly returns. Her document language is Dutch. Her customer Grachtwerk B.V., Herengracht 210, 1016 BS Amsterdam, gave her its VAT number NL854123763B01. She checked it in VIES on 1 October 2026 and saved the confirmation.

• Invoice: F-2026-0087, dated Friday 2 October 2026, due 1 November 2026 (OrdoGrid's default 30 days). The legal deadline was 15 October 2026.
• In OrdoGrid: with Dutch documents the VAT treatment field is called BTW-behandeling and the option Verlegging; the PDF prints ‘Btw verlegd’. Lotte enters 30 September 2026, the end of the period in the line descriptions, in Datum levering / dienst and adds the legal basis, ‘Btw verlegd – art. 21 §2 Btw-Wetboek’, to Notes.
• Sending: Grachtwerk is not found on Peppol, so she ticks Email and clicks Sauvegarder & Envoyer.
• Reporting: the services were completed in September, so her accountant reports €9,970.00 in grid 44 of the Q3 2026 return and under code S for NL854123763B01 in the Q3 listing, both by 25 October 2026. Grachtwerk accounts for Dutch VAT in its own return.
• Contrast: had Grachtwerk given no VAT number (and not shown that it had applied for one), Lotte could treat it as a non-business customer and Belgian VAT would apply: 21% × €9,970.00 = €2,093.70, total €12,063.70.

Goods variant. Mosan Précision SRL in Herstal, VAT BE 0876.543.270, sells 40 hydraulic couplings at €62.50 (€2,500.00) to Feinmechanik Kessler GmbH in Aachen, VAT DE298765435. A carrier collects them on 21 September 2026. Invoice F-2026-0143 is dated the same day, under Livraison intracommunautaire, VAT €0.00, sent by email. Mosan keeps the signed CMR and its bank statement showing payment of the carrier. It reports €2,500.00 in grid 46 and under code L in the return and listing for the period that includes 21 September 2026.

Edge cases to confirm with your accountant

Mistakes to avoid

Evidence to keep

• The VIES confirmation or MyMinfin certificate for each EU customer; for customers outside the EU, their registration number, certificate or other proof that they are a business.
• The contract, order or timesheets that show what you supplied, to whom and when.
• For goods: two non-contradictory documents from two parties independent of you, of the customer and of each other (two transport documents, or one transport document plus an insurance policy or bank proof of paying the transport), plus the customer's written statement if it transports the goods or has them collected.
• For exports: the export declaration that refers to your invoice, and proof that the goods left the EU.
• Every invoice and credit note: the PDF and, for Peppol sends, the XML (Peppol → Outbox). In Invoices (page Factures), select rows and click Download (tooltip: Download as ZIP) for your accountant.

Keep invoices for 7 years from 1 January of the year after issue (VAT Code art. 60, as amended by the Law of 18 December 2025). OrdoGrid is not a legal archiving service: keep your own copies.

FAQ

Do I charge Belgian VAT to a business customer in another EU country?

For services under the general rule, no: the customer accounts for VAT in its country, and your invoice shows its VAT number and ‘Autoliquidation’ or ‘Btw verlegd’. For goods, no if they are transported to another EU country, the customer gave you a valid EU VAT number and you list the supply. Exceptions exist, for example for work on property and events.

Which exact mention does a reverse-charge invoice need?

‘Autoliquidation’ in French or ‘Btw verlegd’ in Dutch, in place of the rate and VAT amount, plus the customer's VAT number. OrdoGrid prints this wording on French and Dutch documents; English and German documents carry a translation.

Must I send invoices to foreign customers through Peppol?

No. The Belgian obligation does not cover customers abroad; a PDF by email is valid. You may use Peppol if the customer is registered there, also for an intra-Community supply of goods: OrdoGrid then sends the delivery date and deliver-to country Peppol requires. EU rules for intra-EU e-invoicing apply from 1 July 2030.

What if the customer's VAT number is not valid in VIES?

For services under the general rule, invoice without VAT only once VIES confirms the number or, if the customer shows it has applied for one, once you hold other proof that it is a business (Implementing Regulation 282/2011, art. 18(1)(b)); otherwise charge Belgian VAT. For goods, the intra-Community exemption requires a VAT number valid in another EU country: other proof is not enough, so charge Belgian VAT until the number is valid.

Do I charge VAT to a client in the UK, Switzerland or the US?

Not for services under the general rule supplied to a business there, and not for goods you export. These operations go in grid 47 of your return and not in the intra-Community listing.

Can I invoice in US dollars?

Yes, any currency is allowed, but Belgian VAT due must also be stated in euros. OrdoGrid has no currency selector: invoices are in euros unless they come from a project or a document in another currency, or from the API.