Section 5U.K.Sending invoices by electronic means
Article 232U.K.
Invoices issued pursuant to Section 2 may be sent on paper or, subject to acceptance by the recipient, they may be sent or made available by electronic means.
Article 233U.K.
1.Invoices sent or made available by electronic means shall be accepted by Member States provided that the authenticity of the origin and the integrity of their content are guaranteed by one of the following methods:
(a)by means of an advanced electronic signature within the meaning of point (2) of Article 2 of Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures(1);
(b)by means of electronic data interchange (EDI), as defined in Article 2 of Commission Recommendation 1994/820/EC of 19 October 1994 relating to the legal aspects of electronic data interchange(2), if the agreement relating to the exchange provides for the use of procedures guaranteeing the authenticity of the origin and integrity of the data.
Invoices may, however, be sent or made available by other electronic means, subject to acceptance by the Member States concerned.
2.For the purposes of point (a) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1, Member States may also ask for the advanced electronic signature to be based on a qualified certificate and created by a secure-signature-creation device, within the meaning of points (6) and (10) of Article 2 of Directive 1999/93/EC.
3.For the purposes of point (b) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1, Member States may also, subject to conditions which they lay down, require that an additional summary document on paper be sent.
Article 234U.K.
Member States may not impose on taxable persons supplying goods or services in their territory any other obligations or formalities relating to the sending or making available of invoices by electronic means.
Article 235U.K.
Member States may lay down specific conditions for invoices issued by electronic means in respect of goods or services supplied in their territory from a country with which no legal instrument exists relating to mutual assistance similar in scope to that provided for in Directive 76/308/EEC and Regulation (EC) No 1798/2003.
Article 236U.K.
Where batches containing several invoices are sent or made available to the same recipient by electronic means, the details common to the individual invoices may be mentioned only once if, for each invoice, all the information is accessible.
Article 237U.K.
The Commission shall present, at the latest on 31 December 2008, a report and, if appropriate, a proposal amending the conditions applicable to electronic invoicing in order to take account of future technological developments in that field.