From 18 March 2023, within the context of a public procurement or concession contract, all economic operators must, with some exceptions, issue and submit their invoices in the form of compliant electronic invoices.

As a reminder, public procurement legislation considers as a public contract any contract concluded in writing:

• between an economic operator and a public sector body; and
  
• which has as its object the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services.
  

Thus, it is also a public contract in the case of:

• contracts which only concern small amounts, for example EUR 1,000 or even less; or
• contracts concluded via:
  • a negotiated (direct) procedure between a public sector body and an economic operator without a public tender process; or
  • any other procedure that would put different economic operators in competition.

Economic operators can send their electronic invoices:

• via Peppol (Pan European Public Procurement OnLine); or
• if they are not or not yet connected to Peppol, by using one of the 2 types of online forms available on MyGuichet.lu, namely:
  • a form which allows to manually enter in the fields of the form the elements of an invoice and then to transmit these data; or
  • a form, described below, that allows you to upload an already compliant electronic invoice and then to transmit it.

Other transmission channels than Peppol or MyGuichet.lu are not permitted. It is therefore not permitted, for example, to send compliant electronic invoices via email.

Who is concerned

Economic operators concerned

Any economic operator that issues and wishes to submit invoices to a contracting authority or entity in the context of a public contract or a concession contract.

Exclusions

By way of derogation, the requirement to issue electronic invoices does not apply to public procurement contracts entered into:

• for the purpose of development cooperation;
• by diplomatic missions or consulates;
• as part of Luxembourg’s participation in international fairs and exhibitions held abroad; or
• as part of State visits, official visits or working trips abroad.

Prerequisites

The MyGuichet.lu platform is a useful option for economic operators that have no access – or do not yet have access – to the Peppol delivery network.

On the other hand, economic operators that already have an account with the Peppol network can use it to issue and submit their electronic invoices directly.

Preliminary steps

To submit electronic invoices through MyGuichet.lu, the economic operator must have a MyGuichet.lu business eSpace.

How to use MyGuichet.lu

There are 3 possible scenarios:

• The person submitting the application is a new user on MyGuichet.lu and does not yet have an eSpace:
  The creation of the eSpace is done in 2 steps:
  1. registration of a user;
  2. setting up the business eSpace.

A guide for new users is available in the form of a video tutorial or as a PDF document.

• If the person submitting the application is already a MyGuichet.lu user and has a private eSpace: they will have to create a new business eSpace.

A guide for new users is available in the form of a video tutorial or as a PDF document.

• The person submitting the application already has a business eSpace for the company: the existing business eSpace can be used.

Refer to the help section on MyGuichet.lu.

Deadlines

In the framework of a public procurement or concession contract, the obligation for economic operators to issue and transmit compliant electronic invoices via one of the authorised channels (Peppol or MyGuichet.lu) applies to all economic operators since 18 March 2023.

In addition, the obligation for public sector bodies to receive and process compliant electronic invoices applies:

• to central contracting authorities, e.g. ministries, since 18 April 2019; and
• to sub-central contracting authorities, e.g. communes, and contracting entities since 18 April 2020.

In addition, all public sector bodies have been required to be connected to the Peppol network since 18 December 2021 so that they can receive compliant electronic invoices via Peppol.

How to proceed

Filing of an XML document

The procedure can be completed with or without authentication.

Procedure with authentication

The economic operator, or their agent, who submits the request with authentication must have:

• a business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu;
• a LuxTrust product (e.g. Token, Smartcard or Signing Stick); or
• an electronic identity card (eID); or
• a digital ID issued by another EU country (eIDAS).
  

Procedure without authentication

The economic operator, or their agent, who submits the request without authentication needs a one-time access code (token) for each invoice.

The token must be requested in advance from the public sector body with which the public contract or concession contract has been concluded (contracting authorities or entities or concession authority).

Entering the information

After entering the following information:

• the identity of the economic operator;
• the government administration department to which the invoice is addressed;

the person concerned can file the invoice by uploading, through MyGuichet.lu, a compliant electronic invoice – that is, an invoice compliant with the most recent version of the European standard on electronic invoicing which outlines the semantic data model for an electronic invoice, and with one of the syntaxes on the most recent list published by the European Commission.

The user will then receive confirmation of the submission of their compliant electronic invoice to the back office that distributes electronic invoices to public-sector bodies and, once the back office has processed the invoice:

• if the uploaded electronic invoice is compliant with the European standard, and is passed on to the final recipient: a message informing them that the electronic invoice has been successfully forwarded to the final recipient;
• if the submitted invoice is not compliant with the European standard and/or if it cannot be forwarded to the final recipient for whatever reason: an error message.

The filing party will then receive a forwarding acknowledgement sheet, which simply proves that the invoice has been submitted to the competent administrative authority.

The filing party will then receive a forwarding acknowledgement sheet, which simply proves that the invoice has been submitted to the competent administrative authority.

Mandatory documents

In the case of a procedure without authentication, it is mandatory to attach the order form.

In addition and whatever the procedure used, the economic operator may attach to their application :

• plans;
• timesheets;
  
• other documents that explain the content of the invoice; or
• any other document that they consider appropriate.

Attachments can only be submitted in PDF format and cannot exceed a maximum size of 15 MB.

Financial aid

As part of the introduction of the requirement to submit electronic invoices for B2G (Business-to-Government) transactions, small and very small enterprises may be entitled, under certain conditions, to:

• financial aid for digitalisation under the SME Packages - Digital scheme; and
• personalised assistance:
  • from the House of Entrepreneurship;
  • from the eHandwierk services at the Chamber of Skilled Trades and Crafts.

Good to know

• Economic operators who have questions about electronic invoicing specifically can contact the eFacturation helpline at (+352) 247-72155 or by email at info@efact.public.lu.
• A tutorial is also available to guide businesses through the electronic procedure.
• Economic operators who have questions about MyGuichet.lu in general and its functionalities (not specific to electronic invoicing) can contact the MyGuichet.lu helpdesk and also consult the help section on MyGuichet.lu.
  
• Economic operators who wish to receive more information on private service providers who offer access points to Peppol or on invoicing or accounting software editors who offer software already connected by default to Peppol, can contact:
  • the House of Entrepreneurship of the Chamber of Commerce; or
  • the eHandwierk services at the Chamber of Skilled Trades and Crafts.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact