Peppol
In Latvian: Peppol
Peppol is an international network and set of specifications for exchanging electronic business documents, governed by OpenPeppol AISBL, a non-profit association under Belgian law founded in 2012. A business joins through an accredited service provider and can then send documents to any other participant on the network.
At its heart is the four-corner model: the sender, the sender's service provider, the receiver's service provider and the receiver. Buyer and seller do not need the same provider, much as two people do not need the same mail server to exchange email.
In Latvia the word covers two different things. As a format it is written into the rules: Paragraph 7 of Cabinet Regulation No. 749 says the XML structure VID accepts follows UBL 2.1 and the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 specification. As a network it is optional: the same regulation lets businesses exchange e-invoices through the e-address, an operator or any other channel they agree on, email included.
Example
SIA "Ozols" is connected to an operator that is a Peppol service provider. It sends a EUR 2,420 invoice to a buyer in Estonia who uses a different operator: the document passes from one provider to the other and lands in the buyer's accounting system without anyone retyping it.
Legal basis
- OpenPeppol: about Peppol peppol.org
- Cabinet Regulation No. 749, Paragraphs 4 and 7 likumi.lv
This explanation is for information and does not replace tax or legal advice. The law in its current consolidated text prevails.