Peppol is a global standard and it is owned by OpenPeppol who has authority over the Peppol Network, Metadata, Public Key Infrastructure and the Peppol Interoperability Framework. Peppol has been adopted by many European countries and many more countries are adopting it including Singapore. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has started the InvoiceNow nationwide e-invoicing network in 2019 with early adoption for business in May 2025. Our earlier article dated 29/4/2024 IRAS InvoiceNow initiative for GST-registered businesses, it is mandatory for newly incorporated companies that voluntarily register for GST from 1 November 2025.

  • Peppol is the standard digitisation and exchange of procurement/invoicing documents across business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G), and government-to-business (G2B) sectors.
  • It is not just a PDF invoicing process but a document exchange that spans not just nationwide but also the global exchange of documents from country to country.
  • It is the precursor to the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative in which Singapore-headquartered multinational enterprise (MNE) groups are already required to prepare and file CbC Reports to IRAS for financial years (FYs) beginning on or after 1 Jan 2017 within 12 months from the end of their FY. 
  • It is driven mainly by the various jurisdictions to address leakages in VAT or GST.
  • It allows the tax authority to bring tax compliance to the beginning of the supply chain eg at the initiation of invoicing instead of the currently delayed tax compliance reporting at end of the supply chain eg when GST is reported within one month following the GST quarter.
  • The Peppol with its nation and global wide exchange enables IRAS to address the Missing Trader Fraud Arrangements (This is the only current IRAS GST audit focus for 2024) which is a perennial issue especially if the syndicate spans multi and layer companies across jurisdictions.
  • The standard metador and data fields in the peppol will allows the standardisation and compliance integrity of each invoice to the tax compliant requirement under the GST Tax Act eg each invoice will automatically must meet the GST tax invoice compliance requirement once it can be issued from peppol.

How will the current business invoicing process change:

  • All business will have to ensure the right billing to the right customer at invoicing. You will have limited ability to adjust, amend or void invoices once it is issued via peppol once it is uploaded realtime into the InvoiceNow Exchange.
  • There is no way that you as a GST registered business can issue any invoice outside the peppol system and not reporting output GST (or not reporting any billing) as your customer will receive the invoice via the InvoiceNow Exchange.
  • There is a limited ability for any business or syndicate to engage in MTF as both the seller and buyer (if they are GST registered), will need to be GST registered with a peppol ID. The document flow is trackable and traceable from the original seller to each subsequently buyer or seller.
  • There is a limitation for any GST registered businesses to over or wrongly claim for GST input tax as all suppliers’ invoices issued through InvoiceNow Exchange is GST tax compliant and validated at source.

Too Good to be True dated 21/4/2021

IRAS InvoiceNow initiative for GST-registered businesses dated 29/4/2024