Norway e-invoicing 2027: what businesses and integrators must arrange now

From 1 January 2027, Norwegian businesses must send their invoices to other businesses electronically. Norway e-invoicing 2027 is no longer a proposal: the Norwegian parliament adopted the legislative amendment on 1 June 2026, and the government confirmed the start date on 19 June 2026. That leaves just over three months. This article sets out what the law actually says, who is in scope, what is still open, and which steps senders, receivers and service providers need to take now.

Norway e-invoicing 2027 at a glance

• 1 January 2027: Norwegian businesses with bookkeeping obligations must send B2B invoices as e-invoices (according to the bill, to customers registered in ELMA).
• 1 January 2030: end of the transition period for receiving e-invoices, and start of mandatory digital bookkeeping.
• Legal basis: new section 10 of the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act, adopted by the Storting on 1 June 2026.
• Format: EHF (Peppol BIS Billing 3.0) has been proposed, but the regulation that fixes it has not yet been adopted.
• Still open: the regulation on format and exemptions, and the exact position of foreign suppliers without Norwegian bookkeeping obligations.

Why this needs attention now

Norway has required e-invoicing towards the public sector for years. For invoices between businesses, electronic invoicing has so far been optional. That changes in two steps. From 1 January 2027, there is an obligation to send e-invoices. By 1 January 2030, every business with bookkeeping obligations must be able to receive e-invoices and keep its books digitally.

For business owners and finance managers, this means invoicing processes, customer master data and software must be in order within a single quarter. For integrators, software vendors and Peppol Serviceproviders, it means a peak in onboarding, registrations and integrations over a short period. Companies that wait until December risk finding that their provider has no capacity left.

One complication: the law delegates the technical details to an implementing regulation that has yet to be adopted. That makes it all the more important to know what is settled and what is not.

What the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act now requires

The legal basis is the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act, the bokføringsloven, which governs how businesses keep and document their accounting records. On 1 June 2026, the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) adopted Lovvedtak 52 (2025–2026), based on bill Prop. 44 L (2025–2026) from the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.

The core is an amended section 10. Its second paragraph provides that documentation for sales of goods and services to other bokføringspliktige (businesses with a statutory bookkeeping obligation) must be issued in electronic invoice format. The text reads: “Dokumentasjon for salg av varer og tjenester til andre bokføringspliktige skal utstedes i elektronisk fakturaformat.” Documentation for purchases from such businesses must correspondingly be received in electronic invoice format.

A new fourth paragraph empowers the ministry to set further requirements for the format and to grant exemptions by forskrift (a secondary regulation issued under the Act) or by individual decision. The Act itself enters into force on a date set by the King.

That date is now known. In a press release of 19 June 2026, the Ministry of Finance states that businesses with bookkeeping obligations must invoice each other with e-invoices by 1 January 2027. The power to issue regulations and make individual decisions is delegated to Skattedirektoratet, the Norwegian Directorate of Taxes that leads the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten).

Who is in scope for Norway e-invoicing 2027, and which exemptions apply

The obligation applies between bokføringspliktige businesses. According to the Bookkeeping Act, as quoted in the Directorate of Taxes consultation paper, this includes anyone who carries on a business and must file an income tax return or a VAT return. The group is therefore broad: from limited companies to sole proprietorships with a VAT registration.

The government documents set out the following boundaries:

• B2B only. The June 2025 consultation paper states explicitly that sales to consumers fall outside the proposal.
• Small sole proprietorships. An exemption has been proposed for businesses with turnover below NOK 50,000 per calendar year, provided they have no obligation to prepare annual accounts and no obligation to file VAT returns. The government refers to this threshold in its March 2026 press release. The exemption still has to be formally laid down in the forskrift.
• Other exemptions. The bill also mentions certain bankruptcy estates and financial undertakings as possible exemptions.
• Only receivers listed in ELMA. According to Prop. 44 L, the sending obligation from 2027 applies to invoices to businesses registered in ELMA (Elektronisk mottakerregister), the Norwegian address register that shows which organisations can receive e-invoices via Peppol.

That last point is the most important in practice. The bill states that businesses will have a “plikt til å sende e-faktura til bokføringspliktige virksomheter som er registrert i Elektronisk mottakerregister (ELMA), og som dermed kan motta e-faktura”, in other words an obligation to send e-invoices to businesses registered in ELMA that can therefore receive them. Anyone who invoices must be able to determine, per customer, whether that customer is listed in ELMA.

Sending from 2027, receiving by 2030

The regime has two phases that should be kept apart in your planning.

Phase 1: sending obligation from 1 January 2027

From this date, a business with bookkeeping obligations sends its sales invoices electronically to business customers that can receive e-invoices. The Directorate of Taxes originally proposed 2028; the government brought the sending obligation forward by one year. In Prop. 44 L, the ministry concludes that this can be done without disproportionate burdens on businesses.

Phase 2: receiving obligation and digital bookkeeping by 1 January 2030

According to the press release of 19 June 2026, transitional rules will provide that the obligation to receive e-invoices must be met by 1 January 2030. By the same date, businesses must be able to keep their books digitally in an electronic accounting system. Receiving e-invoices in Norway is therefore only mandatory from 2030, but businesses already listed in ELMA will receive far more e-invoices from 2027 onwards.

Format: the EHF invoice and Peppol Norway, and the status of the forskrift

In Norway, EHF (Elektronisk handelsformat, the Norwegian electronic trade format) is the established e-invoice standard. According to the Directorate of Taxes consultation paper, EHF is harmonised with Peppol BIS Billing, which implements the European standard EN 16931. EHF invoices travel over the Peppol network; the Norwegian part of that infrastructure is managed by Digitaliseringsdirektoratet, the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency. For invoices to public buyers, EHF has been the norm for years.

The formal position is more nuanced than much of the coverage suggests:

• In its consultation paper of 20 June 2025, the Directorate of Taxes proposed laying down in the forskrift that EHF will be the mandatory invoice format. The Ministry of Finance refers to that proposal in its assignment letter to the Directorate of 16 March 2026.
• The Act itself does not mention EHF or Peppol. The press release of 19 June 2026 only states that rules on invoice format will be set in a forskrift.
• At the time of publication (17 September 2026), we have not found an adopted forskrift on regjeringen.no that formally fixes the format.

The expected route is therefore EHF via Peppol, but it is not yet formally settled. That is no reason to wait: EHF is the de facto Norwegian standard, the ELMA register is tied to Peppol, and the Directorate’s proposal points in the same direction. It is, however, a reason to actively track the publication of the forskrift, which may contain details on versions, exemptions and transitional rules.

Foreign suppliers and customers

For businesses outside Norway, the question of whether they are in scope has a less clear-cut answer than for Norwegian businesses. What is established:

• The obligation is tied to bookkeeping obligations under the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act, not to nationality. According to the statutory text, a foreign business that must file Norwegian VAT returns, for example because it is registered in the Norwegian VAT register, has bookkeeping obligations.
• Advisory firm PwC reads the bill as introducing no exemption for foreign businesses, as long as they are subject to bookkeeping obligations under Norwegian law. The Norwegian government documents we consulted contain no separate rules for foreign businesses.
• For foreign suppliers without Norwegian bookkeeping obligations, the Act imposes no direct sending obligation. In the consultation, parties such as Brønnøysundregistrene and Fiken called for stricter rules on cross-border invoices and foreign platforms; Prop. 44 L does not adopt those suggestions.

In practice, Norwegian customers will increasingly ask for an EHF invoice, especially in the run-up to 2030. Foreign suppliers should therefore have their own position assessed by a Norwegian tax adviser and await the forskrift for the final scope.

Norway e-invoicing checklist: what to arrange before 1 January 2027

The checklist below is organised by role. Many businesses are both sender and receiver; in that case, work through both lists.

For senders (businesses invoicing Norwegian businesses)

1. Before 1 October 2026: establish your position. Determine whether your organisation is bokføringspliktig under the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act. Foreign businesses with a Norwegian VAT registration: have this checked.
2. Before 15 October 2026: map your Norwegian customers. Check each business customer’s Norwegian organisation number and whether the customer is registered in ELMA. That registration determines whether the sending obligation applies to that customer.
3. Before 1 November 2026: check your software. Can your invoicing or ERP system create EHF invoices (Peppol BIS Billing 3.0)? If not, ask your vendor about timing and cost.
4. Before 1 November 2026: choose a Peppol Serviceprovider. Without a connection to the Peppol network, you cannot send an EHF invoice. Compare providers on Norway coverage and EHF support.
5. Before 1 December 2026: complete your master data. Record each customer’s Peppol ID, organisation number and any order numbers or references the customer requires.
6. December 2026: test with a few customers. Send test invoices to a handful of major Norwegian customers and check that they arrive without validation errors.
7. From 1 January 2027: send EHF to all customers listed in ELMA. Keep an exception process for customers that are not (yet) listed in ELMA.

For receivers (businesses buying from Norwegian businesses)

1. Now: decide whether to register in ELMA already. Once listed in ELMA, you will receive e-invoices from Norwegian suppliers from 2027. Make sure your purchasing process can handle that before you register.
2. By the end of 2027: set up processing. Connect incoming EHF invoices to your accounting or purchasing system so they are read in automatically rather than retyped.
3. By 1 January 2030 at the latest: meet the receiving obligation. By that date, as a bokføringspliktig business, you must be able to receive e-invoices and keep digital books in an electronic system.
4. Ongoing: inform your suppliers. Tell suppliers which Peppol ID you can be reached on and which references you expect on invoices.

For integrators, software vendors and Peppol Serviceproviders

1. Before 1 November 2026: check EHF support. Validate outgoing documents against the current EHF and Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 rules, including Norway-specific validations.
2. Before 1 November 2026: build in an ELMA lookup. Your customers must be able to see, per buyer, whether that buyer is listed in ELMA. Automate that check in the invoicing process.
3. Q4 2026: plan capacity. Expect a peak in onboarding, registrations and support requests in November and December.
4. Q4 2026: handle registrations for customers. Offer customers who want to receive a simple route to ELMA registration via your Peppol connection.
5. Towards 2030: develop receiving and digital bookkeeping. Ensure incoming e-invoices are processed automatically so customers meet the 2030 requirements in time.

Watch point: the format is not yet formally fixed

• Watch point. The forskrift governing the invoice format had not been adopted when this article was published. EHF via Peppol is the expected and proposed route.
• Action. Follow regjeringen.no and updates from Skatteetaten, and once the forskrift is published, check for any differences in format version, exemptions or transitional rules.
• Action. Agree in your contract with your software vendor or Peppol Serviceprovider that they will adapt to the final rules in good time.

Sources

1. Stortinget, Lovvedtak 52 (2025–2026), 1 June 2026
2. Ministry of Finance, press release on entry into force, 19 June 2026
3. Prop. 44 L (2025–2026), amendments to the Bookkeeping Act (mandatory digital bookkeeping and e-invoicing)
4. Ministry of Finance, bill on e-invoicing in business, March 2026
5. Government of Norway, proposal for e-invoicing and digital bookkeeping requirements, 16 March 2026
6. Directorate of Taxes, consultation paper on mandatory digital bookkeeping and e-invoicing, 20 June 2025 (pdf)
7. Ministry of Finance, assignment letter to the Directorate of Taxes, 16 March 2026 (pdf)
8. PwC Norway, mandatory B2B e-invoicing in Norway brought forward to 2027 (secondary source)

From checklist to connection

See also our earlier news item on the Norway e-invoicing mandate taking effect in 2027, and our explainer on e-reporting in France without a French establishment, which shows how foreign businesses can fall under another country’s obligations.

Most steps in this checklist depend on one choice: a Peppol Serviceprovider with solid support for EHF and Norway. If you want Norway e-invoicing 2027 settled in time, the Peppol.now comparison tool lets you filter providers by country coverage, software and invoice volume.