Australia

National Context

The Australian Government is promoting eInvoicing to deliver efficiency, productivity, and digitalisation benefits for Australian business and the Australian economy.

eInvoicing is not mandatory for Australian businesses, but there are some mandates for government agencies.

While the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is the Australian Peppol Authority (APA), tax compliance is not the driver for eInvoicing in Australia and the ATO does not have access to eInvoices being transmitted via the Peppol network.

Federal, state and territory governments have taken action to lead and promote the adoption of eInvoicing in Australia:

Supplier Pay on Time or Pay Interest Policy

From 1 January 2020 federal agencies began paying eligible eInvoices within 5 days

Digital Business Plan – federal government agency mandate

By 1 July 2022 all federal government agencies must be able to receive eInvoices

Digital Economy Strategy – increase awareness and adoption

Investment into education activities to improve business awareness of eInvoicing and adoption.

State and territory governments are also taking action to implement eInvoicing
- State and territories are progressing implementation
- New South Wales has a mandate for all NSW agencies to be using eInvoicing by 1 January 2021

About the use of Peppol

In 2018, the Australian and New Zealand governments entered into the Australia and New Zealand Government Electronic Invoicing Arrangement for a common approach to eInvoicing.

In 2019, recognising the benefits of a global framework, the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers announced the adoption of the Peppol Interoperability Framework.

Australia and New Zealand established separate Peppol Authorities; however, the two authorities work closely in partnership to streamline operations, maximise consistency and reduce costs for stakeholders.

Peppol Authority

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) became the Australian Peppol Authority (APA) on behalf of the Australian Government on 31 October 2019. New legislation was passed to enable the ATO to administer eInvoicing.

Functions of the APA include:

defining Australian requirements and managing localised specifications for use of the Peppol standards (e.g. GST)
accreditation of Peppol Service Providers (SPs) for Australia
supporting and ensuring accredited SP adhere to Peppol and local requirements
educating, promoting, and supporting the adoption of Peppol
supporting and engaging with the wider Peppol community
engaging countries in the region to promote Peppol and maximise interoperability and alignment.

Use of Peppol in Australia

Australia-specific requirements

The APA has defined specific requirements for SPs providing Access Point (AP) or Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) services in Australia, including the mandatory registration of end users in the Peppol Directory. These are contained in:

These are contained in the Peppol Authority Specific Requirements, which can be found in the Library here.

Accreditation

The APA has an accreditation framework for SPs providing AP or SMP services in Australia to ensure both Australian and international SPs meet the requirements to operate in Australia.

Australian SPs are to follow the accreditation process for new Peppol service providers
SPs already accredited with another PA can follow a streamlined accreditation process
Australia and New Zealand also have mutual recognition of accreditation.

A-NZ specifications

eInvoice: Australia and New Zealand have localised Peppol BIS Billing to ensure invoices that adhere to Australian and New Zealand tax and business requirements can be exchanged using Peppol:

A-NZ Peppol BIS Billing (invoice) specification (mandatory)
A-NZ self-billing specification (optional).

A-NZ specifications and associated guidance notes are on the A-NZ Peppol GitHub

eProcurement: The Peppol eProcurement specifications can be used in Australia.

eDelivery: All participants on the Peppol network must adhere to the Peppol eDelivery Network Specifications.

Current developments

The APA is undertaking the following activities to promote and foster adoption:

education activities to raise business awareness and adoption, including a media campaign
supply chain pilots with large businesses to gain insights and increase adoption
engagement and partnering with stakeholders representing key economic sectors to champion and drive adoption economy wide
increasing public sector adoption:
- federal government agency adoption by 1 July 2022
- supporting and encouraging state, territory, and local government adoption
working with payment providers to improve the payment experience with eInvoices.