North Macedonia E-Invoicing: Draft Law Proposes Phased Mandatory Rollout From April 2027

North Macedonia has published a Draft Law on Electronic Invoicing proposing voluntary use from October 1, 2026 and phased mandatory adoption from April 1, 2027. The timetable is not yet legally binding, but businesses and software providers can already test the e-Faktura system.

North Macedonia has published a Draft Law on Electronic Invoicing setting out the proposed legal framework for its national e-Faktura system. The draft represents a change from the previously anticipated mandatory launch in October 2026: under the current proposal, October 1, 2026 would instead mark the start of voluntary participation, while mandatory E-Invoicing would begin for the first group of taxpayers on April 1, 2027.

The legislation remains in draft form. The proposed dates, scope and obligations will become legally binding only if the law is adopted by the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia and published in the Official Gazette.

The draft proposes a phased transition based on the type of entity.

Voluntary registration and use would be possible from October 1, 2026. Entities choosing to register voluntarily would then be expected to follow the proposed E-Invoicing rules from their registration date.

From April 1, 2027, mandatory E-Invoicing would apply to VAT-registered taxpayers covered by the draft, including specified public enterprises and companies wholly or predominantly controlled by the state, the City of Skopje or municipalities.

The obligation would extend from July 1, 2027, to legal entities carrying out business activities that are not registered for VAT. From October 1, 2027, the proposed mandate would cover budget users, public and non-profit institutions and the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia. The final phase, scheduled for January 1, 2028, would extend mandatory issuance and receipt of E-Invoices to the remaining entities carrying out transactions.

Under the draft, the Tax Authority would establish and operate a centralised E-Invoicing platform. E-Invoices and related documents would pass through the system for processes including issuance, receipt, validation, acceptance, rejection, correction, cancellation and storage.

Businesses using ERP or accounting software would be able to connect directly through application programming interfaces (APIs). Client, web and mobile applications are also envisaged for businesses that do not use direct integration.

Under the proposed rules, an E-Invoice would need to be generated through the central system in a structured electronic format, signed using a qualified electronic signature and successfully validated. Following validation, the invoice would receive a unique identifier and electronic timestamp.

The Tax Authority’s current testing confirms that this system architecture is already being developed. During the second testing phase, companies were able to test API services for downloading, accepting, rejecting and cancelling E-Invoices. In June 2026, the Tax Authority opened a third phase using a web application that allows companies to test document creation, submission, acceptance, rejection and cancellation. Around 200 selected companies were also included in structured testing.

The proposed scope is broad. It includes VAT-registered businesses, non-VAT-registered entities carrying out economic activities, public enterprises, state-controlled entities, budget users and other public-sector and institutional categories covered by the draft.

The proposed framework also addresses certain transactions involving foreign suppliers where the North Macedonian recipient accounts for VAT under the reverse-charge mechanism.

At the same time, the draft provides exclusions. Based on the currently published proposal, transactions for which a fiscal receipt has been issued are among those outside the E-Invoicing requirement. VAT-exempt banking and financial services are also identified among the exclusions.

Impact on businesses, retailers and software providers

The main implementation impact concerns invoice processing and system integration. Businesses within the proposed scope will need to ensure that their ERP, accounting or invoicing systems can create the required structured E-Invoice, support electronic signing, communicate with the Tax Authority platform and process invoice statuses returned by the system.

The reform also affects software providers before the legal mandate begins. The Tax Authority is already providing a test environment and technical documentation, so providers do not need to wait for the first mandatory phase before assessing integration.

What should businesses prepare now?

VAT-registered businesses that could enter the first mandatory phase should review their current invoicing architecture and identify whether invoices are created manually, through accounting software or directly from ERP systems. They should also assess API integration, electronic-signature capabilities and the processes used for acceptance, rejection, correction and cancellation.

Software and ERP providers should consider participating in the Tax Authority’s testing environment and follow updates to the official technical specifications. The Tax Authority has specifically encouraged companies developing or maintaining invoicing software to test their integrations before mandatory implementation.

In our view, businesses should use the current testing period to assess ERP/API integration and E-Invoice lifecycle processes, while keeping implementation plans flexible because the law and proposed deadlines are not yet final.

The principal legislative source is the Draft Law on Electronic Invoicing published through the Electronic National Register of Regulations (ENER). Source

Ivana Picajkić, Medior Legal Conslutant at Fiscal Solutions

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