Country deep dive
Iceland's Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs issued Regulation 44/2019 on 24 January 2019, transposing EU Directive 2014/55/EU via Iceland's EEA membership. The requirement phased in by public-body type: state institutions from 18 April 2019, then municipalities, public enterprises, and other entities operating under special rights or monopolies from 18 April 2020, completing the rollout. Fjarsysla rikisins (the Financial Management Authority) has been Iceland's registered OpenPeppol Peppol Authority since 2020. Nothing has changed since -- there has been no B2B development, mandate proposal, or dated announcement in Iceland since the regulation's 2019-2020 rollout completed.
Iceland's Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (Fjarmala- og efnahagsraduneytid) issued Regulation 44/2019 (reglugerd um rafraena reikninga vegna opinberra samninga), published in the Stjornartidindi official gazette. It transposes EU Directive 2014/55/EU via Iceland's EEA membership, requiring public-sector buyers to receive and process e-invoices meeting European standard EN 16931.
Icelandic state institutions became required to be able to receive and process electronic invoices meeting European standard EN 16931. Fjarsysla rikisins (the Financial Management Authority) receives e-invoices on behalf of most state institutions, over the Peppol network.
From 1 January 2020 Fjarsysla rikisins began returning paper invoices. The requirement itself is in the State's general terms of business, which a supplier is deemed to have accepted on taking a state order unless otherwise agreed: an invoice must follow the TS-236 technical specification and be delivered through a message broker, and a PDF does not count as an electronic invoice. Reglugerd 44/2019, often cited for this, does not say it — it obliges public buyers to receive, not suppliers to send.
The e-invoice receiving requirement extended to municipalities, their institutions, public enterprises, and other entities operating under special rights or monopolies, completing Regulation 44/2019's rollout across the Icelandic public sector.
A compliant e-invoice meets European standard EN 16931, implemented nationally as TS 236:2018 (Stadlarad Islands, the Icelandic standards body) -- Iceland's specific implementation of Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. There is no separate older national format still required in parallel; a plain PDF is explicitly not accepted as a machine-readable e-invoice.
A plain PDF invoice is explicitly not treated as a compliant, machine-readable e-invoice under this regime.
The regulation applies to public buyers under Iceland's Public Procurement Act, utilities (water/energy/transport/postal) procurement rules, concession contracts above EEA thresholds, and defense/security procurement rules -- framed around existing EU/EEA procurement-value thresholds rather than a single flat rule. Confidential contracts, those requiring special security measures, or those protecting fundamental state interests are excluded. There is no B2B scope at all: Iceland has never enacted, drafted, or publicly discussed a business-to-business e-invoicing mandate.
Coverage is framed around existing EU/EEA procurement-value thresholds rather than a single flat monetary threshold -- which contract regime applies determines whether a given purchase is in scope, not a single number.
A "1 July 2026" deadline to retire an older BII EDI format in favor of Peppol BIS 3.0 is repeated across several vendor blogs -- it does not trace to any primary Icelandic or OpenPeppol source and is not reported as fact on this page. OpenPeppol's own Iceland country profile mentions only that the Icelandic EDI community approved guidelines for migrating from EDIFACT documents to Peppol BIS, with no date given.
Most businesses reading this only need to confirm they can invoice Icelandic public bodies electronically -- there is no upcoming B2B deadline to prepare for, and none has been announced.
Check whether the Icelandic public body you're invoicing is a state institution, municipality, public enterprise, or special-rights/monopoly entity -- and whether the contract falls under Public Procurement Act, utilities, concession, or defense/security procurement rules.
A plain PDF is not accepted -- confirm your accounting or invoicing software (or a Peppol access-point provider) can generate a compliant EN 16931 / TS 236 e-invoice.
Most Icelandic state institutions receive invoices via Fjarsysla rikisins over the Peppol network -- confirm your access point can reach it, or use the supplier-facing web submission option if you don't have accounting-system integration.
No B2B e-invoicing mandate has been enacted, drafted, or dated for Iceland as of mid-2026 -- treat vendor claims of a fixed future B2B or format-retirement deadline with caution unless you can trace them to a primary Icelandic government or OpenPeppol source.
Iceland has no statutory penalty regime for e-invoicing non-compliance -- the EU Commission's own country sheet states this explicitly, and no independent source in this research pass found otherwise.
Other countries in the same region, ordered by their next dated milestone. Each links to a full briefing.