DR Congo ends the moratorium on the normalised invoice
- Jurisdiction
- DR Congo
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- E-invoicing
- Status
- In force
- Announced
- 12 May 2026
- Effective
- 15 May 2026
- Authority
- Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI), République Démocratique du Congo
- Verified
- Corroborated against official id · high confidence
VAT payers in the DRC. From the April 2026 return onwards, declarations must rest exclusively on normalised invoices, and the DGI is sanctioning anyone who collected VAT without issuing one.
The Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Finance ended the moratorium on the mandatory normalised invoice (facture normalisée) via an official announcement on 12 May 2026. From 15 May 2026 (the VAT filing deadline for April 2026), VAT declarations must be exclusively based on normalised invoices. The DGI applies sanctions against VAT payers who collected VAT without issuing normalised invoices and rejects input VAT deduction rights not supported by compliant normalised invoices. The normalised invoice had been mandatory from 1 April 2026 (after the moratorium ended following a 31 March 2026 meeting between Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba Likunde and the FEC). Legal basis: Finance Law n°25/060 of 29 December 2025 for fiscal year 2026.
What changed in detail
The DR Congo Ministry of Finance ended the moratorium on the mandatory normalised invoice (facture normalisée) by official announcement on 12 May 2026. From 15 May 2026 — the VAT filing deadline for April 2026 — VAT declarations must be based exclusively on normalised invoices. The DGI now sanctions VAT payers who collected VAT without issuing normalised invoices and rejects input VAT deductions not supported by compliant normalised invoices. The instrument had been mandatory from 1 April 2026; the legal basis is Finance Law n°25/060 of 29 December 2025.
What it means
The grace period is over — this is enforcement, not announcement. If you operate in the DRC, every VAT declaration from the April 2026 period onward must rest on compliant normalised invoices, and input VAT on non-compliant invoices is now disallowed. The exposure is two-sided: penalties for issuing without a normalised invoice, and lost deductions for accepting one.
Proof
A LA SUITE DE L’ANNONCE, PAR SON EXCELLENCE MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE DES FINANCES, DE LA FIN DES MORATOIRES ACCORDES DANS LE CADRE DE LA MISE EN ŒUVRE DE CETTE REFORME, TOUT ASSUJETTI CONCERNE EST DESORMAIS TENU DE SE CONFORMER STRICTEMENT AUX PRESCRIPTIONS LEGALES ET REGLEMENTAIRES RELATIVES A LA FACTURE NORMALISEE.Following the announcement by the Minister of Finance of the end of the moratoria granted for implementing this reform, every taxpayer concerned is now required to comply strictly with the legal and regulatory requirements on the normalised invoice.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Archived from the official distribution · dgi.gouv.cd
dès le 1er décembre 2025, de l’obligation légale d’émettre et d’exiger la Facture Normalisée pour toutes transactions commerciales.from 1 December 2025, of the legal obligation to issue and to demand the Normalised Invoice for all commercial transactions.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Sources
- Réforme de la Facture Normalisée – DGI RDC
- Facture normalisée en RDC: le gouvernement annonce la fin du moratoire et le début des sanctions dès le 15 mai
- RDC: Fin du moratoire sur la facture normalisée, les sanctions entrent en vigueur dès le 15 mai
- DR Congo Fully Enforces E-Invoicing; Grace Period Ends