Comment by LeonM

> But how can a country not have something that represents a formal request for payment by some future time?

There are plenty countries where the vendor will charge the account of the customer, like a 'pull' mechanism. In many countries they'll use (or used) checks/cheques for that, or a different payment account like a credit card. The agreement for this would have been a contract. They may still use invoices for larger transactions, but they aren't always required by law.

I remember that in the old days, Google, Stripe, etc wouldn't send invoices, sometimes you'd get a minimal receipt message by email, but that was about it. This was particularly annoying for EU-based companies where there are minimal requirements for invoices and/or receipts.

Times have changed though. Most companies, including US-based, will now offer invoices that comply with most international regulations.

Except PayPal of course, for some reason they still seem to get away with not offering invoices. You'll have to download your monthly account overview in PDF from their merchant portal, and they just slapped the following text on it: "This statement may serve as a receipt for accounting and tax related purposes.".