- The German Federal Ministry of Finance has published a draft of several changes in German tax law, including mandatory electronic invoicing for B2B supplies from 2025.
- The e-invoicing obligation aligns with the European Commission’s “VAT in the Digital Age” draft and requires significant changes in invoicing processes, posing challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Invoices must be transmitted in certain data formats to enable quick checks by tax authorities and prevent VAT fraud/losses.
- The draft removes the priority of paper invoices and defines an e-invoice as an invoice with a structured electronic format that enables electronic processing and meets European legal requirements.
- Transitional arrangements allow enterprises to continue issuing paper invoices until the end of 2025 and, with the recipient’s consent, in an electronic form that doesn’t meet e-invoice requirements until the end of 2027.
- Small-value invoices and transportation tickets are exempt from the e-invoicing requirement.
- The draft clarifies tax relief for non-profit organisations and proposes amendments to the VAT Act as of 1 January 2024, including a tax exemption for guardians of proceedings, changes to agriculture and forestry tax exemptions, and an increase in the threshold amount for cash accounting.
- Changes affecting smaller businesses include an increase in the exemption limit for filing advance returns and an extension of the deadline for waiving the small enterprise regulation.
- Businesses need to check which legislative changes may affect them and initiate the transition to electronic invoicing as soon as possible.
Source: taxand.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
