- The German Government has issued guidance on new electronic invoicing obligations starting January 1, 2025.
- The guidance was released as a draft letter by the Ministry of Finance on June 13, 2024, and will be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2024.
- The letter outlines rules on invoice formatting, transmission, record retention, input tax credit, and transitional provisions.
- From January 1, 2025, taxable persons must accept electronic invoices for domestic supplies, such as via email.
- Transitional rules allow non-electronic invoice submissions until the end of 2026.
- The requirement to issue electronic invoices will be phased in starting in 2027.
- Invoices on USB sticks will not be compliant.
- Taxpayers with turnover not exceeding EUR800,000 in the previous year can comply starting January 1, 2028.
- Invoices must conform to the European eInvoicing standard and be machine-readable.
- Alternative formats may be used if they allow for correct and complete extraction of required information per the Value Added Tax Act (UStG) and are interoperable with the EN 16931 standard.
Source: answerconnect.cch.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.
