What Must Be on a German Invoice: the § 14 UStG Mandatory Fields

A German invoice (Rechnung) must carry the ten items listed in § 14 Abs. 4 of the Umsatzsteuergesetz (UStG). Invoices of up to €250 gross may use the shorter Kleinbetragsrechnung under § 33 UStDV, and small businesses under § 19 UStG use the § 34a UStDV list, which carries no VAT but a note on the exemption. In short: Full name and full address of you (the supplier) and of your customer; Your Steuernummer from the Finanzamt or your USt-IdNr. (VAT ID) from the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern; The issue date (Ausstellungsdatum); A sequential invoice number, in one or more series, assigned only once; The quantity and customary trade name of the goods, or the scope and type of the service; The date of the supply or service (the calendar month is enough); for an advance payment, the date it was received if known and different from the issue date; The net amount (Entgelt) broken down by tax rate and exemption, plus any reduction agreed in advance that is not already in the price; The tax rate and the tax amount, or a note that an exemption applies; For property-related work for a private customer: a note that the customer must keep the invoice; The word "Gutschrift" when your customer issues the invoice for you (self-billing).

If the invoice total (gross) does not exceed €250, four items are enough: your full name and address; the issue date; the quantity and type of goods or the scope and type of service; and the price including tax as one sum, with the tax rate (or a note that an exemption applies). The shortcut does not apply to supplies under §§ 3c, 6a and 13b UStG (distance sales, intra-EU supplies of goods and reverse-charge supplies). A Kleinbetragsrechnung may always be sent as a sonstige Rechnung, meaning on paper or in a non-structured electronic format.

You must issue the invoice within six months after the supply when you supply another business for its business or a legal person that is not a business, and when you make a taxable Werklieferung or other service connected with real property for any other customer. Supplies exempt under § 4 Nr. 8 to 29 UStG fall outside this obligation.

An invoice can be corrected when items required by § 14 Abs. 4 UStG are missing or wrong. Only the missing or wrong items have to be sent, in a document that refers specifically and unambiguously to the original invoice, and that document has to meet the same form and content rules. If an invoice shows more VAT than is owed, the supplier owes the excess (§ 14c Abs. 1 UStG); anyone who shows VAT on an invoice without being entitled to owes the amount shown (§ 14c Abs. 2).

Keep a copy of every invoice you issue and every invoice you receive for eight years, counted from the end of the calendar year in which the invoice was issued (§ 14b Abs. 1 UStG). The eight-year period applies to every invoice whose retention period had not yet run out on 31 December 2024, with a later cut-off (1 January 2026) for banks, insurers and investment firms (§ 27 Abs. 40 UStG).

For a business established in Germany, sales are VAT-exempt under § 19 Abs. 1 UStG if total turnover was no more than €25,000 in the previous calendar year and does not exceed €100,000 in the current year. The invoice then follows § 34a UStDV: both parties' full names and addresses; your Steuernummer, USt-IdNr. or Kleinunternehmer-Identifikationsnummer; the issue date; the quantity and type of goods or the scope and type of service; the price as one sum with a note that the small-business exemption applies (§ 19 UStG); and "Gutschrift" on a self-billed invoice. Such an invoice may always be sent as a sonstige Rechnung (paper or non-structured electronic format). You can waive the exemption (§ 19 Abs. 3 UStG); the waiver binds you for at least five calendar years.

For supplies between two businesses established in Germany, § 14 Abs. 2 UStG (unless the supply is exempt under § 4 Nr. 8 to 29) requires an elektronische Rechnung: an invoice issued, sent and received in a structured electronic format that follows the European standard EN 16931 (or an agreed format that can be extracted into it). Transitional rules in § 27 Abs. 38 UStG still allow paper or other formats for a while. January 1, 2025: Receiving: where the e-invoice obligation applies, sending an elektronische Rechnung no longer needs the recipient's consent (§ 14 Abs. 1 Satz 5), so a business in scope must be able to receive one. January 1, 2027: Issuing: for supplies made from this date, e-invoices are the rule, unless one of the 2027 transitional rules applies. January 1, 2028: End of the 2027 reliefs: paper or (with consent) other formats for issuers whose previous-year total turnover was no more than €800,000 (§ 27 Abs. 38 Nr. 2), and non-EN 16931 EDI invoices with the recipient's consent (Nr. 3), run only until 31 December 2027.