Germany Updates E-Invoicing Rules: New Clarifications on Compliance, Distribution, and Archiving Standards

• Germany’s Ministry of Finance issued updated guidance on mandatory B2B e-invoicing, effective January 2025.
• Clarifies error types (format vs. business rule errors) and states human-readable copies of EN 16931 e-invoices are optional.
• Confirms e-invoice compliance can be validated with suitable applications and allows flexible distribution methods (e.g., EDI, email).
• Requires e-invoices to be archived in their original structured format for tax compliance.
• Credit notes correcting e-invoices must also be issued electronically; missing or incorrect info cannot be fixed in another form.

Source: p2pnetwork.org

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.

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