- Germany’s e-invoicing mandate has applied since 1 January 2025; from 1 January 2027, businesses with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000 must be able to issue e-invoices, and from 1 January 2028 this applies broadly to all German businesses.
- Companies should now complete implementation testing, including software, system integration, archiving, and process changes across accounting, tax, and IT, especially where there are international operations or complex ERP landscapes.
- Key practical issues include handling different invoice formats, down payments, invoice corrections, and attachments, plus ensuring end-to-end controls from invoice receipt/issuance through posting and compliant archiving.
- The structured original e-invoice file must be retained unchanged in a GoBD-compliant archive; technical validation tools help detect errors but do not replace tax and commercial review.
- Special rules noted: for cross-period services starting in 2026 and ending in 2027, the service date determines applicability; pre-2027 advance, interim, and instalment invoices, and currently existing recurring invoices issued before 1 January 2027, are generally not subject to the e-invoice requirement.
Source: roedl.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.
