What a German invoice must contain, and the notes that replace VAT.

A German invoice (Rechnung) has to show eight things every time: your name and address and your client's, your tax number or VAT ID, the invoice date, a unique invoice number, what you supplied, when you supplied it, the net amount, and the VAT rate with the VAT amount. Where no VAT is charged, a short note saying why takes the place of the VAT. Invoices up to 250 euros need only four details. Business clients can deduct the VAT only with a correct invoice, so a missing detail usually comes back as a request to fix it. Keep a copy of every invoice for eight years.

1. When you have to issue an invoice

The rules are in the VAT Act (Umsatzsteuergesetz, UStG). You must issue an invoice within six months of doing the work when your client is another business buying for its business, or a legal entity such as an association or a public body (§ 14(2) UStG). The same applies to building and other property-related work for private clients. Sales that are VAT-exempt under § 4 Nr. 8 to 29 UStG, such as most medical treatment, residential letting and financial services, are left out of the duty.

For private customers an invoice is otherwise optional. If you do issue one, it still needs the details below.

Not issuing a required invoice, or issuing it late, is an administrative offence that can be fined up to 5,000 euros (§ 26a UStG). In practice the bigger pressure comes from clients: a business client needs a correct invoice to deduct the VAT it paid you (input tax, Vorsteuer), and it can insist on one in the civil courts.

A client can also write the invoice for you, if you agreed this in advance. That document is a self-billing invoice and must carry the word „Gutschrift“. In everyday German, "Gutschrift" also means a credit note, which is something else, so check which one a client means before using the word.

2. The details every invoice needs

The list is in § 14(4) UStG. The first eight apply to every normal invoice; the last two only in special cases.

The VAT amount is a separate line, not just included in the total. An invoice can be in English and in another currency. Amounts in a foreign currency are converted into euros for your VAT return at the monthly rates the Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium der Finanzen, BMF) publishes (§ 16(6) UStG), and the Finanzamt can ask for a translation of a document in another language (§ 87 AO).

3. Invoices up to 250 euros

If the total including VAT is 250 euros or less, a simplified invoice (Kleinbetragsrechnung) is enough (§ 33 UStDV). It needs only:

• your full name and address;
• the invoice date;
• the quantity and type of goods, or the scope and type of service;
• the total including VAT and the VAT rate, or a note on the exemption.

No client name, no invoice number, no tax number. The simplification doesn't apply where the client owes the VAT under the reverse-charge rules (§ 13b UStG), to goods sold VAT-free to a business in another EU country, or to distance sales of goods to consumers in other EU countries. Small invoices can always go out on paper, or as a PDF if the client agrees, even once e-invoicing is compulsory.

4. Invoices under the small-business rule

Under the small-business rule (Kleinunternehmerregelung), a business based in Germany charges no VAT if its turnover was no more than 25,000 euros in the previous calendar year and stays at or under 100,000 euros in the current one (§ 19(1) UStG, thresholds since 1 January 2025). Our guide to the small-business rule explains how the thresholds work.

Since 2025 these sales are VAT-exempt, and the invoice follows its own, shorter list (§ 34a UStDV): names and addresses of both sides, your tax number or VAT ID, the invoice date, what you supplied, and the amount with a note that the small-business exemption under § 19 UStG applies. No VAT line, no date of supply, and no sequential invoice number. The tax administration accepts everyday wording such as "steuerfreier Kleinunternehmer" as long as it clearly names the small-business exemption (BMF letter of 18 March 2025). Small invoices up to 250 euros need the note too.

The common mistake is showing VAT anyway. A small business that puts VAT on an invoice owes that amount to the Finanzamt until it corrects the invoice (§ 14c(1) UStG). The tax administration makes one exception: no VAT is owed when the invoice goes to a private consumer for work that was actually done (BMF letter of 18 March 2025).

5. Clients in other EU countries and outside the EU

For most services to a business client, the VAT belongs where the client is based, not in Germany (§ 3a(2) UStG). There are exceptions, for example for work on property, which is taxed where the property is, and for admission to events.

Business clients in other EU countries

Here the client pays the VAT in its own country under the reverse-charge procedure. Your invoice (§ 14a UStG):

• shows the net amount and no German VAT;
• carries the note „Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers“. The English "Reverse charge" is also accepted, as the term used in the English version of the EU VAT Directive;
• shows your VAT ID and the client's;
• must be issued by the 15th of the month after the month you did the work.

The same sales go into a recapitulative statement (Zusammenfassende Meldung) to the BZSt, due by the 25th day after the end of each quarter for services (§ 18a UStG). Our guide to VAT returns covers the filing side. Goods sold to a business in another EU country are a VAT-free intra-Community supply: the invoice shows both VAT IDs and a note that the supply is exempt, by the same 15th-of-the-month deadline.

Business clients outside the EU

For most services, the sale isn't taxed in Germany either, so the invoice shows no German VAT. German law prescribes no wording for this case: the reverse-charge rule in § 14a UStG covers only other EU countries. Many businesses still add a line explaining why there is no VAT, for example „Nicht im Inland steuerbare Leistung“ (not taxable in Germany). The client's own country may have its own invoice rules.

Private clients abroad

Different rules apply, and they depend on what you sell: some services stay taxed in Germany, others (digital services, for example) are taxed in the customer's country above a threshold. This is one to check before the first invoice goes out.

The notes, ready to copy

These are the standard German lines for the cases above. Which one belongs on an invoice depends on the client and the service, which is the part to get right.

Leistungsdatum entspricht Rechnungsdatum.

Steuerfreier Kleinunternehmer gemäß § 19 UStG – es wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet.

Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers (Reverse charge).
USt-IdNr. Leistender: [Ihre USt-IdNr.] – USt-IdNr. Leistungsempfänger: [USt-IdNr. des Kunden]

Steuerfreie innergemeinschaftliche Lieferung.

Nicht im Inland steuerbare Leistung.

If you are a small business with clients in other EU countries, the two sets of rules overlap: § 19(1) UStG switches off some of the VAT-ID requirements. That combination is worth having checked.

6. Invoice numbers

The invoice number has one job: to make each invoice unique. The tax administration's guidance (Umsatzsteuer-Anwendungserlass, section 14.5) allows more than you might expect:

• numbers, letters or both (2026-0042, RE-2026-11-003);
• several separate number ranges, for example per year, per month or per branch, as long as it is clear which range an invoice belongs to;
• gaps in the sequence: a gapless series isn't required.

What isn't allowed is using the same number twice. A replacement invoice therefore gets a number of its own. Invoices up to 250 euros and invoices under the small-business rule need no sequential number at all.

7. Correcting or cancelling an invoice

An invoice with a missing or wrong detail can be corrected (§ 31(5) UStDV). You send a document that refers specifically and unambiguously to the original invoice (its number and date) and contains the corrected details. It must meet the same form rules as an invoice. Only the person who issued the invoice can correct it; with self-billing, that is the client.

In practice many businesses cancel the wrong invoice with a cancellation invoice (Stornorechnung) that refers to it, then issue a new one with a new number. Either way, the trail from the first invoice to the final figures must be clear.

Three points that matter:

• Wrong VAT. If an invoice shows more VAT than is due, you owe the extra to the Finanzamt until you correct the invoice (§ 14c(1) UStG). If someone shows VAT who wasn't entitled to at all, correcting it needs the Finanzamt's consent once the risk to the tax revenue is gone (§ 14c(2) UStG).
• The client's input tax. A correction can work back to the original date if the first invoice already named the issuer and the client and showed the service, the amount and the VAT separately (Umsatzsteuer-Anwendungserlass, section 15.2a(7), and the BMF letter of 18 September 2020). If it didn't, the client can deduct the VAT only once the corrected invoice arrives.
• Discounts after the event. A prompt-payment discount taken by the client, or a price cut after a complaint, changes the VAT but doesn't require the invoice to be corrected.

Once e-invoices are compulsory for an invoice, its correction must be an e-invoice too.

8. How long to keep invoices

Eight years, for the invoices you issue (as a copy) and the ones you receive (§ 14b(1) UStG). Until the end of 2024 it was ten years. The cut applies to invoices and accounting vouchers (Buchungsbelege) under tax and commercial law alike (§ 147(3) AO, § 257(4) HGB), and to every document whose old ten-year period hadn't run out by 31 December 2024 (Art. 97 § 19a EGAO). Banks, insurers and investment firms have their own transition.

The period starts at the end of the year the invoice was issued. So invoices dated 2017 could generally go from 1 January 2026, and invoices dated 2018 can go from 1 January 2027.

Two catches. The period doesn't end while the documents still matter for a tax assessment that is open, for example during an audit (§ 147(3) AO, last sentence). And e-invoices must be kept as the original data file, not as a printout. Not keeping invoices for the eight years can be fined up to 5,000 euros (§ 26a UStG). Invoices are normally stored in Germany; electronic storage elsewhere in the EU is allowed with full online access, and the Finanzamt must be told where (§ 14b(2) UStG).

9. E-invoices: what changes from 2027

Since 1 January 2025 every business in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices: structured data files such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD, not PDFs. Sending them to other German businesses becomes compulsory from 1 January 2027 for businesses with more than 800,000 euros turnover in 2026, and from 1 January 2028 for everyone else. Invoices up to 250 euros and invoices under the small-business rule stay exempt.

The content rules on this page don't change. An e-invoice needs the same details, in the data rather than on a page. Our guide to e-invoicing covers the dates, the formats and the exceptions.

10. Where it gets complicated

A domestic invoice at the standard rate is routine once the template is right. The questions that need a closer look are about VAT treatment rather than layout:

• clients abroad, especially private ones, and services with special place-of-supply rules;
• mixed rates or exempt services on one invoice;
• advance and final invoices, where earlier payments and their VAT must be deducted;
• moving into or out of the small-business rule during a year;
• invoices that already showed the wrong VAT, or a client asking for corrections;
• switching to software that issues e-invoices.

A Steuerberater can check your invoice template and the VAT treatment of your clients before the invoices go out.

Before you send an invoice