2025-03-05·DE·ViDA
GUIDANCEDraft technical specs for VAT in the Digital Age
Ecofin council releases updated compromise text regarding real-time reporting aligned to EN 16931.
Effective 2027-07-01Source
MANDEXA
System status
LIVE DATA SYNC
EI
All countriesDE · B2B DE · B2G
Germany
UpcomingB2B e-invoicing mandate phased in 2025–2028 under the Growth Opportunities Act.
Europe · ISO DE · Last updated 2025-03-02
01
Country overview
Status
Upcoming
Maturity
Implementing
CTC model
Interoperability (Peppol)
Go-live
2025
Peppol
Supported
E-reporting
Not required
B2G
Mandatory
XRechnung via ZRE/OZG-RE
B2B
Phased
Receive: Jan 2025 · Issue: 2027/2028
B2C
Not required
Taxpayers in scope
All domestic VAT-registered businesses
Main authority
Bundesministerium der Finanzen (BMF)
Next deadline
2027-01-01
Issuance mandate for >EUR 800k turnover
02
Regulatory timeline
- Announced
Growth Opportunities Act adopted
- B2B
All B2B recipients must accept structured e-invoices
- Transition
EDI & PDF (with consent) still allowed
- B2B
Issuance mandate for suppliers >EUR 800k turnover
- Go-live
Universal B2B issuance mandate
03
B2B requirements
B2B status
Phased — Receive: Jan 2025 · Issue: 2027/2028
- In scope
- All domestic B2B between German-established taxable persons.
- Format requirements
- Structured EN 16931 invoice: XRechnung or hybrid ZUGFeRD/Factur-X >=2.0.1.
- Transmission model
- Decentralised — bilateral or Peppol; no central clearance.
- Platform requirements
- Any channel that preserves structured XML (Peppol, email, AS4, EDI).
- Buyer registration
- No central registration; recipients must be able to receive structured invoices from 1 Jan 2025.
- Supplier obligations
- Issue structured invoices from 2027 (>EUR 800k turnover) and 2028 (all).
- Buyer obligations
- Receive structured invoices from 1 Jan 2025; PDF only with sender consent during transition.
- Archiving
- GoBD-compliant archiving in original structured format for 10 years.
- Validation
- Buyer responsible for syntactic and EN 16931 validation.
- Roadmap
- ViDA-aligned digital reporting expected after 2030.
04
B2G requirements
B2G status
Mandatory — XRechnung via ZRE/OZG-RE
- Public sector platforms
- ZRE (federal) and OZG-RE (federal & state agencies opted in).
- Required formats
- XRechnung (EN 16931 CIUS, UBL or CII syntax).
- Buyer identifiers
- Leitweg-ID identifies the public buyer entity.
- Routing identifiers
- Leitweg-ID; Peppol Participant ID for Peppol exchange.
- Peppol usage
- Peppol BIS 3.0 supported as transmission alternative.
- Government portals
- ZRE (zre.bund.de), OZG-RE (xrechnung-bdr.de).
- Validation rules
- KoSIT validator with XRechnung rules.
- Supplier onboarding
- Suppliers register Leitweg-ID per contracting authority.
05
Mandatory invoice fields
Fields required for a compliant electronic invoice under the currently applicable specification.
Format
XRechnung
Specification
3.0.2 (valid from 2025-02-01)
Syntax
UBL 2.1 Invoice / UN/CEFACT CII D16B
Last verified
2026-08-01
Format
Transaction
Requirement
| Field / Business term | ID | Requirement | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document information | |||
| Invoice number | BT-1 | mandatory | Unique identification of the invoice. |
| Invoice issue date | BT-2 | mandatory | Date on which the invoice was issued. |
| Invoice type code | BT-3 | mandatory | Code identifying the functional type of the document (invoice, credit note...). |
| Invoice currency code | BT-5 | mandatory | Currency in which all invoice amounts are given, except the VAT accounting currency. |
| Specification identifier | BT-24 | mandatory | Identification of the specification / CIUS the invoice complies with. |
| Business process type | BT-23 | mandatory | ProfileID identifying the Peppol business process (billing 01:1.0). |
| Seller | |||
| Seller name | BT-27 | mandatory | Full legal or trading name of the seller. |
| Seller postal address | BG-5 / BT-35..40 | mandatory | Seller address; the country code (BT-40) is always required, city and postcode as applicable. |
| Seller electronic address (endpoint ID) | BT-34 | mandatory | Seller Peppol participant identifier with an ISO 6523 scheme identifier. |
| Seller contact point, telephone and e-mail | BT-41 / BT-42 / BT-43 | mandatory | XRechnung requires a seller contact group with name, telephone and e-mail address. |
| Seller street, city and post code | BT-35 / BT-37 / BT-38 | mandatory | XRechnung raises the EN 16931 optional address elements to mandatory. |
| Buyer | |||
| Buyer name | BT-44 | mandatory | Name of the party the invoice is issued to. |
| Buyer postal address | BG-8 / BT-50..55 | mandatory | Buyer address; country code (BT-55) is always required. |
| Buyer electronic address (endpoint ID) | BT-49 | mandatory | Buyer Peppol participant identifier with an ISO 6523 scheme identifier. |
| Buyer street, city and post code | BT-50 / BT-52 / BT-53 | mandatory | Buyer address detail is mandatory under XRechnung. |
| Payment | |||
| Payment instructions | BG-16 / BT-81 | mandatory | XRechnung requires payment means information on the invoice. |
| VAT / Tax | |||
| VAT category taxable amount | BT-116 | mandatory | Sum of all taxable amounts subject to one VAT category / rate (per VAT breakdown BG-23). |
| VAT category tax amount | BT-117 | mandatory | VAT amount for the VAT breakdown group. |
| VAT category code | BT-118 | mandatory | Coded VAT treatment of the breakdown group (S, Z, E, AE, K, G, O, L, M). |
| Invoice totals | |||
| Sum of invoice line net amounts | BT-106 | mandatory | Total of all invoice line net amounts. |
| Invoice total amount without VAT | BT-109 | mandatory | Total amount of the invoice excluding VAT. |
| Invoice total amount with VAT | BT-112 | mandatory | Total invoice amount including VAT. |
| Amount due for payment | BT-115 | mandatory | Outstanding amount that is requested to be paid. |
| Invoice lines | |||
| Invoice line identifier | BT-126 | mandatory | Unique identifier for the invoice line. |
| Invoiced quantity | BT-129 | mandatory | Quantity of items charged on the line. |
| Invoiced quantity unit of measure | BT-130 | mandatory | Unit of measure applicable to the invoiced quantity. |
| Invoice line net amount | BT-131 | mandatory | Total amount of the line excluding VAT, after line allowances/charges. |
| Item net price | BT-146 | mandatory | Price of one item excluding VAT, after price discount. |
| Invoiced item VAT category code | BT-151 | mandatory | VAT category applicable to the invoiced item. |
| Item name | BT-153 | mandatory | Name of the invoiced item or service. |
| References | |||
| Buyer reference (Leitweg-ID) | BT-10 | mandatory | Routing identifier of the public buyer; in B2G it must carry a valid Leitweg-ID. |
31 fields · valid from 2025-02-01 Official specification
06
Technical requirements
Accepted formats
XRechnung 3.xZUGFeRD 2.xFactur-XUBL 2.1UN/CEFACT CII
XML standards
UBL 2.1UN/CEFACT CII D16B
EN 16931 alignment
Full EN 16931 alignment via XRechnung CIUS.
Peppol
Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 + Peppol AS4 transport.
Country-specific CIUS
XRechnung CIUS maintained by KoSIT.
Validation rules
KoSIT validator + Schematron rules.
Mandatory fields
Leitweg-ID (B2G)Seller/Buyer VAT IDsBT-1 invoice numberBT-9 due dateBT-23 business process
Buyer reference
BT-10 Buyer reference — Leitweg-ID for B2G.
Seller / buyer identifiers
VAT ID (USt-IdNr) or tax number; Peppol Participant ID for routing.
VAT number requirements
Seller and buyer VAT IDs required for cross-border and reverse charge.
Endpoint identifiers
Peppol Participant ID under iso6523 scheme 0204 (Leitweg-ID) or 9930 (VAT).
Transmission channels
Peppol AS4EmailWeb portal upload (ZRE/OZG-RE)API
APIs / portal
ZRE/OZG-RE REST upload; Peppol Access Point APIs.
Digital signatures
Not mandatory; integrity by GoBD-compliant archiving.
Archiving format
Original structured XML (with PDF for hybrid).
Retention
10 years per AO §147.
07
VAT & tax calculation
- VAT treatment
- Standard 19% / reduced 7% / zero-rated for intra-EU & exports.
- VAT category rules
- EN 16931 BT-151 category codes (S, Z, E, AE, K, G, O).
- Exemption reasons
- BT-121 exemption reason text required when applicable.
- Reverse charge
- Category AE; mandatory note '§13b UStG Reverse charge'.
- Domestic VAT
- Output VAT per rate; reported in monthly/quarterly UStVA.
- Cross-border VAT
- Intra-EU supply (K); export (G); requires VAT IDs.
- Tax point date
- Issue date and supply date (BT-9, BT-72).
- Rounding rules
- Half-up to two decimals at totals; line-level per BR-CO-04.
- Invoice totals
- BG-22 totals must reconcile with line subtotals and tax breakdown.
- Line-level tax
- Each line carries category, rate and net amount.
- Tax subtotals
- BG-23 VAT breakdown per category & rate.
- Credit notes
- Type code 381 or 384; reference original invoice.
- Cancellation / correction
- Cancellation by credit note referencing original invoice.
08
E-reporting / CTC
No real-time reporting planned in initial phase; aligned to ViDA timeline.
Required
No
Model
None
Reports to
No transactional reporting in initial phase.
Frequency
n/a
Real-time
Not in scope until ViDA-aligned phase.
VAT reporting link
Standard UStVA monthly/quarterly VAT returns continue.
Cross-border reporting
EU recapitulative statement (ZM) remains.
09
Authorities & official links
Authorities
Format publishers & specs
- KOSIT — XRechnung
https://www.xrechnung.bund.de
- FeRD — ZUGFeRD / Factur-X
https://www.ferd-net.de
10
News & updates
11
Practical implementation notes
ERP readiness
ERP must emit XRechnung/ZUGFeRD with EN 16931 fields and Leitweg-ID where applicable.
Master data
Customer master: Leitweg-ID, Peppol ID, VAT ID, contact email for routing.
Customer onboarding
Confirm preferred reception channel (Peppol, email, portal) and ID.
Supplier onboarding
Capture supplier Peppol ID, VAT ID and bank details.
Mapping
Map ERP fields to BT-/BG- elements; align tax category codes.
Validation handling
Run KoSIT validator pre-send; capture Schematron warnings.
Error handling
Persist rejection reasons, requeue with corrected payload.
Reconciliation
Match accepted XML to ledger entries; archive original.
Testing approach
Sandbox via Peppol test SMP and ZRE/OZG-RE test environment.
Go-live risks
Hybrid format consistency (PDF vs XML), Leitweg-ID accuracy.
Operational support
Issue triage by error class (schema, Schematron, transport).