Germany plans to introduce B2B e-invoicing by 2025
Germany plans to introduce B2B e-invoicing by 2025.
Germany plans to introduce mandate B2B e-invoicing by 2025, according to a draft proposal released on 17 April 2023. This proposal is a discussion paper sent to the main German business stakeholders.
According to the information contained in the Government’ draft proposal:
- German e-invoicing would aim to cover domestic B2B transactions.
- German B2B e-invoicing would be in line with the European standard for electronic invoicing and the list of corresponding syntaxes according to Directive 2014/55/EU of April 16, 2014. This is the format proposed in ViDA.
The German proposal implies early compliance with ViDA regulations concerning electronic invoicing:
- Electronic invoicing changes its definition in the VAT Directive to refer exclusively to structured electronic invoices. This means that a PDF sent over email may no longer be considered an e-invoice.
- Electronic invoicing will be the default system for the issuance of invoices. The issuance of e-invoices will not depend on the acceptance of the recipient.
- The use of paper invoices will only be possible in situations where Member States authorize them and will never be applicable to intra-Community transactions.
- The invoice standard format proposed is European e-invoice standard CEN 16931.
- Also, the content of invoices (semantic) will be extended according to the Commission’s proposal to include: i) an identifier of the bank account in which the payment for the invoice will be credited, ii) the agreed dates and amount of each payment related to a concrete transaction, and, iii) in the case of an invoice that amends the initial invoice, the identification of that initial invoice.
Businesses have until 8 May to submit their feedback to the BMF.
Have a look at our article about electronic invoicing.