B2B Documents are sent from your business to another.

Germany uses the PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 specification for this kind of B2B e-invoicing. PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 is based on the Universal Business Language (UBL) 2.1 format and adheres to the European standard for e-Invoicing (EN 16931). PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 defines its own set of rules on top of these.

Mandate

On 17 April 2023 the German Ministry of Finance (BMF) proposed new additions to the German VAT ACT (UStG). The proposed changes concerned the implementation of mandatory B2B e-invoicing. In July 2023, This was formalized through the publication of the Growth Opportunities Act. The act, which will make domestic B2B e-invoicing mandatory, was officially passed by the Bundesrat (Germany’s upper house of parliament) on 22 March 2024, having previously been passed by the Bundestag (Germany’s lower house of parliament) on 23 February 2024.

B2B timeline

The following is the timeline for the rollout of this:

• 1 January 2025: All domestic businesses will be required to receive and process electronic invoices.
• 1 January 2027: Domestic businesses with an annual turnover exceeding €800k must issue invoices electronically.
• 1 January 2028: All domestic businesses must issue invoices electronically.

The German initiative does not include a central platform. The mandate purely focuses on digitalization resulting in the exchange of invoices between the supplier and the buyer.

An electronic invoice must conform to the EN 16931-2 (syntax), that is Universal Business Language] (UBL) or UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice (CII) or a format mutually agreed by the invoice issuer and recipient, providing it’s interoperable and complies with the EN 16931-1 (semantic data model).

ZUGFeRD, a PDF/A-3 hybrid with an embedded CII, is also compliant with the EN 16931 from versions 2.0.1 onward and is already widely used in the German market.

From January 2025, invoices such as paper, PDF, and electronic formats that do not comply with the EN 16931 will be considered as “other invoices”. These will be permissible until the end of the calendar year of 2026 and will be invalid thereafter.

Invoice recipients must provide an email account to receive an electronic invoice, although the invoice issuer and recipient can also agree on other electronic transmission protocols that is PEPPOL, AS2, SFTP, and so on.

Details

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