Invoice requirements in Germany

What a German invoice has to show

In Germany an invoice is a Rechnung, and business customers read it closely because they rely on it for their own VAT and bookkeeping. An invoice with a detail missing tends to come back with a request to correct it, which delays your payment. The rules apply to everyone invoicing from Germany, including expats who may know quite different ones from home. If you have never written an invoice before, how to make an invoice walks through the basics first.

Check your invoice against this list, which is the full set of details a standard German invoice has to contain. Most items apply to every invoice, while a few only apply in particular situations and are explained underneath.

• Full name and address of the supplier and of the customer
• Supplier's tax number (Steuernummer) or VAT ID (USt-IdNr.)
• Invoice date
• Unique invoice number from one or more consecutive number series
• Quantity and usual trade name of the goods, or type and scope of the service
• Date of the supply or service (for an advance payment: the date the payment was received, if known and different from the invoice date)
• Net amount broken down by tax rate and by exemption, plus any agreed reduction (such as a discount) not already included
• Tax rate and tax amount, or a note that the supply is exempt
• For work or services connected with a property (land or buildings) for a private customer: a note that the customer must keep the invoice for 2 years
• The word 'Gutschrift' if the customer issues the invoice (self-billing)
• For tax-free intra-EU supplies of goods and EU reverse-charge services: the VAT IDs of both supplier and customer
• Where the customer owes the VAT (reverse charge): the note 'Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers'
• Registered businesses (rule for business letters): legal form, registered office, register court and register number; a GmbH also lists all managing directors

Two dates belong on the invoice, and they are easy to confuse. The invoice date is the day you issue it, while the date of the supply is when you did the work, so if you finished a client's website in March and invoice in April, both dates go on it. The description has to show what you actually supplied: "Website design, 5 pages, including two rounds of revisions" meets the rule, but "services as agreed" doesn't, because it says nothing about the type and scope of the work.

The situational items are the ones people miss. Work on a house or flat for a private customer, such as painting or repairs, needs the note telling them how long to keep the invoice, and the word Gutschrift only appears when your customer draws up the invoice for you, which is called self-billing. The last item comes from the rules for business letters rather than VAT law, so it only concerns registered businesses. A typical example is a GmbH, the German private limited company, which is entered in the commercial register (Handelsregister) and also has to name its managing directors. If you freelance on your own without any register entry, it doesn't apply to you, and registering with the tax office doesn't change that.

Which VAT rate to charge, and when to charge none

German VAT is called Umsatzsteuer (USt), though in everyday speech you'll also hear Mehrwertsteuer (MwSt) for the same tax. The standard rate in the table at the top is the default, and the reduced rate of 7% applies only to the goods and services the law names. These are the main ones, so check whether anything you sell is among them:

• Most food and groceries, including coffee and tea; most drinks (bottled water, juice, alcohol) stay at 19%
• Restaurant and catering meals (drinks stay at 19%)
• Books, newspapers and magazines, printed or electronic
• Granting or transferring rights under copyright law, such as licensing articles or photos (most software licences don't qualify)
• Tickets for theatres, concerts and museums, comparable performances by artists, and film screenings
• Short-term accommodation such as hotel rooms and campsites (extras such as parking or sauna use stay at 19%)
• Passenger transport by rail, tram or underground (any distance), and by scheduled bus, taxi or ferry within one town or up to 50 km (chartered coaches stay at 19%)
• Original works of art (paintings, drawings, original prints, sculptures) and collectors' items

For freelancers the copyright item matters most. A writer who licenses an article to a magazine can usually invoice those rights at the reduced rate, but a paid consulting day for the same magazine carries the standard rate, so the invoice shows each line with its own rate and the totals break the VAT down by rate. Developers should note the exception in brackets: most software licences stay at the standard rate.

Some invoices show no German VAT at all. If your turnover stays within the limits in the table, you can use the small business scheme, the Kleinunternehmerregelung (§ 19 UStG), and leave VAT off your invoices altogether; businesses that do are called Kleinunternehmer, and UStG is the German VAT Act (Umsatzsteuergesetz). In place of the VAT you print a note, which on a German invoice typically reads Gemäß § 19 UStG wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet (Steuerbefreiung für Kleinunternehmer). On an English invoice the same note can read No VAT is charged under § 19 UStG (small business exemption). The Kleinunternehmer invoice guide explains what else that invoice needs. A service to a business in another EU country normally falls under reverse charge, which means the customer, not you, is responsible for the VAT; your invoice then shows both VAT IDs and the note "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" (in English, "Reverse charge: the customer is liable for the VAT"), which the maker adds for you when you choose reverse charge on the lines.

Business clients outside the EU, such as a start-up in New York or an agency in London, are the third case. A service to a business customer outside the EU (for example in the US or UK) is normally taxed where the customer runs its business, so it is not taxable in Germany and the invoice shows no German VAT (§ 3a Abs. 2 UStG); some services, such as those connected with land or buildings, follow other rules. German law requires no special note, but the chambers of commerce (IHK) recommend one such as 'nicht im Inland steuerbare Leistung'. Following that recommendation costs one line under the total, and on an English invoice the note can read Service not taxable in Germany.

Invoice numbers, tax IDs and keeping records

The rule on numbering is short: Each invoice gets a unique number from one or more consecutive number series, assigned only once by the issuer. You can use one continuous series or start a new one each year, such as 2026-001, 2026-002, as long as no number is ever given to two invoices, including the number of an invoice you cancelled. The guide to invoice numbers compares formats that work. The maker counts the number up automatically for each new invoice, so you start from the right one each time.

Two different numbers can identify you as the supplier on a German invoice. The Steuernummer is the tax number your local tax office (Finanzamt) gives you, while the Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer (USt-IdNr.) is a separate VAT ID that looks like DE123456788 and is used in business with other EU countries. The table at the top shows which one is needed where; if you have a USt-IdNr., putting it on every invoice is simplest, because one number then works for German and EU clients alike.

Keep a copy of every invoice for the period shown in the table, and make that copy the PDF you actually sent rather than the data in the maker. A finalised invoice in the maker can't be changed or deleted, but one you download and send yourself stays an editable draft until you mark it as sent, so the PDF is the safest record of exactly what your client received. The CSV export and quarterly VAT summary help when you pass the figures to your accountant, but filing the copies safely is up to you.

E-invoices, and what a PDF counts as

Germany is moving invoices between businesses to e-invoices, and the word has a precise meaning there. An e-invoice is a structured data file in one of the European standard formats named in the table, such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD, which the customer's software reads without anyone retyping it. A PDF is not an e-invoice, even when sent by email, because it is a document for people to read rather than data for software, and the maker only produces PDFs: it can't create XRechnung or ZUGFeRD files.

The timetable in the table has two parts, one for receiving e-invoices and one for issuing them. The receiving part is already in force, and in practice it means having a way to open and keep the files your suppliers send. The issuing part comes in two steps by size: the earlier date applies to you only if your turnover in the calendar year before that date was above the threshold in the table, and everyone else starts on the later date. Until your date arrives, you can keep sending German business clients a PDF from the maker, as long as the client agrees to receive invoices that way.

Even after your date, much of your invoicing may stay as it is, because the obligation only covers sales to businesses in Germany and the exceptions are wide. No e-invoice is needed for sales to consumers or to businesses not established in Germany, for most VAT-exempt supplies (§ 4 Nr. 8–29 UStG, such as financial services and residential lettings), for invoices up to €250 gross, travel tickets, invoices from Kleinunternehmer (§ 19 UStG) or supplies to non-business legal entities; these may stay on paper, or PDF if the customer agrees. Public authorities are an exception: federal authorities (and many states) require e-invoices under their own rules. Every business, including Kleinunternehmer, must still be able to receive e-invoices. As a Kleinunternehmer you can therefore keep sending PDFs, with your client's agreement, for as long as you use the scheme, and the same goes for invoices to private customers and to businesses abroad.

The public-authority exception in that rule is the one that can catch out a small freelancer, because it already applies and doesn't depend on your size. If you work for a federal ministry or agency, those invoices generally need an e-invoice in a format such as XRechnung, made with other software, rather than a PDF from the maker. For your other German business clients, you'll need such software once your issuing date arrives, unless one of the exceptions above covers you. Sending the file stays as easy as sending a PDF today, because Germany's rule on delivery is short: email allowed (no central platform or prescribed network), so it can go to your client as an email attachment.

Language, currency and setting up the maker

Many expats wonder whether an invoice from Germany has to be in German. An invoice may be in another language: the required notes may use the wording of any EU official language (for example 'Reverse charge' instead of 'Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers'), and EU law bars a general translation requirement. German is the tax office's official language, so it can ask for a prompt translation of a foreign-language invoice (§ 87 AO). English is therefore fine for international clients and for German clients who are happy with it, though a German invoice spares your client's accounts staff, and the tax office, any translating.

Currency is just as flexible. An invoice may be in any currency, but under the EU VAT Directive the VAT amount must also be stated in euros. Foreign-currency amounts are converted at the monthly average rate the Federal Ministry of Finance publishes for the month of the supply, or at the daily rate if the tax office allows it (§ 16 Abs. 6 UStG). This matters when you charge German VAT in a foreign currency; an invoice to a US business client normally shows no German VAT, so there is nothing to convert. The maker works in the one currency you choose, so if you do charge German VAT in another currency, add the euro VAT amount in the notes.

Opening the maker from this page sets it up for Germany: EUR, A4 paper, the 19% standard rate and a German invoice, which you can switch to English or another of its 20 invoice languages. Enter your business details once, including your VAT ID, IBAN and any company registration number, and if you show a Steuernummer instead, add it in a custom field. Each line takes its own VAT rate, and for a Kleinunternehmer or an EU business client you choose VAT exemption or reverse charge, which prints the required sentence on the PDF. The maker has fields for the invoice date and due date but not for the date of supply, so add it to the line description or a custom field, for example Leistungsdatum (date of supply): 14.03.2026. Then download or print the PDF, or, with a free account, send it by email or as a link the client can open.