Germany mandates XRechnung for B2G e-invoicing. B2B mandate starts January 2025. Get compliant with XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, and Peppol through GoRoute.ai. If you trade across the border, Belgium’s B2B mandate is already live and fully enforced, and Norway mandates B2B issuing from 1 January 2027.
Federal authorities required to receive XRechnung format e-invoices.
All businesses must be able to receive structured e-invoices.
Businesses above EUR 800,000 of prior-year turnover must issue e-invoices.
All remaining domestic businesses must issue e-invoices.
The threshold is what decides your date: a business with more than EUR 800,000 of prior-year turnover issues from 1 January 2027, everyone else from 1 January 2028. The phases, the formats and a readiness checklist are set out in Germany B2B e-invoicing 2025–2028: XRechnung and ZUGFeRD. Both German neighbours are ahead of these dates: France has required every VAT-registered business to receive since 1 September 2026, with small and micro-enterprises issuing from 1 September 2027, and Belgium has been live since 1 January 2026 and fully enforced since 1 April 2026. Belgium vs France vs Germany compares the three side by side. In Luxembourg, e-invoicing is mandatory for every supplier to the public sector, German companies included, while e-invoicing between businesses is still voluntary.
Germany's national CIUS (Core Invoice Usage Specification) for EN16931. Pure XML format (UBL or CII). Required for all B2G invoices.
Hybrid PDF/A-3 format with embedded XML. Human-readable PDF with machine-readable data. Identical to Factur-X.
Generate hybrid PDF/XML invoices with XRechnung profile for B2B transactions.
Proper German VAT rates (0%, 7%, 19%) with reverse charge and intra-EU handling.
Direct connection to the Peppol network for routing to German public authorities — and for the post-award documents that travel the same connection, including the despatch advice.
Automatic Leitweg-ID routing for German federal and state authorities.
GoBD-compliant archiving and audit trails for German tax requirements.
Get compliant with XRechnung B2G and prepare for the 2025-2028 B2B mandate. Selling on WooCommerce? The free plugin issues Peppol e-invoices from every business order in Germany. Selling on amazon.de? ZUGFeRD and XRechnung apply to those business orders too — what the seller side requires.
Official source: the Federal Ministry of Finance — which sets Germany's e-invoicing rules. Always confirm current obligations against the authority directly.
XRechnung is Germany's national e-invoice standard based on EN16931. It's a pure XML format (UBL or CII) required for invoicing German public authorities. KoSIT maintains the specification and validator.
From 1 January 2025 every domestic business must be able to receive an EN 16931 e-invoice. The obligation to issue one is phased by turnover: businesses with more than EUR 800,000 of prior-year turnover from 1 January 2027, and all remaining domestic businesses from 1 January 2028. Which side of EUR 800,000 your prior-year turnover falls on is what decides your date, so a business at EUR 900,000 is caught in 2027, not 2028. The phases and the formats are set out in full in our guide to Germany’s B2B mandate, and what the two dates mean for an online shop takes the same rule through a checkout, a refund and an unreachable buyer.
Leitweg-ID is a German routing identifier used to route e-invoices to the correct public authority. It consists of a hierarchy code identifying federal/state level and the receiving entity.
XRechnung is pure XML (UBL/CII) required for B2G. ZUGFeRD 2.1 is a hybrid PDF+XML format that can contain an XRechnung-profile XML. ZUGFeRD is often used for B2B as it's easier to distribute via email.
Trading beyond Germany? The United Kingdom will require e-invoicing for all VAT invoices from 2029, and UK buyers can already receive Peppol invoices today. See also France and Belgium.
