Germany’s B2B e-invoicing: receipt now, issuing in phases.

Structured invoices are already part of German B2B operations. Issuing transitions depend on turnover and the type of transaction, while specific exceptions remain.

Timeline and scope checked 5 September 2026

What's changing, in one breath

Germany now distinguishes structured e-invoices from paper invoices and ordinary PDFs. Domestic businesses must be able to receive e-invoices. Issuing requirements phase in after transitional periods, with exceptions including qualifying small-business supplies. Read the BMF guidance.

Why? The same reason as everywhere else: closing the VAT gap, and preparing the ground for the EU's wider digital-reporting plans. One thing Germany has not done, so far, is copy France's model of approved platforms that report your invoice data to the tax authority. For now, a compliant e-invoice can travel by something as ordinary as email. A reporting layer is planned to follow later, in step with the EU's ViDA package.

Key dates

These are selected milestones. Confirm the detailed scope, exceptions and transitional rules with the linked authority before making a business decision.

Does this actually hit you?

Check domestic establishment, transaction type and the applicable exception. The Kleinunternehmer exception concerns issuing, not the ability to receive.

• Your group has a German entity. Then the mandate is not a 2027 problem, it is a 2025 one: your German company is already required to be able to receive structured e-invoices from its German suppliers, even if it never issues one. Whether the issuing duty hits it in 2027 or 2028 depends on its own turnover, not the group's.
• You sell into Germany from abroad, with no establishment there. The issuing obligation generally does not reach you today. But your German customers are re-plumbing how they take invoices in, some will start asking every supplier for structured formats, and whether you have a German fixed establishment is suddenly a question with invoicing consequences. Worth confirming your position rather than assuming it.
• You feel safe because 2028 sounds far away. Except the receipt duty is already live, the 2027 threshold catches more companies than expect it (800,000 euros of turnover is not a large business), and the comfortable habit of emailing PDFs only survives while every recipient keeps consenting to it.

Where Kehai comes in

Kehai monitors configured official German sources and drafts an entity-specific assessment. Your team confirms the position and records an action, owner and target date. Kehai does not format or send invoices.