The obligation to issue electronic invoices comes into force in business sectors in Germany from January 1, 2025. From this point on, invoices can be issued, transmitted and received only in a structured electronic format. A simple PDF document is no longer valid. With the approval of the Annual Tax Act 2024, the Federal Council on Friday cleared the way for an exception: Small businesses are not obliged to issue e-invoices. However, you must be able to accept them and store them electronically in an immutable manner.
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Also, the following applies from January: A small business owner is a person who had a turnover of no more than 25,000 euros in the previous calendar year and a turnover of no more than 100,000 euros in the current calendar year. Earlier this limit was 22,000 Euro and 50,000 Euro respectively. The deadline for e-invoice for all other companies has expired. Especially in the XRechnung and ZUGFeRD formats prevalent in Germany. Also available from version 2.0.1. These satisfy relevant sales tax requirements. The general exceptions also apply to small amounts up to a total amount of 250 euros and to tickets counted as invoices.
Value of exception in practice is questionable
Finn Glovik, sales expert at software company WISO Mein Büro, warns of the danger that “large companies will pressure small businesses to issue e-invoices despite exemption from liability.” For corporations, this means extra effort to process both e-invoices and traditional PDFs, etc. In fact, the exemption from liability may not actually lead to less administrative work for smaller companies. The federal government recently stated that an email inbox is generally sufficient for e-invoices. However, the e-Invoicing Association says this will only meet the current minimum requirements. Tax-relevant data contained in invoices will have to be transmitted to tax authorities in real time by 2030. Peppol network is best suited for this. The EU Council agreed to the same legislative package in early November.
points more than annual tax law: Tax exemptions for small photovoltaic systems, such as the increasingly popular balcony power plants, are being standardised: a maximum permissible gross output of 30 kW (“peak”) now applies to all types of buildings. In addition, parents should be able to apply for child benefit electronically. In the case of electricity storage, local communities share in the system operators’ business tax revenues, as is already the case for wind and solar systems. Tax legislation broadly comes into force on the day it becomes possible to promulgate it in the Federal Law Gazette.
update
11/24/2024,
01:05
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An initial version of this report said that small businesses would generally be exempted from the obligation to issue e-invoices. In fact, it only applies on a temporary basis and only if the business partner agrees to a different form. The message has been corrected accordingly. We apologize for the error.
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