In order for the invoice issuer or sender to be able to send an electronic invoice to the correct address, the invoice recipient of the Federal Administration must be uniquely identified and addressable. The buyer reference is called “Leitweg-ID” in German.
The buyer reference enables electronic addressing and forwarding of the e-invoice by the Federal Central Invoice Submission Portal of the federal government to the connected ERP or release systems of the authorities of the federal administration.
The buyer reference is specified in the standard XRechnung invoice in the field ‘Buyer reference’ (BT-10) and must be transmitted as mandatory information on every e-invoice.
From 1 January 2025 – accompanied by transitional regulations – it will also be mandatory to use an electronic invoice (e-invoice) for transactions between domestic companies. The Federal Ministry of Finance is responsible for legal issues related to invoicing in the B2B sector. Companies do not need their own buyer reference for this purpose, as this is only used to address invoice recipients in the federal administration.
