The European standard EN 16931 allows European member states to supplement and refine the European requirements with additional rules, using CIUS (Core Invoice Usage Specification), provided these do not conflict with the standard. Germany’s CIUS is the XRechnung standard – a national version of the European standard.
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CEN-compliant invoice standard
The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) has issued a standard on e-invoicing that ensures EU-wide standardisation in syntax (rules according to which the computerised system of symbols/characters is formed) and semantics (meaning of the symbols/characters of this system) as a basis for national implementation. The member states can introduce their own standards or formalisation of the standard (known as CIUS, Core Invoice Usage Specification) based on this standard. Conformity to the CEN standard facilitates EU-wide processing.
Consolidation of IT services
By 2025, a federal programme comprising more than 40 projects will develop joint, efficient, secure IT solutions for the federal administration. These solutions will be provided in some 200 federal authorities. The introduction of electronic invoicing is part of this federal programme to consolidate IT services.
Invoice content | Content of e-invoices
According to Section 5 of the Federal Government’s Regulation on Electronic Invoicing, in addition to VAT invoicing elements (for more on this, see Section 14 of the Value-Added Tax Act (UStG)), an e-invoice must contain the following information at a minimum:
- Buyer reference (Leitweg-ID) number – Your invoice recipient will inform you of the buyer reference when the contract is awarded.
- Terms of payment or the date by which payment is due
- Bank account details of the payment recipient
- Email address of the invoice issuer
- Sales order number (optional)
- Purchase order number (optional)
