Invoices are issued according to the rules of the country of destination. Invoice issuers from outside Germany who are “entrepreneurs” as defined in section 14 of the German Civil Code ( Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) and who are involved in public procurement transactions with the federal administration, as referred to in section 1 of the E-Invoicing Ordinance ( E-Rechnungsverordnung, ERechV), are obliged to issue electronic invoices in compliance with the E-Invoicing Ordinance.
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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)
Indirect federal administration
Organisations of the indirect federal administration may use the Online Access Act-compliant Invoice Submission Portal (OZG-RE) to receive e-invoices. However, please note that organisations of the indirect federal administration, sector-specific customers and funding recipients may alternatively use their own solutions rather than the OZG-RE. A list of organisations that use the OZG-RE is available here (in German).
Transmission methods (input channels)
E-invoices can be transmitted to the federal administration in various ways. The transmission method you choose may depend on the number of invoices you have to send. The methods best suited to sending large numbers of invoices are the web service (via Peppol) and email. Alternatively, you can submit your invoices via upload or web submission.
