Receiving e-invoices: are you ready?

What the law asks of the recipient

The duty sits in section 14(1) and (2) UStG: for supplies between domestic businesses the e-invoice is the rule. The transition periods in section 27(38) UStG concern issuing only. Receiving has no grace period, because a supplier who already issues e-invoices must be able to deliver them. The Finance Ministry letter of 15 October 2025 sets the minimum: it is enough to provide an email inbox for receiving. Supplier and customer may agree on a particular transmission method, but none is prescribed.

This leads to four practical tasks, which the check above asks about: an address for incoming invoices, a tool to read them, a check before payment and storage that keeps the file unchanged.

Set up an address for invoices

A dedicated address used only for invoices works well, such as invoices@ or rechnung@ at your domain. Give it to your suppliers, ideally with a request to send one invoice per email. That way invoices do not land in personal inboxes, do not get lost during holidays and can later be matched to a transaction. If you work with platforms or the Peppol network, you can receive there too; the mandate does not require it.

Make the XML readable

An XRechnung is plain text with field names and no page layout. Open it with a viewer: the viewer on this site shows the sender, line items, VAT and payment details as a familiar invoice, reads the file in your browser and does not upload it. The tax administration also offers a free display with its e-invoice viewer on ELSTER. With a ZUGFeRD invoice you see the PDF first, but the data of the embedded XML is what counts. If the PDF and the XML differ, the XML prevails.

Check before paying

The check is the same as for a paper invoice: are the name and address right, does it match your order, are quantity, price, VAT rate and totals correct? What is new is that software can take over part of it. The pre-check in the XRechnung validator recalculates line items and totals and reports missing mandatory fields with the rule they break. If something needed for the input VAT deduction is missing, ask for a corrected invoice before you pay.

Forward and keep

When the invoice goes to your bookkeeping or your adviser, always forward the original file. For your own records section 14b UStG applies: 8 years, in the original format and in a way that rules out later changes. How to manage that with simple means is shown on archiving e-invoices. Whether your invoices are already kept correctly is what the small calculator tells you:

You can produce a printable version for files or approvals from the XML, as described on converting XRechnung to PDF. That PDF is a reading aid and does not replace the XML in your records.