20. Okt. 2026
BMF Publishes Additional Guidance on Mandatory German E-Invoicing
On 15 October 2026, the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) issued a new letter clarifying technical requirements, invoicing scenarios and transitional tolerances. It comes ahead of the next phase of the B2B e-invoicing mandate, which starts on 1 January 2027 for businesses with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000. The letter confirms that a business-rule validation error does not automatically make an e-invoice invalid for VAT purposes. An invoice loses its tax validity only when the error concerns a VAT-relevant field. The BMF also recommends the KoSIT and FeRD mapping tables for mandatory tax information.
The guidance also sets out relief for specific scenarios. Construction invoices can summarise trades in the structured data and attach the full service details. Final invoices with advance payments may summarise partial payments in BT-113 until 30 June 2030, and gross-price rounding summaries are allowed until 31 December 2027. Corrections must use structured formats, but flexible correction methods are still accepted. No fine currently applies to invoices that are not EN 16931 compliant, but such invoices can still cause problems in tax audits and with input VAT deduction.
Source: German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), letter of 15 October 2026 – https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Downloads/BMF_Schreiben/Steuerarten/Umsatzsteuer/…