A German invoice is not a letter about money. It is a document with a list of contents prescribed by law, and the list is in § 14 Abs. 4 UStG. Ten items, no more and no less, with a shorter list for small amounts in § 33 UStDV and extra statements for special cases in § 14a UStG. The reason to take the list seriously is not that the Finanzamt fines the issuer — it usually does not. It is that a business customer who receives an incomplete invoice cannot safely claim its Vorsteuerabzug from it, so it sends the document back and holds the payment. This page sets out every particular, what each one means when someone actually types it, where the traps are, how a defective invoice is corrected, and what KRONENWERK checks before an invoice gets its number. KRONENWERK is not a tax adviser and this page is information, not advice; the judgement calls belong to you and your Steuerberater.
Why the list is really the recipient's list
§ 15 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 1 UStG makes the point in one sentence: exercising the Vorsteuerabzug requires that the trader possesses an invoice issued in accordance with §§ 14, 14a. The deduction hangs on the document, not on the fact that the supply happened and the money moved. So the person with the most to lose from a missing particular is the recipient, whose input tax is at risk in the next audit, and that is why business customers return invoices over things that look pedantic — a missing Leistungszeitpunkt, an address that is a trading name rather than a full address, a line that reads "services as agreed".
For the issuer the exposure is different and usually smaller. There is a duty to issue an invoice within six months for supplies to another trader and to a non-trading legal person (§ 14 Abs. 2 UStG), and there is real danger in the other direction: tax shown on an invoice that was not owed is nevertheless payable under § 14c UStG. But the day-to-day cost of an incomplete invoice is commercial. It is an unpaid receivable and a phone call from someone else's bookkeeper.
The ten mandatory particulars of § 14 Abs. 4 UStG
The table below is the statutory list in statutory order, with what each item means in practice and the mistake that is actually made. Nr. 1 to Nr. 8 apply to nearly every invoice; Nr. 9 and Nr. 10 apply in defined situations.
| Nr. | The particular | What it means in practice | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The full name and full address of the supplying trader and of the Leistungsempfänger | Both parties, each with a complete postal address. § 31 Abs. 2 UStDV is satisfied when the designations used allow name and address of both to be established unambiguously. | The recipient's side is the one that gets forgotten. "Firma Müller, Hamburg" is not an address. A trading name without the legal entity behind it, or an old address after a move, is the most common defect in an otherwise perfect invoice. |
| 2 | The Steuernummer issued by the Finanzamt or the USt-IdNr. issued by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern | One of the two, not both. Whichever you print, print it on every invoice. | Printing neither because the letterhead "has it somewhere". For intra-Community supplies and reverse-charge cases the USt-IdNr. is not optional — see § 14a below. |
| 3 | The Ausstellungsdatum | The date the invoice was issued. | Rarely missing. Frequently the only date on the document, which is the trap in Nr. 6. |
| 4 | A sequential Rechnungsnummer, with one or more series, allocated once by the issuer to identify the invoice | Unique across the business. Several series are expressly allowed — by year, by branch, by document type — as long as a number identifies exactly one invoice. | Re-using a number after cancelling a draft, or leaving visible gaps that an auditor will ask about. A number should be spent only when a document is really issued. |
| 5 | The quantity and the nature (handelsübliche Bezeichnung) of the goods, or the extent and nature of the sonstige Leistung | A description specific enough that a third party can tell what was supplied, in the customary commercial terms of the trade. | The single biggest cause of refusals. "Consulting", "repair work", "services rendered", "as per agreement" do not identify a supply. Name the thing, the quantity, the period, the project or the object — and if the detail lives in a delivery note or timesheet, refer to it specifically, which § 31 Abs. 1 UStDV allows. |
| 6 | The Leistungszeitpunkt — the time of the supply or service; in advance-payment cases under § 14 Abs. 5 Satz 1, the time the payment was received where that time is fixed and differs from the invoice date | When the supply actually happened. § 31 Abs. 4 UStDV permits the calendar month of performance to be given instead of a day. | The classic defect. Software prints the invoice date and nothing else, and the reader cannot tell when the supply took place. Even when the two coincide, the document must say so — a line such as "Leistungsdatum entspricht dem Rechnungsdatum" removes the doubt. When they differ and only one date appears, the invoice is incomplete. |
| 7 | The Entgelt, broken down by tax rate and by individual Steuerbefreiung, plus any reduction of the Entgelt agreed in advance that is not already reflected in it | Net amounts per rate, separately. Where a discount for early payment or a rebate was agreed beforehand, it must be visible on the document. | A mixed invoice with 19 % and 7 % items totalled into one net figure. Also: a Skonto agreement mentioned nowhere, so the recipient cannot see the agreed reduction. |
| 8 | The Steuersatz applied and the Steuerbetrag attributable to the Entgelt — or, where the supply is exempt, a reference that an exemption applies | Rate and amount, per rate. For an exempt supply, a statement on the document that it is exempt. | Stating "plus VAT" without an amount. For exempt and Kleinunternehmer invoices, showing an amount that is not owed: tax shown but not due is payable under § 14c UStG. A Kleinunternehmer invoice shows no Umsatzsteuer and says why — see the Kleinunternehmer invoice page. |
| 9 | In the cases of § 14b Abs. 1 Satz 5 UStG, a reference to the recipient's retention obligation | Applies to work on or in connection with land supplied to a private individual, who must keep the document. | Builders and tradespeople invoicing private households leave it off. It costs the issuer nothing to print it and it is a genuine obligation. |
| 10 | Where the invoice is issued by the Leistungsempfänger or a third party commissioned by them (§ 14 Abs. 2 Satz 5), the statement "Gutschrift" | Self-billing agreed in advance. The literal word must appear. | Using "Gutschrift" for a credit note that reverses an invoice. In UStG terms a Gutschrift is self-billing; a corrective credit note is better labelled Rechnungskorrektur or Stornorechnung to avoid confusion. |
The Kleinbetragsrechnung: § 33 UStDV, up to 250 euro
§ 33 UStDV cuts the list down for small documents. An invoice whose total amount does not exceed 250 euro — that is the gross total, tax included — needs only four things: the full name and full address of the supplying trader; the Ausstellungsdatum; the quantity and nature of the goods or the extent and nature of the service; and the Entgelt together with the tax attributable to it in one sum, plus the rate applied, or where the supply is exempt a reference to the exemption. No invoice number, no recipient, no separate tax amount, no Leistungszeitpunkt. That is what makes a till receipt usable as an input-tax document.
Three limits are worth knowing. First, § 33 does not apply to supplies within the meaning of §§ 3c, 6a and 13b UStG — distance sales, innergemeinschaftliche Lieferungen and reverse-charge supplies never qualify as Kleinbetragsrechnungen, whatever the amount. Second, the ceiling is a hard edge: at 250,00 euro gross the simplification still applies; above it the full § 14 Abs. 4 list returns. Third, § 33 Satz 4 UStDV allows a small-amount invoice always to be transmitted as a sonstige Rechnung, so it is one of the cases where a paper or PDF document remains permissible under the E-Rechnung rules.
The extra statements in special cases: § 14a UStG
§ 14a adds obligations on top of § 14 Abs. 4, and the wording it prescribes is literal. Where it applies, the words belong on the document exactly as the statute has them.
| Case | What must additionally appear | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse charge, domestic supply under § 13b Abs. 2 where the recipient owes the tax (§ 14a Abs. 5) | The statement "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" | The separate tax statement under § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1 Nr. 8 is expressly not applied. Show a net amount and the sentence — no German tax line. |
| Supply taxed in another member state where the recipient owes the tax (§ 14a Abs. 1) | The same statement "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers"; for services under § 3a Abs. 2, the USt-IdNr. of both parties | For § 3a Abs. 2 services the invoice is due by the fifteenth day of the month following the month of the supply. |
| Innergemeinschaftliche Lieferung (§ 14a Abs. 3) | The USt-IdNr. of the supplier and of the customer | Invoice due by the fifteenth day of the following month. Validate the customer's number and keep the result — the free USt-IdNr. checker does the confirmation. |
| Intra-Community supply of a new vehicle (§ 14a Abs. 4) | Additionally the vehicle characteristics named in § 1b Abs. 2 and 3 | Age and distance travelled are part of the document, not an annex. |
| Gutschrift — self-billing (§ 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1 Nr. 10, § 14 Abs. 2 Satz 5) | The word "Gutschrift" | Must be agreed beforehand; it loses the effect of an invoice as soon as the recipient of the Gutschrift objects to it. |
| Differenzbesteuerung under § 25a (§ 14a Abs. 6) | One of "Gebrauchtgegenstände/Sonderregelung", "Kunstgegenstände/Sonderregelung" or "Sammlungsstücke und Antiquitäten/Sonderregelung" | No separate tax statement (§ 14 Abs. 4 Satz 1 Nr. 8 does not apply in the cases of § 25a Abs. 3 and 4). The margin is not disclosed. |
| Travel services under § 25 — the margin scheme (§ 14a Abs. 6) | The statement "Sonderregelung für Reisebüros" | Again no separate tax statement in the cases of § 25 Abs. 3. |
| Innergemeinschaftliches Dreiecksgeschäft under § 25b Abs. 2 (§ 14a Abs. 7) | A reference to the triangular transaction and to the last customer's liability for the tax, plus both USt-IdNr. | No separate tax statement. |
When a particular is missing: consequences and correction
The recipient's position first. Because § 15 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 1 UStG requires possession of an invoice issued in accordance with §§ 14 and 14a, an invoice missing a mandatory particular puts the Vorsteuerabzug from it in question. In practice a careful bookkeeper does not deduct from it and does not pay it; it goes back to the supplier. Note the asymmetry: the supplier still owes the Umsatzsteuer on the supply regardless, so nothing is saved by leaving particulars off.
Correction is straightforward in form. § 31 Abs. 5 UStDV allows an invoice to be corrected where it does not contain all the particulars of § 14 Abs. 4 or § 14a, or where particulars in it are incorrect. Only the missing or incorrect particulars have to be transmitted, by a document that refers specifically and unambiguously to the original invoice, and that document must meet the same requirements of form and content as § 14. So a short corrective document naming the invoice number and adding, say, the Leistungszeitpunkt is enough — the whole invoice need not be reissued. Where the amount itself is wrong, the clean route is a credit note reversing the original and a new invoice.
Now the nuance, and it is a real one. Whether a correction takes effect retroactively, so that the Vorsteuerabzug stands in the original period rather than in the period of the correction, has been the subject of extensive case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Bundesfinanzhof, and it turns on whether the original document was already an invoice capable of correction — broadly, whether it named an issuer, a recipient, a description of the supply, a consideration and a separately stated tax amount — as against a document so deficient that there was nothing to correct. § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 4 UStG separately provides that the correction of an invoice for missing or incorrect particulars is not a retroactive event within the meaning of § 175 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 2 and § 233a Abs. 2a AO, which governs the procedural handling and the interest consequences. These two things are easy to confuse and the outcome in an individual case decides which year's deduction and whether interest runs. This page will not resolve it for you: where the period of your deduction depends on it, get it confirmed by your Steuerberater. KRONENWERK does not give that confirmation.
The same particulars, now inside a structured file
None of this changed with the E-Rechnung; it moved. Since 1 January 2025 every domestic business must be able to receive an e-invoice conforming to EN 16931, and the obligation to issue one for domestic B2B supplies phases in through transitional periods running to the end of 2027 — with the smaller-turnover and EDI reliefs the BMF describes — becoming general from 2028. The mandatory particulars are unchanged; they are simply now fields in an XML document that a machine reads. A missing Leistungszeitpunkt that a human eye might have skipped over is a validation error in XRechnung and in ZUGFeRD, which is an improvement disguised as a nuisance. Kleinbetragsrechnungen up to 250 euro, Fahrausweise and many supplies exempt under § 4 Nr. 8 to 29 UStG stay outside the issuing obligation. The Germany e-invoice page sets out the dates, and XRechnung vs ZUGFeRD compares the two formats; the free e-invoice checker validates a file without an account.
How KRONENWERK handles this
SUPPORTED WITH LIMITATIONS KRONENWERK checks the § 14 UStG particulars before an invoice gets its number and refuses, naming the rule, when one is missing — no number is spent on an incomplete document. It carries the standard, reduced, exempt, reverse-charge, intra-Community and Kleinunternehmer cases with the statements § 14a prescribes for each. It issues and validates XRechnung and ZUGFeRD against EN 16931 and the German CIUS before numbering, and reads incoming e-invoices into bills with the original file attached. Issued documents are frozen, corrections are credit notes, and the numbering has no gaps. Hosting is in Frankfurt with a public Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag. Not done: there is no DATEV interface and no SKR03 or SKR04, no ELSTER filing, no payroll, and no tax advice; rates are stated by you and never guessed by the software. Four plans from 29 € a month, on the pricing page — no free plan and no trial. See invoices and the Germany page.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Leistungszeitpunkt have to appear when it is the same as the invoice date?
Yes — Nr. 6 is a separate particular and the document has to state it. A line saying that the Leistungsdatum equals the Rechnungsdatum satisfies it. § 31 Abs. 4 UStDV also allows the calendar month of performance instead of an exact day.
What exactly is the Kleinbetragsrechnung ceiling, and is it gross or net?
§ 33 UStDV applies to an invoice whose total amount does not exceed 250 euro. That total is the gross figure including Umsatzsteuer. It never applies to supplies under §§ 3c, 6a or 13b UStG.
My supplier's invoice says only "consulting services". Can I deduct the Vorsteuer?
A description that does not allow the supply to be identified does not meet Nr. 5, and deducting from it is a risk you carry into the next audit. Ask for a corrected document under § 31 Abs. 5 UStDV — it can be a short addendum referring specifically to the invoice, not a whole new one.
If the supplier corrects the invoice, do I get the deduction back in the original year?
Possibly, and this is the genuinely unsettled area. It depends on whether the original document was already an invoice capable of correction, and § 14 Abs. 4 Satz 4 UStG treats the correction as not being a retroactive event for § 175 Abs. 1 Satz 1 Nr. 2 and § 233a Abs. 2a AO. Have your Steuerberater confirm the period before you act on it. KRONENWERK does not decide it.
Is a "Gutschrift" the same as a credit note?
No, and the overlap causes real trouble. In § 14 UStG a Gutschrift is an invoice issued by the recipient under a prior agreement, and the word must appear on it. A document reversing an earlier invoice is a correction; call it Rechnungskorrektur or Stornorechnung so the two are not confused.
Will KRONENWERK stop me issuing an invoice that is missing a particular?
Yes. The check runs before the number is allocated and the refusal names the rule that failed, so the document is fixed rather than cancelled. What it will not do is choose your tax rate, decide whether reverse charge applies, or give tax advice — those stay with you and your Steuerberater.
Sources
- § 14 UStG — Ausstellung von Rechnungen, gesetze-im-internet.de — read on
- § 14a UStG — Zusätzliche Pflichten bei der Ausstellung von Rechnungen in besonderen Fällen, gesetze-im-internet.de — read on
- § 15 UStG — Vorsteuerabzug, gesetze-im-internet.de — read on
- § 33 UStDV — Rechnungen über Kleinbeträge, gesetze-im-internet.de — read on
- § 31 UStDV — Angaben in der Rechnung, gesetze-im-internet.de — read on
- Bundesministerium der Finanzen — FAQ zur obligatorischen E-Rechnung — read on