German Ministry of Finance responds to industry experts over future e-invoicing formats

On the 2nd of October, the German Ministry of Finance responded to a letter by a broad group of industry experts voicing concern about strict plans regarding proposed obligatory formats for a prospective e-invoicing system.

The experts warned that limiting future system to using just one novel structured invoice format will lead to inflation of transformation costs and loss of competitiveness for German businesses.

The letter ministry assured future compliance of presently used hybrid (comprising of two parts: structured and human-readable) invoice formats, including XRechnung and ZUGFeRD. In such cases, if any discrepancies between their parts arise, the priority will be given to the contents of the structured section.

Furthermore, the ministry assured ongoing works on finding ways to comply with upcoming ViDA for other formats, for example EDIFACT. However, the result cannot be guaranteed at this time.

The response also stressed that the proposed deadline on the 1st of January 2025 regards the reception of invoices in the new format. After that deadline, it will still be possible to issue invoices in legacy formats until the end of 2027.

There’s more you should know about e-invoicing in Germany – learn more about the new and upcoming regulations.