Issuing waits until 2027. Receiving has been mandatory since 2025.
Every business established in Germany has had to be able to receive a structured e-invoice since 1 January 2025. There is no exemption, not even for small businesses that are still allowed to issue paper invoices. The Ministry of Finance says a plain email inbox is enough to meet the duty, and no separate inbox is required. The flip side is harsh: a company that cannot receive an e-invoice, or refuses to accept one, has no right to a paper or PDF alternative, and the issuer is considered compliant once a send log proves the attempt.
What arrives is a data set, not a document.
An e-invoice complies with EN 16931; in Germany that means XRechnung (pure XML, current specification 3.0.2, syntaxes UBL 2.1 and UN/CEFACT CII) or ZUGFeRD from 2.0.1, excluding the MINIMUM and BASIC-WL profiles, which carry no line items or no VAT breakdown and count as posting aids only. In hybrid files the structured part now takes precedence over the readable image: where the two differ, the XML wins, and input tax can only be claimed from the structured part. Validation is sensible and the ministry recommends it, but it does not replace the invoice check every recipient still owes: a missing BT-10 buyer reference is irrelevant for VAT, while a wrong tax rate passes validation unnoticed.
Eight years, in the format received, unaltered.
Invoices must be kept for eight years in the format in which they arrived, and for an e-invoice the structured part has to survive untouched; since the GoBD amendment of 14 July 2025 keeping that part is explicitly sufficient, while the PDF of a hybrid invoice only has to be kept when it carries extra tax-relevant information such as posting notes. Converting the XML away, for instance into an image format, is not allowed. A mailbox does not deliver that, and neither does a printout. We build the receiving route between inbox, validation, archive and bookkeeping, and then run it: the software proposes cost centre, object and account, your bookkeeping or tax adviser confirms.