German accounts departments are precise about invoices, and an invoice that would pass anywhere else can come back with a question you were not expecting. Most of the time the problem is one of three things: a missing VAT ID, no mention of reverse charge, or an invoice number that is not obviously part of a sequence.
Cross-border VAT depends on where you are, where your client is, what you sold and whether either of you is VAT-registered. What follows is the shape of the thing, not a ruling about your situation — that question belongs to an accountant in your own country.
The parts a German client checks for
| On the invoice | Why it is looked for |
|---|---|
| Your full legal name and address | A trading name alone is often queried. It should match whatever you are registered as. |
| Your VAT ID, if you have one | For cross-border B2B services this is usually what makes the reverse-charge treatment work. |
| Your client’s VAT ID | They will normally give it. German ones begin `DE` followed by nine digits. |
| A sequential invoice number | German bookkeeping expects numbering without gaps. Random or date-only references invite questions. |
| Issue date, and the period or date of supply | Both are expected, even when they fall on the same day. |
| A line per item, with quantity and unit price | Single-line invoices reading "consulting" are the ones that get sent back. |
| Net, VAT rate, VAT amount and gross — or a reverse-charge note | One or the other. What is not acceptable is silence about VAT. |
Reverse charge, briefly
For most B2B services sold across an EU border, the VAT is accounted for by the buyer rather than the seller. You invoice without VAT and say on the invoice that you have done so and why. Your client then handles it at their end.
In practice that means a line such as "Reverse charge — VAT to be accounted for by the recipient", both VAT IDs on the document, and a VAT amount of zero rather than an omitted VAT section. Leaving VAT off with no explanation is what triggers the query.
The reverse-charge mechanism is an EU one, and it applies between businesses. Selling to a private individual in Germany, or invoicing from outside the EU, follows different rules — including, in some cases, an obligation to charge German VAT. This is the point to ask an accountant rather than a search engine.
Do the German e-invoicing rules apply to you?
Generally not, if you are not established in Germany. The obligation to issue e-invoices covers domestic B2B — German businesses invoicing each other — and it is being phased in during 2027 and 2028. Being outside that does not stop a client asking, though, and two cases are worth knowing:
- **A public-sector client.** German authorities have required a structured invoice for years, regardless of where you are. That means an XRechnung and a Leitweg-ID.
- **A large company whose system prefers it.** Not an obligation on you, but obliging them is usually the difference between being paid on time and being chased through a portal.
Getting paid
- Give an IBAN. German clients pay by bank transfer as a default, and asking them to use a card processor is friction they did not expect.
- State a payment term explicitly. Fourteen or thirty days is ordinary; saying nothing is not.
- Ask for the invoice number as the payment reference — it is how their accounting reconciles what arrives.
- Send it to the invoice address they give you, which is often not the person who briefed you.
Common questions
For an ordinary business client, generally yes, and it is common. German is safer for a public body or a very traditional firm. If it helps, the free tools here produce the invoice document in twenty languages independently of the language you are reading this in.
No, but it is what your client expects and it removes an argument about exchange rates. If you invoice in another currency, expect a question about which rate applies.
Then say so on the invoice and explain the basis — a small-business exemption in your own country, for instance. The problem to avoid is an invoice that is silent about VAT, because the recipient cannot tell whether it was forgotten.
There is a free invoice generator here that needs no account, and a filled example if you would rather see one first.
InkVoice remembers your details and theirs, numbers invoices sequentially, produces the document in their language and exports an XRechnung when a public body needs one — free for 5 clients and 10 invoices a month.
Create a free account