{"id":315873,"date":"2025-08-04T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315873\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T00:34:09","slug":"germany-vat-invoice-archiving-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315873\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany VAT invoice archiving update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t2025 German VAT invoice changes<br \/>\n1. GoBD Update: Structured E-Invoices<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Effective July 14, 2025, the Ministry of Finance clarified how structured e-invoices must be archived:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">XML is the legal record \u2013 Only the XML component of e-invoices, including ZUGFeRD hybrids, must be archived. PDFs are optional if a readable view can be generated.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Archive original format \u2013 Invoices must be stored in the format received, even if converted internally, to satisfy audit requirements.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hybrid formats recognized \u2013 For ZUGFeRD or similar, the embedded XML is the tax\u2011binding element.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\">Electronic archiving must comply with GoBD, ensuring real\u2011time access for tax authorities, and data generally must remain in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>2. Retention Period Shortened to Eight Years<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a July 8, 2025 BMF letter, Germany shortened the invoice retention period from 10 to 8 years for invoices whose period had not yet expired by December 31, 2024.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Invoices issued before January 1, 2017 no longer need to be retained, unless still relevant for open tax determination periods (e.g., input tax adjustments under \u00a715a UStG in real estate).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">VAT records remain unaffected by this change.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. New Rule on Unauthorised VAT in Credit Notes<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Also from 6 December 6 2024, an unauthorised tax certificate now arises if:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">A non\u2011entrepreneurial person shows VAT in an invoice or credit note, and<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">The person does not immediately object to the incorrect credit note.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\">This legislative change overrides the 2019 BFH ruling (V R 23\/19), which previously held that credit notes were not subject to \u00a714c(2) UStG in the same way as invoices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 German VAT invoice changes 1. GoBD Update: Structured E-Invoices Effective July 14, 2025, the Ministry of Finance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-315873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114967693049040910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}