The XRechnung standard is the electronic invoicing standard for public clients in Germany and represents a substantial implementation of Directive 2014/55/EU. It comprises two components: the CIUS XRechnung and the extension XRechnung.
In detail, the XRechnung standard specifies the structure and technical details of the invoice information in an XML data file that represents the electronic invoice. The standard allows the receipt and processing of electronic invoices using the software.
What is XRechnung
The IT planning council’s decision on June 22, 2017, established the XRechnung standard as the crucial component for implementing EU Directive 2014/55/EU in Germany. Consequently, the XRechnung standard provides a solid foundation for exchanging electronic invoices with German authorities and is already compulsory.
To ensure a unified national implementation of the EU directive and address any regulatory gaps, the IT planning council commissioned a control project led jointly by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and executed by KoSIT.
To get more detailed information, you can visit the official XRechnung site for the legal basis of XRechnung you can visit the legal basis page.
Electronic invoicing
the German XRechnung standard is the standard national format used in electronic invoicing.
Automatic Transmission of E-Invoices
In Germany, Peppol is the sole transmission method that facilitates automatic machine-to-machine (m2m) communication and the bulk export of e-invoices. To check other methods, you can visit the official information page.
Invoice issuers can transmit their e-invoices to the ZRE, and OZG-RE federal invoice submission portals via Peppol using the federal web service provided free of charge.
