Every business established in Germany has had to be able to receive structured e-invoices since 1 January 2025. No transition period, no turnover threshold, and no exemption for the small business scheme. If you will never have to issue one, you are still required to accept one, and you may not turn it away for being an e-invoice.
Receiving, though, is the easy part, and it is not the whole duty. There are three: receive, check, and keep. This article covers all three, starting with the fact that surprises people most, which is that the page you can read is no longer the invoice.
What you see is not the invoice
An e-invoice arrives in one of two shapes. An XRechnung is raw XML with no visual layer at all, so it plainly needs something to open it. A ZUGFeRD invoice is more deceptive: it opens like an ordinary PDF and looks exactly like the invoices you have always received, with the actual invoice data embedded invisibly inside it.
Here is the part worth knowing. Until the end of 2024 the readable page took precedence. Since 1 January 2025 the structured data is the binding part. For tax purposes it is the dataset that constitutes the invoice.
So if the visible page shows one amount and the embedded data another, the data wins, whatever your eyes tell you. That is not a hypothetical: a mismatch is exactly what a faulty export on the sender's side produces, and it passes every format check because both halves are individually well formed.
The practical consequence is uncomfortable but simple: you cannot check an e-invoice by reading it. You have to look at the data. Opening a file in an invoice viewer such as the XRechnung viewer shows you what is actually in there, and it accepts hybrid PDFs as well as raw XML.
Check before you pay
Your input VAT deduction depends on holding a proper invoice, so a file that fails the rules is your problem as much as the sender's. Two checks answer different questions and you want both:
- Does it pass? Run it through the ZUGFeRD validator. This tells you whether the file satisfies the European standard and the German rules, and names any rule it breaks in plain language.
- Is it what you agreed? Compare the data against your order: amounts, tax treatment, dates, your own details. The XRechnung viewer shows the embedded data as a readable invoice, so this takes a minute.
If something is wrong, ask the sender for a corrected e-invoice rather than booking it and hoping. A correction has to arrive in the same form the sender owes, and it should reference the original invoice so both sides can match them.
How a valid invoice quietly becomes an invalid one
This one catches finance teams and accountants alike, because the damage is invisible.
The data in a hybrid invoice is an attachment inside the PDF that nothing on screen reveals. You can open the file, read it, forward it and file it without ever noticing the data is there. You also will not notice when it disappears, and it disappears during some very ordinary handling:
- Printing and scanning back in. Paper carries no data.
- Saving again through print to PDF or an export. Most tools discard embedded attachments without warning.
- Compressing the file to fit a size limit.
- Stamping it on receipt, or passing it through anything that re-renders the page.
Afterwards the document looks identical and is no longer an e-invoice. If your document workflow does any of these, it is quietly converting compliant invoices into ordinary PDFs on the way into your archive. Keep the file exactly as it arrived, and do the stamping on a copy.
Keeping it: eight years, unchanged
The retention duty is where receiving stops being free. Three points cover most of it:
- Keep the structured part in its original form. It has to stay unaltered and remain machine-readable for the tax authority. A printout is not the original, and neither is a PDF your system regenerated from the data.
- Eight years. The period was shortened from ten at the start of 2025.
- An inbox is not an archive. It is enough to receive an invoice, not to keep one: the file must be unchangeable, complete and findable for the whole period.
Keep the readable page too where it carries anything tax-relevant that the data does not, such as terms noted on the document itself. For a hybrid invoice, storing the file as it arrived keeps both layers together and settles the question.
The German bookkeeping rules were amended in July 2025 specifically to accommodate this, so guidance written before then may describe the old position.
A short checklist
- Can invoices reach you, and does someone actually watch that inbox?
- Can you open and read an XRechnung, not just a PDF?
- Do you check incoming files against the rules before paying, at least for new suppliers?
- Does anything in your document handling re-save, compress or stamp the file?
- Is the original stored unchanged, and can you find a given invoice years later?
The first two are the legal minimum and cost nothing. The last three are where the money is, because they decide whether your deduction survives a later look. The tools for all five, from the viewer to the archive, are on one page: receiving e-invoices.
Related reading
If you are wondering when you have to start issuing as well, see the guide to the German deadlines. If you are the supplier being asked for one from outside Germany, this covers whether the rule reaches you at all. For how the hybrid file is built, see the ZUGFeRD format guide.
Legal position as at September 2026, last reviewed on 9 September 2026. Based on sections 14 and 14b of the German VAT Act, the German principles for proper bookkeeping in electronic form as amended in July 2025, and the German Finance Ministry letters of 15 October 2024 and 15 October 2025. This article is general information, not tax advice.
Frequently asked questions
I never have to issue e-invoices. Does receiving still apply to me?
Yes. The duty to receive has applied to every business established in Germany since 1 January 2025, with no transition period, no turnover threshold and no exemption for the small business scheme. Being exempt from issuing changes nothing about receiving.
Can I refuse an e-invoice and ask for a PDF instead?
No. Since you are required to be able to receive one, you cannot reject it for being an e-invoice. You can of course reject it for being wrong, which is a different matter and worth doing properly.
The readable page and the embedded data show different figures. Which one counts?
The data. Until the end of 2024 the readable part took precedence; since 1 January 2025 the structured dataset is the binding one for tax purposes. If they disagree, the invoice is what the data says, whatever the page shows.
Is an ordinary email inbox enough?
To receive, yes, and it does not need to be a separate inbox reserved for invoices. It is not enough for keeping them: an inbox is not an archive, because the file has to stay unchanged and findable for eight years.
Do I have to keep the readable page as well as the data?
Keep the file as it arrived, which for a hybrid invoice means both layers in one document. The visual part matters in its own right whenever it carries tax-relevant information that is not in the data, such as agreed terms noted on the page.