Test an XRechnung
Try an invoice you already have against the points the portal rejects.
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E-invoicing duty: when does it apply to you?
At most eight questions, then it says which deadline applies to your firm and what to do before it. No sign-up, no email address – the result appears at once and stays in your browser.
The check
At most eight questions
Answer honestly, including with “I don’t know” – no answer is then invented for you; instead you are told what to settle first.
Your result
What to do now
This information reflects the position as of 16.08.2026 and is not legal or tax advice. What is binding for your firm is what your tax adviser says – and, with public clients, what the tender documents say. The deadlines are sourced below.
1 January 2025
1 January 2027
1 January 2028
27 November 2020
since %s
from %s
%s or %s
%s of %s questions answered
The obligation already applies to you – not from 2027
You need not issue them – but you must receive them
From %s you must send e-invoices
The deadline hangs on a figure you should look up
Federal authorities accept XRechnung only. States and municipalities have their own deadlines and their own portals; which one applies to your Straßenbauamt is stated in the tender documents.
Every business must be able to receive and read e-invoices – small businesses included, and those who issue none themselves.
permanently exempt
As a small business under § 19 UStG you are permanently exempt from the obligation to issue e-invoices.
Over €800,000 turnover in the previous year: your invoices to other businesses must then be e-invoices to EN 16931.
Up to €800,000 turnover in the previous year: until then you may keep issuing paper or PDF – provided the recipient agrees.
What decides is your total turnover in 2026: over €800,000 the earlier date applies, below it the later one. Without that figure, both remain possible.
Two separate sets of rules
The exemption in § 19 UStG concerns the VAT obligation. What a public client requires is set out in its own regulations and is not lifted by it. Clarify this with the contracting authority before the first invoice.
Settle this question first
Whether you are a small business under § 19 UStG decides whether you have to issue e-invoices at all. It is stated in your VAT assessment – or your tax adviser will say it in one sentence.
A PDF is not an e-invoice
Not as an attachment either, and not even if it was machine-generated. What is required is a structured data set to EN 16931 – XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. With ZUGFeRD the PDF is included, but the XML is the original.
Word and Excel do not produce an e-invoice
They are permitted up to your deadline and not after. That is the point at which a switch is due – and the reason not to leave it to the last month.
This obligation is already running
You have had to be able to receive them since %s. Technically an email inbox is enough – but the file must be readable and filed GoBD-compliant, and that is usually where it sticks.
Without a Leitweg-ID the invoice does not arrive
It addresses the invoice to the right body and sits in field BT-10 of the XRechnung. If the check digits are wrong, the portal rejects it before a human sees the invoice.
The original is the XML file
A printout or a PDF image does not satisfy GoBD. Retention period for invoices: eight years, immutable.
Clarify with your tax adviser whether you fall under § 19 UStG.
Look up your total 2026 turnover – it decides between %s and %s.
Decide how XRechnung or ZUGFeRD will be produced from your deadline onwards.
Ask the vendor of your invoicing program whether and from when it produces XRechnung and ZUGFeRD.
Set up a fixed route for reading and filing incoming XRechnungen.
Request and store the Leitweg-ID for each client – the check digits can be tested on this site.
Clarify where the XML files sit, immutable, for eight years.
Nothing urgent. Check the deadlines again if your turnover or your clients change.
Without JavaScript this questionnaire evaluates nothing. The deadlines and exemptions are set out in full in the text below the tool – the same question can be answered by hand from there.
The evaluation runs in your browser. None of it is sent or stored – not even your turnover.
The deadlines at a glance
| What | From | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Being able to receive e-invoices | 1 January 2025 | all domestic businesses, without exception |
| Sending e-invoices | 1 January 2027 | previous-year turnover over €800,000 |
| Sending e-invoices | 1 January 2028 | everyone else |
| XRechnung to federal authorities | since 27 November 2020 | anyone invoicing the federal government |
The €800,000 threshold means the issuer’s total turnover in the preceding calendar year. For the obligation from 2027 that is the turnover of 2026 – a figure that is already fixed today.
What an e-invoice is – and what it is not
An e-invoice is a structured data set to EN 16931. In practice that means XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. What is explicitly not an e-invoice:
- a PDF, including as an email attachment
- a scanned printout
- a Word or Excel document, however neatly formatted
With ZUGFeRD a PDF is included in the document, but the embedded XML is the original. Keeping only the PDF means you have not kept the invoice.
These deadlines do not care where your firm comes from
The same rules apply to every job invoiced in Germany – the ownership of the firm and the language its owners speak make no difference. The only thing that differs is who tells you in time. You can print the result and take it to your tax adviser; the result page was designed for that.
The exceptions
Small businesses under § 19 UStG are permanently exempt from the obligation to issue e-invoices. They are not exempt from the obligation to receive them since 2025 – that is the confusion that comes up most often.
Small-amount invoices up to €250 under § 33 UStDV, and transport tickets, are exempt as well. For a firm invoicing construction work that changes little: a final account is rarely under €250.
Public clients are a case of their own
For firms clearing hazard sites or invoicing against framework contracts, the B2B deadline is not the interesting date at all. Federal authorities have accepted XRechnung only since 27 November 2020. Länder and municipalities have their own deadlines, their own portals and their own access routes – which one applies is in the tender documents, not in a federal act.
In practice: anyone working for a road construction authority today has long been covered, while the discussion about 2027 and 2028 passes them by.
What this check does not ask for
It does not ask for your email address, and it does not send a PDF. The result is on the screen and can be printed; none of it leaves your browser. A check that first demands an address and then reveals whether an obligation applies is selling the information it claims to give away.
And it is not legal or tax advice. The deadlines are documented, the classification is not: whether your firm falls under § 19, whether a particular turnover counts towards total turnover, whether a service is taxable at all – your tax adviser decides that, not a form on a website.
Information as at: 16 August 2026. Sources: the BMF circular of 15 October 2025 and the Federal Ministry of Finance FAQ (both in German).
Next
What comes after
Check a Leitweg-ID
The check digits, before the invoice comes back.
To the toolXRechnung in Levora
Mandatory fields are checked before the file exists.
To the featureTalk these deadlines through against your own work
Bring who you invoice and how you write invoices today. We will work out together what you need, and by when.