E-invoicing rules for Tilers in Germany: receiving mandatory since 2025, issuing from 2027 or 2028

Businesses with more than €800,000 prior-year turnover must ISSUE structured e-invoices from 1 January 2027. Everyone else follows from 1 January 2028. Small businesses under §19 UStG (Kleinunternehmer) are exempt from issuing (§34a UStDV), as are invoices of €250 or less. Since 1 January 2025 every German business, including a one-person Handwerksbetrieb, must be able to RECEIVE a structured e-invoice. There is no turnover exemption for receiving. The accepted format is XRechnung (XML) or ZUGFeRD (hybrid PDF/A-3 with embedded XML). No specific network is mandated for B2B. Email is a compliant channel — the requirement is the structured format, not the transport. This is the position as at 8 October 2026 — e-invoicing legislation is moving quickly across the EU, so confirm against current national guidance before relying on a date. Vasco generates XRechnung (XML) or ZUGFeRD (hybrid PDF/A-3 with embedded XML) directly from an invoice, so a Tiler does not need separate software to comply.

XRechnung (XML) or ZUGFeRD (hybrid PDF/A-3 with embedded XML). A PDF emailed to a customer is NOT a structured e-invoice — a PDF is an image of an invoice, whereas the mandate requires machine-readable data that the recipient's system can process without retyping. No specific network is mandated for B2B. Email is a compliant channel — the requirement is the structured format, not the transport. Vasco produces the structured file from the invoice you already raised, rather than asking you to rebuild it in a separate tool.

Check which side of the €800,000 threshold you are on, and make sure you can already receive XRechnung today — that obligation is live now, not in 2027. Two practical points that catch out small trades businesses: being able to RECEIVE a structured invoice is often required earlier than issuing one, and 'sent' is not the same as 'accepted' — in Italy and Spain the authority can reject a filing, and a rejected invoice was never legally issued. Vasco tracks that distinction so a Tiler can see which invoices are genuinely filed and which were refused.

No. The requirement is a valid structured file in the correct format, not a particular class of software or an ERP. A self-employed Tiler can comply with a tool that produces XRechnung (XML) or ZUGFeRD (hybrid PDF/A-3 with embedded XML) correctly and keeps the audit trail. Vasco is built for one-person and small trades businesses across six European markets and generates the formats each one requires, so you are not paying for an enterprise system to satisfy a rule aimed at invoice data.