The Länder are responsible for transposing the European e-invoicing directive.
B2G e-invoicing is making progress in Germany. Since 18 April 2020, German public administrations at the federal level have been prepared to receive and process e-invoices in accordance with the European Directive 2014/55/EU. However, B2G e-invoicing was only consolidated in the country last November. Since 27 November 2020, all public administration suppliers have been obliged to issue electronic invoices to federal public bodies.
The practice, in the hands of the Länder
The e-invoicing German law, E-Rechnungs-Gesetz, delegates the transposition of the European directive to the Länder. In practice, this means that each Land can develop its own specifications for implementing the European directive.
Thus, Germany has a common e-invoicing framework, but the federal states can develop their own models. The Länder can use the XRechnung e-invoicing standard or create their own standard. They can also use the government’s e-invoicing platform, Zentrale Rechnungseingangsplattform OZG-RE, develop their own platform or use other systems.
If they develop their own platform, it must offer the connection via PEPPOL.
Some of the federal states that have developed their own platform are:
- Baden-Württemberg, via the local invoice portal service-bw.de.
- Lower Saxony, via the local invoice portal Zentrale E-Poststelle.
- Bremen, via the local invoice portal zERIKA.
- Hamburg, via the local invoice portal Elektronische Poststelle.
- North Rhine-Westphalia, via the local invoice portal vergabe.NRW.
- Rhineland-Palatinate, via the local invoice portal ZRE RLP (E-Rechnungsportal Rheinland-Pfalz).
- Saxony Anhalt, via local portal E-Rechnungsportal.
- Schleswig-Holstein, via a local invoice portal.
Other federal states such as Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Pomerania, Saxony and Thuringia have opted to use the central OZG-RE portal. In Hessen, Bavaria and Saarland a central reception system has not yet been established.
One single connection for all administrations
The different platforms and portals in the individual federal states can make it difficult for suppliers to submit invoices. For companies with a high volume of invoices to be submitted to different public authorities in Germany, it is simpler to use the PEPPOL connection via a certified provider.
baVel, Voxel’s e-invoicing and e-payment platform is certified as an Access Point for the PEPPOL platform, thus guaranteeing the connection to all German public administrations and also to all other public administrations in Europe.
