The term ‘Gutschrift’ is required
If the recipient of the goods or services issues the invoice themselves (self-billing), the document must be labelled ‘Gutschrift’ (Section 14(4) sentence 1 no. 10 of the German VAT Act (UStG)).
What to do now
Who has to fix this?
The issuer has to fix this by issuing a corrected invoice. As a recipient you should insist on it: if a mandatory detail is missing, the tax office can refuse the input VAT deduction.
Where this rule comes from
This check does not come from the technical standard but from the German VAT Act (UStG). Section 14(4) lists the details every invoice issued by a German business must contain; Section 14a adds special cases such as reverse charge and intra-Community supplies. Billvox checks them in addition to the standard because a technically valid e-invoice can still be incomplete for tax purposes. Invoices from businesses outside Germany are governed by the law of their own country; this check is not applied to them.
- Rule ID
- § 14(4) S. 1
- Rule set
- German VAT Act § 14 – mandatory details
- Checked for
- XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, Peppol BIS and other EN 16931 formats
- Consequence of a violation
- If a mandatory detail under Section 14 of the German VAT Act is missing, the recipient's input VAT deduction may be refused; a corrected invoice usually remedies this.
Does § 14(4) S. 1 occur in your invoice?
Upload the XRechnung or the ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDF – the validator shows every violation with the same explanation as here. Free, no login, nothing stored.
Validate your invoice nowGeneral information, not tax or legal advice. As of October 2026. Validation rules: CEN/TC 434 (EN 16931, EUPL 1.2), KoSIT (XRechnung, Apache 2.0), FNFE-MPE/FeRD (Factur-X/ZUGFeRD, Apache 2.0), OpenPeppol AISBL (Peppol BIS), ANAF (CIUS-RO). Explanations: Billvox. Licence notices