Yet another step cleared for German B2B e-Invoicing mandate

In its recent session on 21.2.2024, the German Mediation Council considered a “light-weight” version of the Growth Opportunities Act (Wachstumschancengesetz) requiring less public funding for some of the measures contained. The council referred the updated version back to the Bundestag, who approved it in its Plenary session on 23.2.2024 (Press Release – German only). As the last step, the law is now available for final adoption in the next session of the Bundesrat on 22.3.2024.

The B2B e-Invoicing mandate though remained essentially unchanged and all previous projections on impact and schedule are still valid and one step closer to final approval!
👉 continue or start now to prepare for electronic invoicing
👉 must be ready on 1.1.2025 to receive electronic invoices – in EN 16931-1 compliant formats
👉 incremental mandate to send electronic invoices starting 1.1.2027 for large companies
👉 the final stage to take effect on 1.1.2028 when all major exceptions expire

Previous steps of the legislative process

Having passed the first stage with the parliament (Bundestag) voting to adopt the law on 17.11.2023, the subsequent second stage in the Bundesrat (representing the 16 states) was put on hold and passed on to a “mediation council” 24.11.2023. The Bundesrat requested clarification on financing of topics not related to the B2B mandate.

Resolution of such political disputes between the government and Bundestag on the one hand and the Bundesrat on the other side is relatively common but an exception process. As such, there is no fixed schedule with a regular meetings in place and we had to be patient for the political negotiation to play out in Working groups and between party bodies on federal and state level to come to a conclusion. Since the articles on the “B2B Mandate” were always considered to not have fiscal impact in implementation it was always prudent and safest to continue any preparation process under the assumption that the published time schedule was going to come into effect.

Source on the legislative process: Vorgang Wachstumschancengesetz im DIP