Germany’s BMF issues a third e-invoicing letter (15 October 2026) on advance invoices, construction services, corrections and sanctions

What changed in detail

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance issued an administrative letter dated 15 October 2026 (GZ III C 5 - S 7287-a/00019/021/017) with supplementary rules on mandatory e-invoicing between domestic businesses. Part I supplements the letters of 15 October 2024 and 15 October 2025 with further rules; Part II amends sections 14.1, 14.5, 14.11 and 15.11 of the VAT Application Decree (UStAE). The main points of Part I:

• Advance and final invoices. Advance invoices issued before a business’s own e-invoicing obligation starts need not be e-invoices, even if supply and payment come later. Until 30 June 2030, a final e-invoice may deduct advance payments as a total in field BT-113, with details in BT-22, or in an embedded annex referenced in the structured part (Rn. 2-4).
• Construction services. For now, the structured part may list only trades and totals, with the detailed bill of quantities in an embedded human-readable annex (Rn. 13-14).
• Gross-price invoices. EN 16931 e-invoices based on gross prices and issued up to 31 December 2027 may show only totals per rate in the structured part, with line items in an annex (Rn. 19).
• Corrections and errors. A correction must itself be an e-invoice where the obligation applies. A business-rule error is not a format error, and for VAT purposes the file can still be an e-invoice (Rn. 20-23).
• Sanctions. Issuing another type of invoice where an e-invoice is required is not an administrative offence under section 26a(2) no. 1 UStG (Rn. 28).

Part II writes some of these rules into the UStAE: assessments of public-law charges that are invoices follow the general e-invoice rules (14.1), the service description must sit in the structured part with supplementary details allowed in an embedded annex, and a general reference to a written discount agreement suffices (14.5), an e-invoice may be corrected by a self-billed credit note issued by the recipient where agreed in advance (14.11), and incomplete invoices give input-tax deduction only once completed (15.11).

E-invoices issued up to 31 December 2026 that meet the 2024 and 2025 letters but not the new requirements are not objected to, including for input-tax deduction.

What it means

This is the clean-up letter before the second stage. From 1 January 2027, businesses with prior-year turnover above EUR 800,000 must issue e-invoices. Their templates have until the end of 2026 to absorb these rules without risking the buyer’s input-tax deduction. Construction firms and booksellers or others pricing gross get the most practical relief, though both rely on annexes, so check that the structured part actually references them. Rn. 28 takes the fine off issuing a paper or PDF invoice in error; it says nothing new about the buyer’s input-tax position, which the earlier letters still govern.