> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gobl.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Germany

Germany's tax system is administered by the Federal Central Tax Office
(Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt). As an EU member state, Germany follows
the EU VAT Directive with locally adapted rates.

VAT (Umsatzsteuer, USt) applies at standard and reduced rates. The reduced
rate covers food, books, newspapers, public transport, and cultural events.

Businesses are identified by their Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer (USt-IdNr)
in the format DE followed by 9 digits for cross-border transactions, and by
their Steuernummer (tax number) in regional formats for domestic purposes.

Germany supports credit notes for invoice corrections. E-invoicing is
progressively becoming mandatory, with XRechnung as the standard for B2G
transactions and ZUGFeRD/Factur-X widely used for B2B.

## Base Details

| Key              | Value           |
| ---------------- | --------------- |
| Tax Country Code | `DE`            |
| Currency         | `EUR`           |
| Base Time Zone   | `Europe/Berlin` |

## Tax Categories

| Code  | Name | Title           |
| ----- | ---- | --------------- |
| `VAT` | VAT  | Value Added Tax |

### VAT Rates

| Rate      | Keys       | Name         | Percents | Description                                                                                                                                                            |
| --------- | ---------- | ------------ | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `general` | `standard` | General rate | 19%      | For the majority of sales of goods and services: it applies to all products or services for which no other rate is expressly provided.                                 |
| `reduced` | `standard` | Reduced rate | 7%       | Applicable in particular to basic foodstuffs, books and magazines, cultural events, hotel accommodations, public transportation, medical products, or home renovation. |

## Correction Definitions

Auto-generation of corrective invoices or credit and debit notes is
supported.

### Invoice Types

The types of invoices that can be created with a preceding definition:

* `credit-note`

## Scenarios

### bill/invoice

<Accordion title="#reverse-charge">
  **Filters:**

  * **Tags:** `reverse-charge`

  **Output:**

  * **Note:** Reverse Charge / Umkehr der Steuerschuld. (reverse-charge)
</Accordion>

## Validation Rules

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="bill.Invoice">
    | Field      | Test                                                                                                                      | Validation Code / Message                                                                                            |
    | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `supplier` | <ul class="gobl-test"><li>Context: regime in \[DE]</li><li>Has tax ID code or identity with 'de-tax-number' key</li></ul> | `GOBL-DE-BILL-INVOICE-01`<br />Invoice DE supplier must have either tax ID code or identity with 'de-tax-number' key |
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="org.Identity">
    | Field  | Test                                                                                                                           | Validation Code / Message                                                     |
    | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `code` | <ul class="gobl-test"><li>Is tax number</li><li>Matches ^(\d{2}/\d{3}/\d{5}\|\d{3}/\d{3}/\d{5}\|\d{3}/\d{4}/\d{4})\$</li></ul> | `GOBL-DE-ORG-IDENTITY-01`<br />German tax number code must be in valid format |
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="tax.Identity">
    | Field  | Test                                                            | Validation Code / Message                                       |
    | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `code` | <ul class="gobl-test"><li>Code in \[DE]</li><li>Valid</li></ul> | `GOBL-DE-TAX-IDENTITY-01`<br />Invalid German VAT identity code |
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>