E-invoicing in Austria: the duty, the formats, and invoices to and from Germany

Anyone supplying goods or services to a federal office must invoice electronically. The legal basis is § 5 of the ICT Consolidation Act (IKTKonG) and the e-invoicing regulation (BGBl. II Nr. 505/2012), both since 1 January 2014. There is no minimum amount. Among the cases that need no e-invoice are cash and card payments, rent, leasing and insurance contracts; the full list is kept by e-rechnung.gv.at.

Foreign contracting partners are obliged only “according to the technical possibilities” (§ 5(3) IKTKonG), and the federal government still accepts paper invoices from them. It set up the Peppol route for them. A foreign business with a permanent establishment in Austria, however, counts as a domestic partner and is fully obliged.

Over Peppol every federal office has the same address, 9915:b; which one gets the invoice follows from the order reference. Details: Peppol at e-rechnung.gv.at.

Beyond what every invoice needs, § 4 of the e-invoicing regulation requires:

How the order reference is built: order reference at e-rechnung.gv.at.

Suppliers of the states, cities and municipalities need not invoice electronically; these administrations can still receive e-invoices through e-rechnung.gv.at. The other way round, procurement law applies: in contracts above the EU thresholds every public contracting authority must accept and process e-invoices under EN 16931 (§ 368 BVergG 2018), since 18 April 2020 at the latest.

Between businesses the e-invoice is not mandatory in Austria. The Austrian Economic Chamber wrote in March 2026 that structured e-invoices are “currently mandatory only for invoices to the federal government” (our translation). An electronic invoice — a PDF by email included — counts as an invoice if the recipient consents (§ 11(2) of the Austrian VAT Act).

From 1 July 2030 the EU directive ViDA provides for e-invoices under EN 16931 and digital reporting for supplies between businesses in different EU countries — then between Austria and Germany too.

The German e-invoicing duty applies only when supplier and customer are both established in Germany: with their seat, management, or a permanent establishment involved in the supply (section 14.1(4) of the VAT Application Decree, Finance Ministry letter of 15 October 2025). Your invoice from Austria to a German business therefore need not be an e-invoice. It may go on paper or, if your customer agrees, as an e-invoice or PDF (section 14.1(6)).

It is different when a German permanent establishment of your business is involved in the supply: then the duty, with its transition periods, applies to you as well — when the e-invoice is mandatory in Germany. Being registered for VAT in Germany alone does not make it so; according to the Finance Ministry you may state on the invoice that you have no fixed establishment there, to explain why it is not an e-invoice.

If your customer wants an e-invoice anyway, ZUGFeRD is usually the simplest choice: a PDF as before, with the invoice data inside it as XML. Our free generator makes one in the browser; you enter the seller’s country yourself, and it writes amounts in euros. Which of the two formats suits when: XRechnung or ZUGFeRD.

To federal authorities the duty applies to foreign suppliers too, the federal FAQ says. The invoice goes as an XRechnung or in another EN 16931 format through OZG-RE, the federal government’s only invoice platform. Exempt are direct awards up to €1,000 (§ 3(3) ERechV).

You have to register whatever the channel, Peppol included. It is free and works with an OZG-RE account of your own, without ELSTER; the interface is available in English too. The minimum details do include a VAT ID and a tax number — whether a foreign tax number will do, the FAQ does not say. When in doubt, ask OZG-RE’s support.

The authority’s Leitweg-ID is mandatory, as the buyer reference (BT-10); you get it with the order. Over Peppol you send to 0204: followed by the Leitweg-ID. German states and municipalities each implement the e-invoice themselves, with portals and rules of their own. Step by step: invoicing German federal authorities; check the ID: Leitweg-ID.

A German supplier need not send you an e-invoice: in this direction, too, the duty applies only between two businesses in Germany. If one comes anyway, it is usually one of two formats:

• ZUGFeRD: a PDF you open and print like any other; the invoice data sit inside it as an XML file. In France the same format is called Factur-X.
• XRechnung: an XML file only, with no page to look at. You can read it with our free viewer, which shows it as an invoice.

Whether a file keeps the rules — totals, mandatory details, tax rates — is shown by our Validator, against KoSIT’s rule set, with a plain-language explanation for each error.