Compliance

§ 14 UStG, XRechnung & ZUGFeRD in templates

The visible PDF layer and the structured e-invoicing data must line up. This page shows which fields your template must display and how to handle special cases like B2G, reverse charge or the German small-business rule.

§ 14 UStG required fields, scales and a ZUGFeRD PDF with embedded XML

Required fields per § 14 (4) UStG

These fields must be visible on every invoice above € 250. The validator checks them against the payload on the /generate call — a template must not omit them.

Required field	Source in the template	Status
Full name & address of the supplier	{{seller.name}} / .street / .postalCode / .city	Required
Full name & address of the recipient	{{buyer.name}} / .street / …	Required
VAT ID or tax number of the supplier	{{seller.vatId}} or {{seller.taxId}}	Required (one of the two)
Issue date	{{issueDate}}	Required
Sequential, unique invoice number	{{invoiceNumber}}	Required
Quantity and type of goods / services delivered	{{items}} → description, quantity, unit	Required
Time of delivery / service	{{deliveryDate}} or note on issue month	Required
Consideration, split by tax rate	{{taxSummary}} → netAmount per taxRate	Required
Applicable tax rate or note on exemption	{{taxSummary}} → taxRate / taxCategoryCode	Required
Statutory notes (e.g. reverse charge, small business)	{{notes}} as free-text field	if applicable

B2G: Leitweg-ID & buyer reference

Invoices to public-sector buyers need a Leitweg-ID. It lives in the payload under countrySpecific.leitwegId (DE-specific), the buyer reference (BT-10) under countrySpecific.buyerReference. EN 16931 requires at least one of the two. The whole countrySpecific object also needs the required discriminator countryCode: "DE". The B2G block renders via condition only when the Leitweg-ID is set — the same template stays usable for both B2B and B2G.

json

1{
2  "type": "keyvalue",
3  "condition": "{{countrySpecific.leitwegId}}",
4  "data": {
5    "layout": "horizontal",
6    "labelWidth": 120,
7    "labelBold": true,
8    "items": [
9      { "label": "Leitweg-ID",      "value": "{{countrySpecific.leitwegId}}" },
10      { "label": "Buyer reference", "value": "{{countrySpecific.buyerReference}}", "optionalMode": "anyEmpty" }
11    ]
12  }
13}

Reverse charge (§ 13b UStG)

Reverse charge isn't signalled by its own boolean — it's driven by the EN-16931 code at line-item and summary level: items[].taxCategoryCode = "AE" and derived taxSummary[].taxCategoryCode. The statutory note text is passed via the free-text field notes.

json

1// Reverse charge is not signalled by a dedicated flag but via
2// items[].taxCategoryCode = "AE" and, derived from it,
3// taxSummary[].taxCategoryCode = "AE".
4// The statutory note is rendered when notes is populated:
5{
6  "type": "text",
7  "condition": "{{notes}}",
8  "data": {
9    "content": "{{notes}}",
10    "italics": true,
11    "fontSize": 9,
12    "margin": [0, 8, 0, 0]
13  }
14}
15 
16// summary block with dynamic rows per tax category:
17{
18  "type": "summary",
19  "data": {
20    "dynamicRows": {
21      "dataSource": "{{taxSummary}}",
22      "valueField": "taxAmount",
23      "valueFormat": "currency",
24      "labelTemplate": "VAT {{taxRate}}% ({{taxCategoryCode}})"
25    }
26  }
27}

Small business (§ 19 UStG)

For DE invoices there's the boolean flag countrySpecific.isKleinunternehmer. When it's true, the statutory note is rendered automatically via condition.

json

1{
2  "type": "text",
3  "condition": "{{countrySpecific.isKleinunternehmer}}",
4  "data": {
5    "content": "Pursuant to § 19 UStG, no VAT is charged (German small-business rule).",
6    "italics": true,
7    "fontSize": 9,
8    "margin": [0, 12, 0, 0]
9  }
10}

Template layer vs. structured formats

The BlockTemplate only controls the visual representation. The structured data (XRechnung XML, ZUGFeRD, Peppol, Factur-X) is produced from the invoice payload and — for hybrid formats — embedded into the PDF/A-3 automatically.

Format	What else is needed	Role of the template
XRechnung (UBL 2.1 / CII)	Leitweg-ID (B2G), BT codes per EN 16931, UNECE units	Structured XML — PDF optional, purely visual
ZUGFeRD 2.x	EN-16931 profile, hybrid mode (PDF/A-3 + embedded XML)	The BlockTemplate is the visible layer; XML is embedded automatically on /generate
Peppol (BIS Billing 3.0)	EndpointID (0088, 9930 etc.), PartyIdentification	Delivered via the Peppol network; the template produces the visual document
Factur-X (FR)	FR-specific profiles (BASIC / EN 16931 / EXTENDED)	Like ZUGFeRD — PDF/A-3 with embedded XML

Archiving note

E-invoices are subject to a 10-year retention obligation in Germany (§ 147 AO). The rendered PDF and the structured XML should be archived together in an audit-compliant way — the Archive API handles that automatically.