FAQ
Full information on electronic invoicing
Electronic Invoice
We are offering our customers the opportunity to receive future invoices by email as a PDF attachment (instead of by post in paper form). As a result of the redrafting of Art. 14 Paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Value Added Tax Act (UStG) by Article 5 no. 1 of the Tax Simplification Act 2011 of 01/11/11 (BGBI 2011 I p. 2131), the legal regulations concerning electronic invoicing for sales tax were revised on 01/07/11. Henceforth, invoices (without an eligible digital signature) and other documents that are sent by email can be authorised for the deduction of input tax.
There are a number of advantages:
- Protecting the environment
- The service is free of charge
- Compliance with tax regulations
- Independence from third parties – no loss of documents in the post
- Simplify archiving (in original state for tax reasons)
- Invoices can easily be distributed internally for approval via email – this saves time and administration costs
- There is no need for paper storage or for shelves full of file folders
According to Art. 14 Para. 1 p. 6 of the Value Added Tax Act (UStG) in its latest version, it should be ensured, by means of an internal accounting process that creates a reliable audit trail between invoicing and payment, that the contents of the invoice are accurate and legible and the origin is genuine. The BMF considers an internal accounting process to be one used by the business owner to reconcile an invoice with its payment obligation. The term internal accounting process does not imply that it must involve a technical or computer-based procedure. The electronic invoice must be archived electronically (compliant with the fundamentals of proper IT-supported book keeping systems (GoBS) as well as the principles of data access and traceability of digital documentation (GDPdU)).
It is expressly indicated that the retention period (as with paper invoicing) is at least 10 years. No specific storage medium technology is required for storage. However, when storing documents using technical and/or organisational procedures, the immutability of the documents must be ensured. Further information on this subject can be found on the website of the German Federal Network Agency (http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de).
No. Electronic invoices as per Art. 14 Para. 1 p. 8 of the Value Added Tax Act (UStG) in its latest version must be kept electronically. Storage exclusively in paper form is not permitted for tax purposes as this would undermine the right of the financial authority to access data (Art. 147 Para. 6 of the Tax Code (AO)).
You will receive an email containing one PDF document.
Any customer wishing to receive future invoices by email may fill out a form on our webpage for this to be activated.
In this case, the electronic invoice can be re-requested via email to your contact person at RECA NORM GmbH.
No. The service is free of charge for you.
These changes can be made via your personal contact at RECA NORM GmbH.
Your firewalls and spam filters should allow emails from “recanorm.de”. If the electronic invoice still hasn’t arrived in your inbox, please check your email program settings to see whether a spam filter has filtered the message out.
As a rule, you will receive the first invoice within 1 to 2 working days after activation.
If you are not satisfied, you can cancel electronic invoicing at any time. Just send an email to: rechnungen@recanorm.de.
