How to Reflect Reverse Charge in the E-Invoice?

What Reverse Charge Is

The tax liability shifts to the recipient. The invoice issuer does not charge VAT, the recipient calculates and reports it themselves. Typical for intra-community services and certain construction services.

What Must Be Included in the E-Invoice

Structured: The appropriate tax category code at item and document level indicating Reverse Charge. Zero tax rate, but not labeled as „tax-exempt“ – that would be a different category.

As Text: The legally required note on the recipient's tax liability.

Both. The text alone is insufficient for machine processing, the code alone does not meet legal requirements.

Most Common Error

Zero tax rate without matching category. Then the receiving system cannot distinguish between Reverse Charge, genuine tax exemption, and simply forgotten tax rate. Validation fails or – worse – fails silently and is incorrectly booked.

Additional Mandatory Information

For intra-community services, both parties' VAT identification numbers must be included in the designated fields – not in the footer as text.

Practical Advice

Set up the tax category as master data at the customer or service type level. Manually setting it per invoice will eventually lead to omissions.

This text does not replace tax advisory services.